Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Heat Sign Andre Dawkins For Camp

September 23rd, 2014 at 3:05pm CST by Chuck Myron

SEPTEMBER 23RD: The signing is official, the team announced.

SEPTEMBER 2ND, 2:32pm: The pact is non-guaranteed, agent John Spencer confirms to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. There were about a dozen teams in pursuit of Dawkins, who turned down guaranteed salary from overseas clubs, Spencer adds.

12:35pm: The Heat and undrafted shooting guard Andre Dawkins have reached agreement on a deal for training camp, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). That suggests it’s a non-guaranteed arrangement for the former Duke Blue Devil, though it’s conceivable that he’ll have some sort of partial guarantee. It’ll almost certainly be a minimum-salary contract, since the Heat are limited to giving out no more than that.

The 6’4″ Dawkins played a reserve role at Duke, averaging 7.9 points in 13.7 minutes per contest this season, but his 42.1% three-point accuracy on 4.6 attempts from behind the arc each game surely helped him earn a few predraft workouts with NBA teams. He joined the Heat and the Rockets in summer league, showing efficient scoring pop with 12.3 PPG in just 19.3 MPG in four appearances with Miami’s squad.

The Heat had been carrying 17 players, though only 11 have full guarantees, as our roster counts show. That would appear to give the 22-year-old Dawkins a decent chance to make the opening-night roster if he impresses during camp and preseason action next month.

Mavs Sign Charlie Villanueva For Camp

September 23rd, 2014 at 2:53pm CST by Chuck Myron

SEPTEMBER 23RD: The deal is official, as Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com confirms (Twitter link).

SEPTEMBER 8TH: 3:58pm: It will be a one-year contract, Charania tweets.

3:05pm: The Mavericks will sign Charlie Villanueva to a non-guaranteed deal, a source tells Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com (Twitter link). It’s almost certainly for the minimum salary, since that’s all Dallas can give, and Shams Charania of RealGM reported this morning that Villanueva was choosing between minimum-salary offers from the Clippers and Mavs.

It’ll be a healthy drop in salary from the $8.58MM he saw last season in the final year of a player-friendly five-year, $37.7MM contract with the Pistons. The Excel Sports Management client reportedly worked out for multiple teams earlier this summer, but there didn’t appear to be much of a market for Villanueva until the Mavs and Clippers became involved. The nine-year veteran averaged career lows in just about every category last season as he saw just 9.0 minutes per contest across 20 appearances.

The 30-year-old’s choice of Dallas over L.A. is somewhat curious, since the Mavs already have 15 guaranteed deals, while the Clippers only have 13, as our roster counts show. To make the opening-night roster, Villanueva would also have to beat out Ivan Johnson and Eric Griffin, who both possess partial guarantees on their deals and who both can play at power forward, Villanueva’s position.

Rockets Sign Kostas Papanikolaou

September 23rd, 2014 at 1:08pm CST by Chuck Myron

SEPTEMBER 23RD: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.

AUGUST 11TH, 8:06am: George Sferopoulos, the agent for Papanikolaou, posted a photo on Twitter of what appears to be Papanikolaou signing his Rockets contract (hat tip to Sportando). The team has yet to make an official announcement.

AUGUST 8TH, 7:01pm: The Rockets will pay FC Barcelona the maximum Excluded International Player Payment Amount of $600K to bring Papanikolaou to the states this season, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (via Twitter). As was reported last month, the total of the buyout is $1.5MM, meaning that Pananikolaou will be responsible for the difference of about $900K.

5:05pm: The first season is worth $4.8MM, tweets Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, and the second year is a team option. That figure is likely rounded up from $4,797,664, which is what the Rockets had left on their mid-level. The second season’s salary will be $4.6MM, Wojnarowski reports (Twitter link).

4:54pm: The Rockets and draft-and-stash prospect Kostas Papanikolaou have struck a deal that will bring the Greek small forward to Houston this season, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. It appears to be more than a minimum-salary deal, since Stein adds that the Rockets are using part of their mid-level exception (Twitter links). It’ll be a two-year arrangement, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (on Twitter).

Papanikolaou and the Rockets had reportedly stopped talking last month after the 24-year-old turned down an apparent two-year, $4MM offer. It seems the two sides circled back to the idea, however, and the 48th pick of the 2012 draft will suit up for Houston this coming season. Papanikolaou was initially selected by the Knicks in 2012 before his draft rights were traded to the Blazers a few weeks later. Last summer, his rights went to Houston as a part of the deal for Thomas Robinson.

