Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Wizards, Josh Harrellson Agree To Camp Deal

September 15th, 2015 at 2:20pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Wizards and Josh Harrellson have reached agreement on a non-guaranteed deal, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The three-year veteran spent last season playing overseas after the Pistons waived him in July 2014. He’ll have a tough time sticking with Washington past the preseason, since the Wizards already have 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts, which puts them at the regular season roster limit.

A debilitating back injury in early 2014 threatened his career, but Harrellson returned to action eight months after surgery and split last season between China and Puerto Rico. The big man who earned the nickname Jorts for his fashion sense at the University of Kentucky played summer league ball with the Suns this July, averaging 8.4 points and 5.1 rebounds in 17.2 minutes per game across seven appearances.

The efficient rebounding nonetheless failed to elicit much chatter about interest from NBA teams, though he told Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press at summer league that, “My main goal is to get a contract out of this. Even if it’s a partial [guarantee], just something.” He’ll instead settle for a non-guaranteed arrangement.

Harrellson is poised to compete with fellow NBA veterans Ish Smith and Toure’ Murry in Wizards camp. The Wizards are also reportedly set to sign undrafted center Jaleel Roberts from UNC-Asheville, though a more recent report casts Roberts merely as a “possibility” for Washington.

Do you think Harrellson belongs in the NBA, whether it’s with the Wizards or another team? Leave a comment to tell us.

Hornets Sign Jason Washburn

September 15th, 2015 at 10:36am CST by Eddie Scarito

SEPTEMBER 15TH, 10:36am: The deal is official, the Hornets announced via press release. Charlotte also sent along a copy of its training camp roster, a move teams usually make when they’re done with additions for the preseason. The Hornets are carrying 18 players, two shy of the preseason limit.

AUGUST 20TH, 4:00pm: The Hornets are set to sign unrestricted free agent center Jason Washburn, Emiliano Carchia of Sportando reports (Twitter link). The length and terms of the deal are unknown, but it is most likely a training camp deal for the minimum salary, though that is merely my speculation.

Washburn, 25, went undrafted out of Utah back in 2013. His career numbers in four seasons for the Utes were 8.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks to go along with a shooting line of .565/.444/.792. He spent last season overseas playing for Brussels, where he averaged 8.9 PPG and 3.9 RPG in 27 appearances. Washburn played in two contests for the Jazz in this year’s Las Vegas Summer League.

The Hornets do find themselves a bit thin at the pivot, with just Spencer Hawes, Cody Zeller and Frank Kaminsky on board as backups to starter Al Jefferson, though Kaminsky and Hawes are better suited to be utilized as stretch-four’s than true centers. But even so, Washburn would have to be considered a long shot to make Charlotte’s’ opening night roster, with the team already having a roster count of 17 players, not including Washburn, 14 of whom possess fully guaranteed pacts.

Hornets Sign Sam Thompson

September 15th, 2015 at 10:35am CST by Eddie Scarito

SEPTEMBER 15TH, 10:35am: The signing is official, the Hornets announced via press release. Charlotte also sent along a copy of its training camp roster, a move teams usually make when they’re done with additions for the preseason. The Hornets are carrying 18 players, two shy of the preseason limit.

AUGUST 15TH, 5:04pm: The Hornets intend to sign undrafted free agent forward Sam Thompson, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). The terms of the deal are not yet known, but Kennedy refers to the pact as a training camp deal, which is almost assuredly a minimum salary arrangement, though that is merely my speculation.

The 22-year-old former Buckeye appeared in 35 games for Ohio State last season, notching averages of 10.2 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.8 assists to go along with a shooting line of .466/.262/.688. His career marks through four NCAA seasons are 6.9 PPG, 2.8 RPG, and 1.1 APG.

The addition of Thompson would give Charlotte a roster count of 17 players, including 14 fully guaranteed contracts, making it a long shot for the forward to make the opening night roster.

