Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Spurs Work Out Jamaal Franklin

September 16th, 2014 at 4:08pm CST by Chuck Myron

Former Grizzlies shooting guard Jamaal Franklin has spent the last few days working out for the Spurs in San Antonio, reports Jabari Young of the San Antonio Express-News (Twitter link). The 41st overall pick from last year’s draft is tight with fellow former San Diego State standout Kawhi Leonard, who’s up for an extension to his rookie scale contract this fall, as Young points out in a second tweet.

Franklin became a free agent earlier this month after Memphis waived him and spread out his salary using the stretch provision. The 6’5″ shooting guard made nearly as many appearances in the D-League as a rookie as he did in the NBA, where he averaged 1.9 points in 7.7 minutes per game across 21 contests with Memphis. Still, he remains an intriguing prospect just one year removed from having been selected near the top of the second round.

San Antonio has reportedly been setting up workouts with several veterans of late, including Hakim Warrick and Julyan Stone, and they’ve also shown interest in Ray Allen, Gustavo Ayon and Ryan Hollins. They’re apparently open to sign-and-trade possibilities for restricted free agent Aron Baynes, though they seemed to maintain a level of interest throughout the summer in re-signing him. The Spurs have fully guaranteed deals with 14 players, as our roster counts show, leaving one open spot for the regular season roster.

Slava Kravtsov To Play In China

September 16th, 2014 at 9:12am CST by Chuck Myron

Two-year NBA veteran Slava Kravtsov has signed a deal to play with China’s Foshan Long Lions, agent Misko Raznatovic tweets (hat tip to Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi). The terms aren’t unknown, and it’s not clear whether the contract includes an NBA escape clause, but the early end to the Chinese schedule usually allows signees to return stateside toward the end of the NBA season and hunt for a deal at that point.

The 27-year-old center became a free agent shortly after the Suns let him go at the beginning of March to make room for Shavlik Randolph. The 6’11” Kravtsov saw precious little playing time in the NBA, averaging 2.2 points and 1.4 rebounds in 6.3 minutes per game over 45 appearances over two seasons with the Suns and Pistons, who signed him to a two-year, $3MM deal in 2012.

Kravtsov made a strong impression against Team USA in the World Cup, scoring 15 points and grabbing four rebounds in 26 minutes of work for Ukraine in its matchup against America. He averaged 7.4 PPG and 5.6 RPG in 21.4 MPG over five games in the event, but it didn’t appear as though it helped him generate enough NBA interest to bring him back to the league.

76ers Sign JaKarr Sampson

September 15th, 2014 at 8:57pm CST by Zachary Links

SEPTEMBER 29TH: The team acknowledged the signing, including Sampson on the preseason roster it sent via press release.

SEPTEMBER 15TH: While no announcement has been made by the Sixers, a league source tells Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer that Sampson has signed the contract.

SEPTEMBER 14TH, 9:47pm: The deal also includes a fourth-year option, according to Adam Zagoria of SNY (on Twitter).

9:30pm: It’s a three-year deal, according to David Aldridge of NBA.com (on Twitter).

8:35pm: The 76ers are set to sign JaKarr Sampson, his agent tells Stefan Bondy of the New York Post (on Twitter). It’s a partially guaranteed deal for the former St. John’s notable.

Sampson opted to enter the 2014 draft after his sophomore year and it took some by surprise since he didn’t have a great deal of draft buzz at that point. Former Red Storm star Maurice Harkless went into the draft as an underclassman and was taken with the No. 15 overall pick, but he had much more attention than Sampson did. In any case, Sampson now has his chance with the Sixers.

Sampson worked out for the Celtics, Mavs, Clippers, Kings, Grizzlies, Bucks, and Suns in the weeks leading up to the draft.

Heat Sign Khem Birch

September 14th, 2014 at 11:23am CST by Chuck Myron

SEPTEMBER 14th, 11:23am: The signing is official, the team announced.

8:24pm: Birch’s deal is partially guaranteed, agent Mike George confirms to Ben Standig of CSNWashington.com.

SEPTEMBER 2nd, 1:22pm: Undrafted power forward Khem Birch will join the Heat on a camp deal, reports Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun (Twitter link). Birch will almost certainly be making the minimum salary should he stick until opening night, just like Andre Dawkins, who also appears headed to Miami, as another report indicated within the hour.

The Wizards were also high on Birch, Wolstat tweets, and it wouldn’t be surprising if still more teams were pursuing the former UNLV standout who entered this year’s draft as the No. 42 prospect in Chad Ford’s ESPN.com rankings. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress had him going at No. 58 in his final 2014 mock draft, so he sits at or near the top of the best undrafted talent still available from this year’s class.

