It’s been a busy Monday in the Atlantic division, with the Knicks and Sixers completing a trade and then promptly cutting both players involved. That wasn’t it for Philly, which added a forward before cutting two others. Meanwhile, the Celtics cut five players to get down to the required roster count of 15. With final rosters set, let’s see what else is going on in the Atlantic:
- After waiving Casper Ware on Saturday to get their roster down to 15, the Nets now have some flexibility with Jorge Gutierrez, Cory Jefferson and Jerome Jordan, none of whom have deals that become fully guaranteed until the leaguewide guarantee date in January, tweets Robert Windrem of Nets Daily. With opening-night rosters finalized, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News also points out that the Nets luxury tax bill of around $35MM for this season, as it stands now, pales in comparison to last season’s mammoth $90MM total (via Twitter).
- Knicks head coach Derek Fisher indicated that Travis Outlaw was suffering from an Achilles injury that hurt his chances of making the team, writes Marc Berman of the New York Post. Outlaw was traded to Philly earlier today, opening up a roster spot for Travis Wear, who the Knicks initially had planned to cut and send to the D-League, according to Berman.
- Sixers signee Malcolm Thomas was set to play in China and was ready to leave on Tuesday before Philly reached out to him over the weekend, notes Tom Moore of Calkins Media (via Twitter).
- Meanwhile, Max Rappaport of Sixers.com points out that the careers of Thomas and Sixers coach Brett Brown intersected in San Antonio in 2012, when Thomas appeared in three games with the Spurs. “He’s got a chance — really his first chance, in my opinion — to [get] minutes and [have] a role. He sees we’ve got a bunch of young guys he’s competing with, and he probably sees a lot more daylight than he may have with Utah, the Spurs, or Chicago,” Brown said.