Grizzlies Sign Patrick Christopher For Camp

September 14th, 2015 at 5:33pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Grizzlies have signed former Jazz swingman Patrick Christopher to a non-guaranteed deal that covers one year at the minimum salary, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). The team has made no official announcement, but it appears the move has indeed taken place.

Christopher joined Memphis for camp last year, too, though the team waived him prior to opening night. He saw his first official NBA action with the Jazz instead after inking in December, though Utah let him go in January before his contract became guaranteed for the season. The 27-year-old is the 18th player on the Grizzlies, who are carry 14 fully guaranteed pacts, as their roster count shows.

Christopher went undrafted in 2010 out of the University of California, Berkeley. He played for the Pistons’ summer league team that year, then spent his first three seasons in Turkey and France. He signed with the Bulls in 2013 but was waived early in training camp and wound up with the D-League’s Iowa Energy, earning All-Defensive Second Team honors for the 2013/14 season.

He faces long odds to make the regular-season roster. The Grizzlies have Courtney Lee, Vince Carter and Jordan Adams at shooting guard and veterans Jeff Green, Matt Barnes and Tony Allen at small forward.

Warriors Sign Ian Clark To Camp Deal

September 14th, 2015 at 5:22pm CST by Chuck Myron

SEPTEMBER 14TH, 5:22pm: Clark has signed with the Warriors, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reveals (Twitter link), though the team hasn’t made an announcement. It’s a non-guaranteed deal that becomes partially guaranteed for $474K if he’s not waived by the end of the day before opening night.

JULY 27TH, 2:38pm: The Warriors have agreed to sign two-year veteran shooting guard Ian Clark, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). Golden State and the David Mondress client are still negotiating terms, but Clark has committed to the team, Charania adds. Golden State is limited to paying him the minimum salary, so it would seem the back-and-forth would be over length and the amount of guaranteed money. He became an unrestricted free agent after the Nuggets decided against making a qualifying offer of about $1.147MM.

Clark, 24, had hoped the Nuggets would re-sign him after his summer league performance, in which he averaged 13.4 points per game and made 12 of 24 total three-point attempts, but Denver renounced its rights to him to clear cap room. That didn’t preclude the team from re-signing him, but it did make it seem to make the possibility less likely. Denver claimed him off waivers from the Jazz late last season, apparently with the idea of keeping him for this year, but it appears that plan didn’t work out.

Golden State has 13 guaranteed contracts, leaving room under the 15-man regular season roster limit for the team to give one to Clark. The Warriors have a connection with him that dates back to the Las Vegas Summer League in 2013, when a 33-point outburst in the championship game helped him secure a contract with the Jazz. He’d gone undrafted out of Belmont earlier that summer.

Do you think Ian Clark has a shot to make the rotation for the Warriors this year? Leave a comment to let us know.

Warriors Sign Jarell Eddie To Camp Deal

September 14th, 2015 at 5:15pm CST by Chuck Myron

SEPTEMBER 14TH, 5:15pm: Eddie has a signed contract, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (on Twitter), though the team has yet to make an announcement. It’s a two-year, minimum-salary arrangement, and it’s non-guaranteed, Pincus says.

AUGUST 21ST, 10:29am: The Warriors and Jarell Eddie have reached agreement on a deal that will bring the one-year veteran to training camp to compete for a spot on the opening night roster, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). Eddie, a small forward who went undrafted out of Virginia Tech in 2014, was with the Hawks on a 10-day contract this past spring, though he didn’t appear in a game. The Warriors have only 13 fully guaranteed contracts, as our roster count shows, meaning Eddie will likely compete with James McAdoo, Chris Babb and Ian Clark for a regular season spot.

Eddie, who turns 24 in October, made his mark as a three-point shooter while in the D-League for most of last season, nailing 127 of his 281 in-game attempts, a sizzling 45.2%, for the affiliate of the Spurs. He averaged 12.9 points in 26.2 minutes per game, but nonetheless made only 18 starts in 44 appearances for that team and didn’t receive a call-up to San Antonio. The Spurs and the Pacers both had him on their summer league squads last month, and he continued his sharpshooting, connecting on 46.3% of his 67 shots from behind the arc.

