Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Grizzlies Exercise Option On Jordan Adams

October 27th, 2015 at 6:05pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Grizzlies exercised their third-year contract option on shooting guard Jordan Adams, the team announced via a press release. The option is for the 2016/17 season when Adams is set to earn $1,465,080.

Adams was selected by Memphis with the No. 22 overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft after his sophomore season at UCLA. He notched averages of 3.1 points, 0.9 rebounds, and 0.5 assists in 30 NBA appearances for the Grizzlies during the 2014/15 season. His shooting line was .407/.400/.609.

The 21-year-old fared better during his 11 appearances last year with Memphis’ D-League affiliate, the Iowa Energy. Adams averaged 18.1 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 1.9 assists in 31.9 minutes per night in Iowa during his five assignments.

Hawks Exercise Options On Hardaway, Schröder

October 27th, 2015 at 6:04pm CST by Eddie Scarito

6:04pm: The Hawks have officially announced that they have picked up the fourth-year options on both players.

5:43pm: The Hawks have announced that they’ve exercised their 2016/17 rookie scale options on Tim Hardaway Jr. and Dennis Schröder, Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (Twitter link). Both players will be entering their fourth NBA season in 2016/17.

Hardaway, 23, was acquired by Atlanta in a draft day deal with the Knicks this offseason. He is set to earn $2,281,605 next season, the final one of his rookie contract. The swingman appeared in 70 contests for the Knicks during the 2014/15 campaign, averaging 11.5 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.8 assists in 24.0 minutes per contest. Hardway’s shooting line was .389/.342/.801.

Schröder, 22, was the No. 17 overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. He has appeared in 126 contests since arriving in Atlanta, notching averages of 7.5 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 3.3 assists to accompany a slash line of .417/.326/.797. The German born point guard is set to earn $2,708,582.

Pelicans Claim Ish Smith Off Waivers

October 27th, 2015 at 7:18am CST by Chuck Myron

TUESDAY, 7:18am: The move was a waiver claim, not a signing, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link) and the RealGM transactions log show, so Smith is on a one-year, non-guaranteed, minimum salary contract.

6:02pm: New Orleans announced that it has signed Smith, and doesn’t say anything about a waiver claim. Either way, Smith is with the Pelicans now, though the terms of his contract could be different if the team signed him rather than claiming him.

MONDAY, 4:10pm: The Pelicans have claimed Ish Smith off waivers from the Wizards, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). That means the Sixers took a pass on claiming him, a move Philadelphia was reportedly considering. New Orleans inherits the one-year deal that’s for the minimum salary without guaranteed money that Smith signed before the start of camp with the Wizards.

Smith was waived Saturday by the Wizards, along with four other players. He spent much of the first half of last season with the Thunder, but he looked especially strong as he played 25 games down the stretch with the Sixers, averaging 12.1 points, 6.1 assists and 2.8 turnovers in 27.1 minutes per contest. In five preseason games with the Wizards, his averages were 2.2 points, 4.0 assists and 1.0 turnover in 11.5 minutes.

The signing brings the Pelicans up to the roster limit of 15. Smith gives the Pelicans some added depth at point guard with Norris Cole on the club’s inactive list, according to the opening-night rosters released by the league on Monday night. Cole suffered a high ankle sprain during training camp and could be out several more weeks.

Suns Exercise 2016/17 Options On Trio

October 26th, 2015 at 7:25pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Suns have exercised their 2016/17 options on shooting guard Archie Goodwin, center Alex Len and small forward T.J. Warren, according to a team release. Goodwin and Len will be entering their fourth seasons in 2016/17, while Warren will be entering his third season.

Phoenix adds approximately $9MM in salary commitments after already handing out nearly $51MM in guaranteed contracts next season. Most of that guaranteed money was delved out to four starters — the backcourt of Brandon Knight and Eric Bledsoe, power forward Markieff Morris and center Tyson Chandler.

Goodwin’s option is worth $2,094,089, while Len has a $4,823,621 salary for his fourth season. Warren will make $2,128,920 next season.

Goodwin averaged 5.6 points, 1.8 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 13.0 minutes in 41 games last season. Len averaged 6.3 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and 22.0 minutes in 69 games. Warren, the 14th pick of the 2014 draft, averaged 6.1 points, 2.1 rebounds and 15.4 minutes in 40 games.

Bucks Pick Up 2016/17 Options On Four

October 26th, 2015 at 5:26pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Bucks have exercised their rookie scale options for 2016/17 on Tyler Ennis, Jabari Parker, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Michael Carter-Williams, the team announced, assuring them of their salaries for that season. The moves add more than $13.287MM to Milwaukee’s books, giving the Bucks close to $62MM in guaranteed salary against a projected $89MM cap for 2016/17.

Ennis has a salary of $1,733,880 for next season, while Parker will get $5,374,320. Antetokounmpo will receive $2,995,421, while Carter-Williams’ option will cost the Bucks $3,183,526. Milwaukee is already on the hook for three contracts above $12MM next season, as the salaries of Greg Monroe, Khris Middleton and John Henson add up to approximately $44.6MM.

It was a foregone conclusion the Bucks would pick up the options on three starters with only the Ennis move counting as somewhat of a surprise. The 21-year-old point guard appeared in 33 games last season as a rookie — eight with the Suns and 25 with the Bucks after he was acquired in the Brandon Knight deal. He had shoulder surgery during the offseason and isn’t expected back until sometime next month.

Spurs Pick Up 2016/17 Option On Kyle Anderson

October 26th, 2015 at 5:03pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Spurs have exercised their 2016/17 team option on small forward Kyle Anderson‘s rookie scale contract, the team announced via press release. That locks in a guaranteed salary of $1,192,080 for the 2014 No. 30 overall pick. The move appeared generally likely, though his option pickup wasn’t quite the certainty that others were.

