Offseason: Hanga Signs with Baskonia; Irving Traded to Celtics

When he was a free agent earlier this summer, San Antonio Spurs draftee Adam Hanga agreed to sign a 3-year deal worth a reported $7.5 million euros with the Spanish team FC Barcelona. While Hanga signed that initial deal, his former team Saski Baskonia still had the right to match Barcelona’s offer to retain Hanga.

After Baskonia matched the 3-year offer to retain Hanga, both sides later came to an agreement with a buyout that would allow Hanga to be a free agent once more and go through with his initial plans and sign with Barcelona. Tuesday, Hanga officially signed the new 3-year deal with Barcelona.

While Hanga is under contract for the next three seasons with Barcelona at age 28, there’s still a chance an NBA opportunity could be in Hanga’s future, as his new deal reportedly has a $1.5 million euro NBA buyout option after each season of the deal. This means should the Spurs have interest in bringing Hanga to their team over the next three offseasons, that move could still be in play going forward.

Before Hanga joins his new team in Barcelona, basketball fans can catch Hanga in action soon at Eurobasket 2017, where Hanga will be playing for the Hungarian National team.

Irving Traded to Celtics

Another player who was being floated in the Spurs rumor mill this summer was point guard Kyrie Irving. After coming to the decision that he wanted to be traded out of Cleveland, Irving provided the Cavaliers with a list of four teams he would have liked to have been traded to, and on that list, was the Spurs. Reports later indicated that San Antonio didn’t have the type of trade package Cleveland was seeking for Irving, but ESPN.com did report that if the Spurs could acquire Irving, he would have been willing to sign an extension to remain in San Antonio.

Tuesday, the Irving-to-Spurs rumor was put to rest, after the Boston Celtics and Cavaliers finalized a trade deal that sent Irving to the Celtics, while Cleveland acquired All-Star Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and Brooklyn’s 2018 first round pick.