Several NBA teams and clubs from overseas had been in pursuit Eddie, Charania writes in a full story. Golden State would appear to give him a fairly decent chance of sticking for the regular season. McAdoo has only a $100K partial guarantee, while Babb’s deal, which the Warriors acquired in the David Lee trade, is non-guaranteed. The Warriors and Clark, another three-point marksman, were still negotiating the terms of their pact when they committed to each other in late July.

Do you think the Warriors need Eddie’s outside shooting, or should they focus on players with different skills? Leave a comment to tell us.

Bucks Sign John Hammond To Extension

September 14th, 2015 at 4:58pm CST by Chuck Myron

4:58pm: The extension is official, the Bucks announced, confirming that it carries through 2016/17.

12:12pm: The Bucks are extending the contract of GM John Hammond through the 2016/17 season, a source tells Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Twitter link). Hammond’s deal was to expire at the end of this coming season. However, the team isn’t retaining assistant GM David Morway, Gardner also reports (on Twitter).

“A great deal of our team’s success and progress is due to the vision and hard work of John,” Bucks owner Wes Edens said, according to Gardner. “He’s assembled a talented and competitive roster and we’re very pleased that he will continue to lead basketball operations.”

Hammond was quoted in a statement about the end of Morway’s time with the team, as Gardner relays. That suggests Hammond played a role in the decision not to bring him back.

Questions have surrounded Hammond’s power in Milwaukee since Edens and partners Marc Lasry and Jamie Dinan purchased the franchise last year. Lasry told Chris Mannix of SI.com in December that he preferred a committee approach and indicated that coach Jason Kidd‘s voice carried just as much weight. The extension means Hammond’s contract will end at the same time as Kidd’s, Gardner notes. Lasry admitted last summer that it was a mistake to keep Hammond out of the loop when the team brought Kidd into the organization. The new owners were non-committal about Hammond when they first bought the team in the spring of 2014, and it was around that time that they held preliminary talks about potential replacements for Hammond and Morway, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe reported then.

Still, the 61-year-old Hammond has remained, and the team’s bounceback season in 2014/15 that included a playoff berth this spring, plus the surprise signing of marquee free agent Greg Monroe, surely had much to do with the team’s willingness to work out an extension. Hammond won the league’s Executive of the Year award in 2010, after his second season in charge of the front office, but the Bucks have yet to equal the 46-36 mark they put up that year, and they haven’t moved past the first round of the playoffs under Hammond’s watch, either.

Morway had spent the last two years in his role with the Bucks after coming over from the Pacers, where he served under Larry Bird and Donnie Walsh, who held the title of president of basketball operations.

Do you think an extension for Hammond is the right move? Leave a comment to let us know.

Pelicans, Chris Douglas-Roberts Agree To Deal

September 14th, 2015 at 3:16pm CST by Chuck Myron

3:16pm: The contract will be non-guaranteed, reports John Reid of The Times Picayune.

1:54pm: The Pelicans and Chris Douglas-Roberts have reached agreement on a two-year deal worth the minimum salary, league sources tell Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported last week that the Pelicans had a keen interest in the free agent small forward.

Douglas-Roberts, 28, sat out the end of last season after the Celtics waived him in January. The Clippers had traded him to Boston shortly before that. The Anthony Jones client had seen little playing time in L.A., which signed him to a guaranteed one-year minimum-salary deal before the 2014/15, when he was coming off a strong performance for Charlotte.

New Orleans has deals with 16 players, including 13 that are fully guaranteed. One-year veteran Sean Kilpatrick and undrafted rookie Bryce Dejean-Jones have partially guaranteed deals, while New Zealand prospect Corey Webster will also reportedly be with the team in camp. All three are wing players, like Douglas-Roberts.

How large a role do you think Douglas-Roberts will play for the Pelicans this season? Leave a comment to let us know.