Anderson, nicknamed Slow Mo for his lack of quickness, found his place in the NBA thanks to his canny on-court moves and and 6’8″ size. He saw limited playing time on a Spurs team that was trying to repeat as champions last season, averaging 2.2 points and 2.2 rebounds in 10.8 minutes per game across 33 appearances, though he did make eight starts. San Antonio assigned Anderson to the D-League seven times last season, and he played in 26 D-League games.

The option doesn’t do much to affect the math for San Antonio next summer. The Spurs now have about $70.4MM in guaranteed salary against a projected $89MM cap for 2016/17, though that doesn’t count any salary for Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili or David West, all of whom have player options. Anderson has one more team option left on his contract, for 2017/18.

Sixers Sign, Waive Jordan Railey

October 26th, 2015 at 4:23pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Sixers signed and waived Jordan Railey, the team announced via press release. The move involving the undrafted Washington State center is designed to secure his D-League rights, the team says. Philadelphia will make Railey one of four camp cuts whose D-League rights it’s allowed to claim through the affiliate player rule, providing he clears waivers. The statement from the Sixers also confirmed that they’ve waived Jordan McRae, Furkan Aldemir, Scottie Wilbekin, Pierre Jackson, and J.P. Tokoto, as a series of five previous reports indicated.

Philadelphia first connected with Railey when he played for the Sixers summer league team in July, scoring three points in at least 15 minutes of action spread over three games. Railey had signed during the summer with BC Igokea of Bosnia, but either that contract included an NBA escape clause or the team decided to part ways with the 23-year-old 7-footer. He averaged 6.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.0 block in 16.4 minutes per game as a senior last season at Washington State, where he played his final two collegiate seasons after starting at Iowa State.

Grizzlies Waive Ryan Hollins

October 26th, 2015 at 4:02pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Grizzlies have waived Ryan Hollins, the team announced via press release. Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal reported moments before the 4pm Central deadline for the move to take place that Hollins was about to hit waivers (Twitter link). He was presumably going head-to-head against JaMychal Green for a regular season roster spot, as the 14 other Grizzlies have full guarantees, though Jarnell Stokes, who possesses a fully guaranteed one-year veteran’s minimum salary, had reportedly fallen out of favor lately. Hollins’ deal is non-guaranteed, though the Grizzlies will have a small cap hit since they failed to waive him by Saturday’s deadline to remove non-guaranteed salary from the books, presuming he clears waivers. Green has a partial guarantee of $150K.

Hollins, 31, was trying to make an NBA regular season roster for the 10th consecutive season, even though he’s averaged only 11.8 minutes per game for his career. He saw about that same level of playing time in the preseason for Memphis, averaging 5.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 11.5 minutes per contests over seven appearances.

The Wizards, Kings, Clippers, Mavericks and Pelicans were all reportedly interested in Hollins at some point over the summer, suggesting that he stands a decent chance to surface on another team’s roster sometime soon. Teams can continue to sign players to non-guaranteed contracts until January, when 10-day deals begin.

Jazz Waive Phil Pressey, Eric Atkins

October 26th, 2015 at 3:55pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Jazz have waived Phil Pressey and Eric Atkins, the team announced. The moves, which reduce the team’s roster to the 15-man regular season maximum, were expected, as Jody Genessy of the Deseret News reported (Twitter link). Neither had any guaranteed salary, though the Jazz will incur a small cap hit for both since they were on the roster past Saturday’s deadline to remove non-guaranteed salary.

Pressey spent the preseason with the Trail Blazers, losing a battle with Tim Frazier for the team’s third-string point guard job. Utah claimed Pressey off waivers Sunday after Portland released the two-year NBA veteran on Friday. It was the second time the 24-year-old was on waivers in the past few months, as the Celtics cut him loose in mid-July, a move that was tough for Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge, who said Pressey might have been “my favorite player I’ve ever been around in the NBA, as a player, a coach or as an executive.”

Atkins, a 23-year-old point guard who went undrafted out of Notre Dame in 2014, had just signed with Utah on Sunday. He spent last season playing in Greece.

The Jazz made both moves with the D-League in mind, according to Genessy. Utah can use the affiliate player rule to claim the D-League rights of as many as four of the players it waives.

Pacers Sign, Waive Terran Petteway

October 26th, 2015 at 3:43pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Pacers signed Terran Petteway on Sunday night and waived him after practice today, tweets Wheat Hotchkiss of Pacers.com. The moves took place so that Indiana could grab his D-League rights, as Robin Washut of HuskersOnline.com reported that Petteway is joining the D-League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the affiliate of the Pacers (Twitter link). Teams are allowed to claim the D-League rights of up to four players they waive, but usually those players have to spend the majority of the preseason on the NBA roster. That’s not the case for Petteway, whom the Hawks waived last week, through a quirk in the affiliate player rule, one that Adam Johnson of D-League Digest recently pointed out. The Hawks don’t have a D-League team, so any NBA team with an affiliate could have snagged him and quickly released him to gain his D-League rights as the Pacers did.

Petteway, 23, went undrafted out of Nebraska this year but joined the Hawks on a partially guaranteed deal for camp. Lamar Patterson won the open spot on Atlanta’s regular season roster as Petteway saw little time on the floor during preseason games, scoring five points in only about 21 minutes total.

Indiana was one of the NBA teams that worked out Petteway prior to the draft this year. The 6’6″ swingman was an All-Big Ten Third Team selection as a junior last season after earning First Team honors as a sophomore.

He’ll join Indiana’s D-League roster instead of being subject to the D-League draft, assuming he clears NBA waivers. The Pacers trimmed their roster to 15 players today when they released Toney Douglas and his partial guarantee.