The 6’9″ Birch made his mark on the boards in a breakout campaign for the Runnin’ Rebels this past season, averaging 10.2 rebounds in 31.4 minutes per game. He grabbed 5.7 RPG in 19.5 MPG with the Wizards summer league team in July.

Miami’s roster is poised to swell to 19 with the addition of Birch and Dawkins, one shy of the preseason limit. Reports have linked the Heat to several veteran shooting guards and big men in recent weeks, but it appears as though Miami is close to finishing its offseason pickups.

Melvin Ely Signs With Japanese Team

September 13th, 2014 at 2:28pm CST by Charlie Adams

Former Pelicans big man Melvin Ely has signed a deal that will have him playing with the Gunma Crane Thunders in Japan next season, the team announced. He still needs to pass a physical before the contract can be finalized, passes along Ed Odeven of the Japan Times (hat tip to Orazio Cauchi of Sportando).

Ely wasn’t a frequent topic of discussion this offseason, as the meager amount of recent activity on his rumor page shows. The former lottery pick’s non-guaranteed pact was waived by the Wizards in July after a three team swap sent him from New Orleans to Washington. The Relativity Sports client appeared in just two games for the Pelicans last season, spending most of his time in the D-League.

Terms of the new deal aren’t immediately clear, and it remains to be seen whether or not the 36-year-old’s contract will feature an escape clause allowing him to return to the NBA if a stateside club wants to sign him. Given his age and the sparse amount of NBA playing time he’s seen in recent years, it wouldn’t be all that surprising to see Ely wrap up his basketball career overseas.

Clippers Sign Hedo Turkoglu

September 12th, 2014 at 6:56pm CST by Cray Allred

6:56pm: Sources confirm to Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com that the deal is a one-year arrangement at the veteran’s minimum.

6:31pm: The Clippers have announced the signing in a team release.

“We are happy to welcome Hedo back to the Clippers,” said Clippers president and head coach Doc Rivers. “Hedo is a versatile, veteran presence who contributed to the championship culture we are building in Los Angeles.”

5:38pm: Hedo Turkoglu‘s agency, Tandem Sports, tweeted their congratulations on his official signing with the Clippers (H/T J. Michael of CSNWashington.com). The deal hasn’t been announced by the team, but a contract has been in the works since late August.

The final salary agreement is yet to be reported, but the Clippers are among the teams only able to offer the minimum. The one-year, $1.4MM figure reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports when the two sides began nearing an agreement is in line with the minimum for a veteran of Turkoglu’s tenure. It will presumably be a guaranteed contract, which would likely put Los Angeles at 14 guaranteed roster spots, one short of the max to keep for the regular season.

The forward will play his fifteenth season for the Clippers in 2014/15, hoping to contribute more than he has in recent years. As a member of the Magic and Clippers for parts of the last two seasons, Turkoglu has scored less than 3.0 PPG and averaged at or below career lows in minutes, field goal percentage, and rebounds per contest. The veteran has career averages of 11.5 PPG, 4.1 RPG, and 3.0 APG, and his 38.2% career three-point percentage is his most valuable skill at this point in his career.

D.J. Stephens To Join Jazz For Camp?

September 12th, 2014 at 2:34pm CST by Chuck Myron

2:34pm: Stephens’ agent tells Sportando that there’s no deal, but that his client will meet with the Jazz as planned this weekend (Twitter link).

2:00pm: D.J. Stephens and the Jazz have struck a non-guaranteed deal that will bring the former Bucks swingman to training camp, Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi reports. The 23-year-old had been set to work out for the club this weekend, as Boston Globe correspondent Jake Fischer reported earlier today, but either the workout has already taken place or Utah simply decided it already knew enough about Stephens to bring him aboard.

Stephens doesn’t have much of an NBA track record, having appeared in three games for a total of 15 minutes while on a 10-day pact with Milwaukee this past season. That was his only regular season NBA action after he went undrafted out of Memphis, and since he didn’t go to camp with an NBA team last autumn or participate in summer league this year, his only other brush with the league came during summer league in 2013. That year he averaged 4.3 points and 2.5 rebounds in 10.6 minutes per game over eight combined appearances with the summer league squads of the Heat and Mavs.

The APAA Sports Group client has unprecedented hops, as I noted earlier, and he made his mark as a defender in college, winning Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year honors as a senior. He’ll join 18 others on the Jazz, and he’ll face long odds to last on the roster beyond the preseason, since 17 of his new teammates have at least some guaranteed money on their deals. Still, I had been somewhat dubious that his workout would lead to a camp invitation, so perhaps another surprise is in store.