Lakers Sign Robert Upshaw

September 14th, 2015 at 1:04pm CST by Eddie Scarito

SEPTEMBER 14TH, 1:04pm: The deal is finally official, the team announced. Personal issues to which Upshaw was tending had cast uncertainty on whether he would join the team, though the Lakers had left the door open for him to do so, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders recently reported. The team wanted him to accomplish “some offseason off-court goals” related to those personal matters, and today’s announcement is evidence that he’s done so, Pincus tweets.

The Lakers have deals with 18 players, including Upshaw, as our roster count shows. Only 12 of those deals are fully guaranteed, giving Upshaw a decent chance at a regular season roster spot.

JULY 15TH, 12:24pm: Upshaw and Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak will meet Thursday, presumably to hash out details, though the general framework the sides have in place calls for a minimum-salary arrangement, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News details.

JULY 11TH, 8:31am: The Lakers have reached an agreement with center Robert Upshaw on a free agent contract, Chris Haynes of The Northeast Ohio Media Group reports (on Twitter). The pact is for two years and includes a partial guarantee for the first season, Baxter Holmes of ESPNLosAngeles.com relays (Twitter link). There is no guaranteed salary for the 2016/17 campaign.

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Upshaw went undrafted this year despite possessing lottery-level talent, and he could end up being a steal for the Lakers. He’s certainly a project, but if Los Angeles is able to develop the seven-footer’s potential, Upshaw could provide the team with a solid inside presence for seasons to come. Of course, there is a reason Upshaw went undrafted and was dismissed from both Fresno State as well as the University of Washington. The player has a history of substance abuse that he readily acknowledges, and is struggling to break free of.

The big man spoke with Ricky O’Donnell of SBNation about his well-documented issues, saying, “It’s been a long process. I’ve had a lot of education around drugs and alcohol. A lot of things I’ve been through, I haven’t kept them a secret. I’ve just been working on myself with a team of people that are close to me to have structure and success at the next level.” Upshaw also noted that he’s running out of chances, and that he intends to make the most out of any shot he gets in the NBA, O’Donnell adds. “I realized that I’m 21 years old, I got a family to feed and food is not going to put itself on the table,” said Upshaw. “I have one more opportunity to accomplish my goals and be able to take care of my family. I have one chance and I’m gonna sacrifice and do anything possible.”

In 19 appearances for the Huskies last season Upshaw averaged 10.9 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 4.5 blocks in 24.9 minutes per contest. His slash line was .593/.000/.434.

A.J. Price Signs With Chinese Team

September 11th, 2015 at 4:53pm CST by Dana Gauruder

SEPTEMBER 11TH, 4:53pm: Price has signed with the Sharks, Pick reports (via Twitter).

SEPTEMBER 5TH, 9:15am: A.J. Price is finalizing a contract to play in China with the Shanghai Sharks, international journalist David Pick tweets.

Pick reported in July that Price was mulling a move overseas and that Serbia’s Red Star Belgrade was a possible destination. The journeyman point guard turned down that offer, which led Red Star, also known as Crvena Zvezda, to a deal with fellow NBA veteran Gal Mekel.

Price played for three NBA teams last season. He appeared in 10 games with the Pacers in November, then was waived late that month. He was claimed by the Cavaliers and played 11 games for the Eastern Conference champions before he was waived in early January. He was out of the league until signing a 10-day contract with the Suns in March. Price came off the bench in five games for Phoenix but the Suns declined to offer him another 10-day contract.

The 28-year-old Price also had a 28-game stint with the Timberwolves in 2013/14 and appeared in 57 games, including 22 starts, for the Wizards in 2012/13. The former University of Connecticut guard began his career with the Pacers in 2009/10 and remained there his first three seasons.

For his career, Price has made 261 NBA appearances and averaged 5.8 points and 2.2 assists in 15.1 minutes. He’s a career 38.0% shooter overall and 31.6% from 3-point range.