The 6-foot-7 forward played in Spain last year for FC Barcelona, where he averaged 6.8 points on just over 47 percent shooting in 24.2 minutes per game. But it was the prior campaign in which he made a name for himself, shooting over 46 percent from three and 53 percent from the field for Greece’s Olympiacos en route to being named the Euroleague Rising Star for the 2012/13 season.

The signing of Papanikolaou is the latest manuever in what has to be considered a disappointing offseason in Houston for GM Daryl Morey. After striking out on Chris Bosh, the Rockets lost Chandler Parsons, Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin from a team that won 54 games. They managed to offset some of that bad fortune by adding Trevor Ariza, Jeff Adrien, Joey Dorsey and Ishmael Smith, though that foursome would be hard-pressed to duplicate the contributions of the group that departed. Depending on how NBA-ready he looks in preseason, Papanikolaou could be in the mix at both forward positions.

Josh Harrellson To Play In China

September 23rd, 2014 at 8:56am CST by Chuck Myron

Three-year NBA veteran Josh Harrellson has signed with China’s Chongqing Flying Dragons, according to Harrellson’s representatives at the Altius Culture agency (on Twitter). The terms are unclear, but most such deals are one-year arrangements that allow the player to return stateside in time to latch on with an NBA club for the stretch run of the regular season.

The 25-year-old didn’t seem to garner much interest in NBA circles this summer after the Pistons waived him in mid-July rather than guarantee his minimum salary for the season. The 6’10” Harrellson played sparingly for the Pistons this past season, averaging 2.9 points in 9.9 minutes per game, and while he set a career high with 38.7% accuracy from behind the three-point arc, he only attempted 31 treys all year.

The Flying Dragons are about to embark on their first season in the Chinese Basketball Association, the country’s top-flight league. Harrellson joins Andray Blatche, Jordan Crawford, Toney Douglas, Al Harrington and Byron Mullens among players migrating from the NBA to China this offseason.

Pistons Sign Lorenzo Brown For Camp

September 23rd, 2014 at 8:32am CST by Zachary Links

THURSDAY, 12:11pm: The deal is official, the team announced.

TUESDAY, 8:32am: Not surprisingly, the deal is for the minimum salary, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders confirms (Twitter link).

MONDAY, 8:55pm: The signing has taken place, according to the RealGM transactions log, although the team has yet to make an official announcement.

THURSDAY, 2:59pm: Hoops Rumors has learned that the deal does not include any guaranteed money.

2:52pm: Free agent guard Lorenzo Brown has reached agreement on a deal with the Pistons, a league source tells Shams Charania of RealGM (on Twitter). Charania adds that it’s a one-year deal for the 2013 second round pick (link). Brown became a free agent recently after Italy’s Reyer Venezia voided the contract he signed with the club in July because he failed his physical.

Brown appeared in 26 games for the Sixers last season before they cut him back in March to make room for Darius Johnson-Odom. He averaged 2.5 PPG, 1.1 RPG, and 1.6 APG. His slash line was .302/.100/.692.

Gustavo Ayon Signs With Real Madrid

September 23rd, 2014 at 8:19am CST by Zachary Links

SEPTEMBER 23RD: The deal is official, the Spanish ACB league announced (on Twitter; translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). The tweet indicates that it’s a two-year contract, rather than a three-year arrangement as originally reported.

SEPTEMBER 19TH: Former Hawks big man Gustavo Ayon has agreed to sign with Real Madrid, according to Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi (on Twitter). Ayon’s contract will be for three years, which is the deal the two sides initially agreed to before his FC Barcelona buyout got in the way. The agreement was first reported by Spanish language outlet Solobasket.

Ayon actually agreed to a deal with Real Madrid earlier this month but FC Barcelona blocked the pact since they held his European rights. The club insisted on a $376K buyout, but the club said yesterday that Ayon was free to sign wherever he wanted to. It’s still not clear if Ayon wrote the check for the buyout, as he said he was willing to do, or if the club simply reliquished its hold on him.

The Spurs and Shandong of China both made formal offers to Ayon but the Real Madrid deal is presumably more lucrative. Shandong has since moved on as they agreed to sign Miroslav Raduljica earlier today.

Ayon is coming off a three-year, $4.5MM contract he signed with New Orleans shortly after the lockout. He wound up heading to the Magic and Bucks before spending last season with the Hawks, who made him an unrestricted free agent this summer when they declined to tender a qualifying offer.

Ramon Sessions Signs With Kings

September 22nd, 2014 at 8:48pm CST by Eddie Scarito

MONDAY, 8:48pm: The Kings have formally announced Sessions’ signing.

SATURDAY, 11:22am: Sessions’ deal is fully guaranteed with no options (team or player), Shams Charania of RealGM reports (Twitter link).

