Lakers set to sign guard Avery Bradley
Nuggets acquire Grant from Oklahoma City
LOS ANGELES — The Lakers and Avery Bradley have a deal in place for the free-agent guard to sign a twoyear deal for $9.7 million once he clears waivers, his agent, Bill Duffy of BDA Sports, told The Times on Monday.
Duffy said in a text that Bradley, who was waived by the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday, will clear waivers by about 2 p.m. (PT), allowing the 6-foot-2 defensive guard to join a Lakers team that now has seven guards with his addition.
Duffy said the second year of Bradley’s deal, which will be the Lakers’ room exception, is a player option.
Over the course of his nine-year career, the 28-year-old Bradley made his mark as an outstanding one-on-one defender. He was named to the NBA’s first-team defensive team in 2016 and the second team in 2013, both times while playing for the Boston Celtics.
He started in 49 games last season with the Clippers, averaging 8.2 points per game and shooting 33.7% from three-point range.
After Bradley was dealt to Memphis at the trade deadline, he averaged 16.1 points in 14 starts and shot 38.4% from three-point range.
He is a career 38.4% three-point shooter.
Bradley will be on a Lakers team with guards Rajon Rondo, Danny Green, Troy Daniels, Quinn Cook, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Alex Caruso.
The Lakers now have a 14-man roster, one short of the NBA maximum.
TRADE: Jerami Grant gives Denver another power forward who can do a little bit of everything.
The Oklahoma City Thunder
obtained yet another first-round pick, which allows them to do a little bit of anything.
The Nuggets bolstered their front court by acquiring the 25-year-old Grant from the Thunder on Monday for a 2020 firstround pick. ESPN first reported the deal.
It’s an additional first-round selection for the Thunder, who are in line for at least four more assuming the blockbuster deal that sends Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers goes through. It would also give Oklahoma City the rights to as many as 13 firstround picks over the next seven drafts.
The 6-foot-9, 220-pound Grant is coming off a breakout season that saw him set career highs in points (13.6) and rebounds (5.2). He shot 49.7% from the field and 39.2% from 3-point range.
KINGS: Sacramento coach Luke Walton says sexual assault allegations against him are not backed up by facts and are designed to attract media attention.
Walton made his comments in a court brief filed Wednesday in response to a lawsuit by former sportscaster Kelli Tennant. The lawsuit is filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, and the Sacramento Kings and the NBA are jointly investigating the accusations.
Walton’s court filing claims Tennant filed a lawsuit nearly five years after the alleged assault, which the brief calls a “pleasant encounter,” after she quit two jobs and needed money.
Tennant has said Walton attacked her in 2014 when he was an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors, but she was too afraid to file charges though she did confide in others at the time.
“I was scared,” she said. “I felt coming forward would jeopardize every aspect of my life.”
Tennant calls Walton a former longtime friend and mentor who wrote the foreword to a book she had written. When the coach was on a Warriors road trip to Los Angeles, she met him in the lobby of his Santa Monica hotel and he invited her to his room, she said. They discussed the book, and Walton allegedly grabbed her.
“Out of nowhere, he got on top of me and pinned me down to the bed and held my arms down with all of his weight while he kissed my neck and my face and my chest,” Tennant said at an April news conference, adding that when she asked him to get off, “he laughed at me.”
Tennant’s attorney, Garo Mardirossian, has said it’s unlikely police would be able to put together a criminal case. Walton’s lawyer, Mark Baute, has called Tennant “an opportunist, not a victim.”
HAWKS: The Hawks waited for the NBA free agency frenzy to wane and then made their first move on Monday.
The Hawks agreed to a two-year contract with Jabari Parker, the former No. 2 overall pick, according to several people familiar with the situation. The deal is for two years and $13 million, with the second year a player option. News of the pending agreement was first reported by Yahoo Sports.