Sixers Sign Ronald Roberts Jr.

September 12th, 2014 at 1:43pm CST by Chuck Myron

SEPTEMBER 29TH: The team acknowledged the signing, including Roberts on the preseason roster it sent via press release.

SEPTEMBER 12TH: The Sixers and Roberts have a signed contract, according to the RealGM transactions log, which confirms the arrangement is for multiple years. The team has yet to make an official announcement.

AUGUST 12TH: 7:33pm: Adam Pensack, Roberts Jr.’s agent, wouldn’t confirm that there was a deal in place between the two sides, reports Dei Lynam of CSNPhilly.com. Pensack added that there’d be news on his client within the next few weeks, says Lynam.

8:41am: The Sixers have agreed to a partially guaranteed deal with undrafted power forward Ronald Roberts Jr. that covers three seasons, as Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi confirms. Cauchi reported earlier this month that Roberts was likely to join the team. The 23-year-old from St. Joseph’s had inked a preliminary deal with Chalon-Sur-Saone of France, but it included a clause that allows him to back out to head to the NBA. It’s likely a minimum-salary arrangement with Philadelphia, though the Sixers have no shortage of cap room if they wanted to exceed that amount.

Roberts had been a long shot to hear his name called on draft night, ranking 93rd in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress listings and just 143rd with Chad Ford of ESPN.com, but an impressive summer league stint lifted his stock. He averaged 10.2 points and 7.4 rebounds in 23.4 minutes per game across five appearance for the Sixers summer league team in Orlando. He saw fewer minutes in four games with the Heat’s summer league squad in Las Vegas, notching 7.0 PPG and 3.8 RPG in 14.0 MPG, but he apparently had shown the Sixers enough.

The client of Pensack Sports Management Group joins 13 others on the Sixers, as our roster counts show. Philadelphia has fully guaranteed deals with only six players, an NBA low, and the team’s five agreements that include no guarantee at all are a league high.

Julyan Stone Signs To Play In Italy

September 12th, 2014 at 8:33am CST by Chuck Myron

Point guard Julyan Stone has signed with Reyer Venezia of Italy, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Armando Caporaso). The news is surprising, since a half-dozen NBA teams had reportedly shown interest of late and Stone had apparently fielded a couple of lucrative offers from China. It’s possible that the Italian deal includes some sort of escape clause that would allow him to latch on somewhere else for camp, but that’s not immediately clear, and it seems most likely that the 25-year-old who’s spent the past three years in the NBA won’t be in the league when the 2014/15 season begins.

Reports have indicated that the Spurs, Lakers, Cavs, Clippers and Heat have all been on Stone’s workout agenda in the past couple of weeks, and the Kings looked like they were in the running for him, too. The Raptors cut Stone in July rather than guarantee his minimum salary for the season, though it appeared Toronto had interest in signing him to a new deal once he cleared waivers. He was reportedly in talks with the Sixers, Bucks and Kings around the same time, too, but chatter surrounding the Giovanni Funiciello client dried up until late August.

Raptors GM Masai Ujiri signed the former UTEP Miner to both of his NBA deals, the first coming when Ujiri was in charge of the Nuggets front office. Injury helped keep Stone from seeing much action the past three years, but when he has been available to play, his teams haven’t often called upon him, and he’s averaged just 1.3 points and 1.1 assists in 7.0 minutes per game across 47 appearances for his NBA career.

The addition of Stone makes up for Reyer Venezia’s loss of fellow NBA veteran Lorenzo Brown, whose deal with the team was voided after he failed his physical.

Cavs Sign Chris Crawford

September 12th, 2014 at 7:56am CST by Eddie Scarito

FRIDAY, 7:56am: The contract runs two years and is partially guaranteed, sources tell Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). It’s almost certainly for the minimum salary, since that’s all the Cavs are able to give.

THURSDAY, 11:07pm: The Cavaliers have signed Chris Crawford to a multi-year deal, according to the RealGM Transactions log. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it’s most likely a non-guaranteed camp deal. This signing brings Cleveland’s pre-season roster count to 18, with 12 of those contracts being guaranteed.

Crawford appeared in five games for the Rockets’ entry in the Orlando Summer league, where he averaged 10.2 PPG on 38.8% shooting. He will compete in training camp with John Lucas III and Matthew Dellavedova for a backup guard slot on the final roster.

The 6’4″, 22 year-old went undrafted out of Memphis, where he put up career averages of 8.7 PPG, 3.5 RPG, and 3.3 APG. His career slash line was .391/.367/.753.