10:55am: Free agent guard Ramon Sessions has signed with the Kings, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! NBA: Atlanta Hawks at Milwaukee Bucks Sports reports. The deal is for two years and $4.2MM, and Sacramento used their biannual exception for the acquisition. This brings the Kings’ preseason roster total to 19, and with Sessions’ deal most likely guaranteed for next season, Sacramento now has 12 fully-guaranteed deals, and two players carrying partial guarantees on their contracts. The Bucks had renounced their rights to Sessions last month, but there were rumors that the Rockets were interested in acquiring him via a sign-and-trade arrangement.

He appeared in 28 contests for Milwaukee last season after a February trade with the Bobcats which sent Sessions and Jeff Adrien to the Bucks for Luke Ridnour and Gary Neal. Sessions career numbers are 11.7 PPG, 3.0 RPG, and 4.7 APG. His career slash line is .439/.311/.800.

Sessions will compete with Darren Collison for the starting point guard spot, though Collison is the likely frontrunner. He also can contribute at the shooting guard position, making him a versatile bench piece. Hoops Rumors’ Cray Allred detailed what Sessions brings to a team in his Free Agent Stock Watch piece on the 6’3″, 28 year-old out of Nevada.

Photo courtesy USA Today Sports Images

Hornets Sign Brian Qvale For Camp

September 22nd, 2014 at 5:08pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Hornets have signed former University of Montana center Brian Qvale, the team announced via press release. The release also included formal announcements of the team’s deals with Justin Cobbs and Dallas Lauderdale. David Pick of Eurobasket.com originally reported the team was set to sign Cobbs, while Chris Haynes of the Plain Dealer first had the news on Lauderdale. Terms for all three remain unclear, but while the team has the capacity to give each of them more than the minimum salary, it seems unlikely that’s the case with any of the trio.

The 6’11” Qvale has spent the past three years playing overseas after he went undrafted in 2011. His addition to the Hornets roster is particularly surprising, given that he’s never attended camp with an NBA team before and didn’t take part in summer league action this past July. His career has taken him to Turkey, Belgium and last year to Germany, where he averaged 13.1 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 26.8 minutes per game for Medi Bayreuth.

Charlotte’s roster swells to 17 with today’s signings. The team has fully guaranteed pacts with 14 players, leaving Qvale, Cobbs and Lauderdale to fight for the 15th spot on the team’s opening-night roster, providing GM Rich Cho decides to carry a full complement of players into the regular season.

Bulls Re-Sign Nazr Mohammed

September 22nd, 2014 at 2:25pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Bulls have re-signed center Nazr Mohammed, the team announced (Twitter link). It’s not clear whether the 37-year-old is coming back with any guaranteed money in his contract, but Chicago almost certainly isn’t giving him more than the minimum salary he’s earned the past two seasons with the club, since that’s all the Bulls can hand out to free agents. They renounced their Early Bird rights to Mohammed in July.

It’s somewhat surprising to see Mohammed wind up back with Chicago, given the team’s beefed-up front line that includes newcomers Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic. Mohammed worked out for the Heat late last month, but there’s otherwise been little interest in the 16-year veteran. He appeared in 80 regular season games for the Bulls last season, but he averaged just 7.0 minutes per outing and totaled five minutes over two playoff appearances.

The Excel Sports Management client nonetheless maintained confidence throughout the summer that he’d find a deal, tweets K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. The question remains whether he’ll still find himself under contract come opening night. Chicago has 12 fully guaranteed deals plus a partially guaranteed arrangement with E’Twaun Moore, but the team hasn’t carried more than the NBA-minimum 13 players on opening night in any of the last three seasons.

Mavs Sign Doron Lamb

September 22nd, 2014 at 1:59pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Mavericks have signed shooting guard Doron Lamb, the team announced (Twitter link). All of the terms aren’t immediately clear, but Dallas is limited to giving out no more than the minimum salary. There’s no guaranteed money involved, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas (on Twitter).

Lamb, who turns 23 in November, has been on the market since shortly after the Magic waived him at the end of June to avoid guaranteeing his minimum salary for the season. Up to that point he’d been on the same contract that he’d signed after the Bucks made him the 42nd overall pick in 2012. He put up similar numbers in his first two seasons in the league, split between Milwaukee and Orlando. The Arn Tellem client has averaged 3.5 points in 12.7 minutes per game in the NBA, but he’s made his mark with 39.4% shooting on 1.3 three-point attempts per contest.

It’ll be an uphill battle for Lamb if he’s to make the opening-night roster, since Dallas already has 15 fully guaranteed deals, plus partially guaranteed arrangements with Eric Griffin and Ivan Johnson. Charlie Villanueva is also with the Mavs on a non-guaranteed deal.