Drew Crawford

And-Ones: Roster Moves, Bulls, Rudez, Onuaku

Monday afternoon is the deadline to reach the roster limit of 15, and nine teams still have cuts to make, tweets salary cap expert Albert Nahmad. The Celtics, Cavaliers, Rockets, Lakers, Pelicans, Thunder, Sixers, Suns and Kings all remain over the limit leading into what should be an eventful day, says Nahmad. By our count, the Grizzlies still have a move to make as well. The Pacers were the latest team to trim their roster, waiving Jeremy Evans and Julyan Stone tonight.

There’s more news from around the NBA:

  • J.J. Avila, who was waived Friday by the Bulls, has agreed to play for Chicago’s D-League affiliate, tweets Dennis Silva II of Monitor News. The 6’8″ power forward from Colorado State signed a training camp contract with Chicago in September. Guard Thomas Walkup of Stephen F. Austin, another Friday cut, will also be joining the Windy City Bulls (Twitter link).
  • Damjan Rudez and Arinze Onuaku both traveled a lot of miles to realize their dream of returning to the NBA, writes John Denton of NBA.com. After playing overseas and in the D-League, both veterans were told Saturday that they had earned a place on the Magic’s final roster. “It was a big blessing,” Onuaka said. “When you are out here fighting for a spot every day it’s stressful and to get that news, it was great. You’ve always got to wait to hear if you’re in or you’re out, so it wasn’t easy sleeping at night.’’
  • Fred VanVleet won the Raptors‘ final roster spot, but coach Dwane Casey said all the training camp invitees were impressive, tweets Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun. Casey said Drew Crawford and Brady Heslip have the talent to be NBA players, adding that he was disappointed he didn’t have room to keep all of them.

Raptors Waive Five Players

The Raptors have reduced their roster count to 15 players, announcing that guards Drew Crawford and Brady Heslip, forwards E.J. Singler and Jarrod Uthoff and center Yanick Moreira have been waived. Toronto will be on the hook for Singler’s partial guarantee of $50K, Heslip’s partial guarantee of $56,500 and Uthoff’s partial guarantee of $50K as a result of these moves, provided another team doesn’t claim them off of waivers.

Crawford and Moreira each spent last season overseas, with Crawford playing for Bnei Hertzeliyya in Israel, while Moreira split time between UCAM Murcia (Spain) and Rouen (France). Crawford has also spent some time in the D-League, playing for the Erie BayHawks in 2014/15 after playing his college ball at Northwestern. Moreira spent two seasons at SMU before going undrafted last year.

After going undrafted out of Baylor in 2014, Heslip joined the Bighorns for a brief stint before heading overseas and playing in Bosnian and Italian leagues. Last season, the 26-year-old played for Acqua Vitasnella Cantù in Italy, averaging 12.7 PPG and shooting 45.5% on three-pointers in 29 Italian League contests.

Singler spent some time with the Raptors 905 in the D-League last season, allowing Toronto’s decision-makers to take a closer look at him. The 26-year-old has yet to appear in a regular-season NBA game since finishing his college career with the Ducks, though he has had brief preseason stints with the Trail Blazers (2013) and Jazz (2015). In his senior year at Oregon back in 2012/13, Singler averaged 11.7 PPG and 4.9 RPG in 37 contests, shooting 35.9% from three-point range.

Uthoff went undrafted this year despite being an All-American at Iowa last season. Among Big Ten players, Uthoff ranked second in scoring (18.9), first in blocked shots (2.7), and tied for 11th in rebounding (6.4).

Contract Notes: Sacre, Sabonis, Jerrett

Here are the latest free agent and 2016 draft pick contract details, courtesy of Basketball Insiders’ Eric Pincus:

  • Grant Jerrett‘s training camp deal with the Trail Blazers is a one-year, non-guaranteed pact worth $980,431, Pincus tweets. If the forward makes Portland’s regular season roster, his deal won’t be guaranteed until the January 10th, 2017, which is the leaguewide date for contracts this season. The Blazers currently have $112,354,979 in guaranteed salary on the books for 2016/17.
  • The summer contracts the Raptors inked Drew Crawford and Yanick Moreira to are both non-guaranteed deals worth $543,471 apiece, per Pincus (Twitter link). Each deal would become fully guaranteed on December 15th, 2016, provided they made the regular season roster. Toronto currently has $106,077,999 in guaranteed salary already on the books for this campaign.
  • In keeping with the non-guaranteed summer contract trend we have going here, the Pelicans agreements with Robert Sacre and Chris Copeland will count as $980,431 against the cap each, with both players actual salaries set at $1,050,961, Pincus relays (on Twitter). Shawn Dawson‘s non-guaranteed deal will pay him $543,471, should he make the team, the scribe adds. All three deals would become fully guaranteed if they remain on the roster past January 10th, 2017. The Pelicans’ fully guaranteed commitments currently stand at $97,799,631 for the coming season.
  • Domantas Sabonis‘ rookie-scale deal with the Thunder will pay him $2,440,200 this season, $2,550,000 in 2017/18, $2,659,800 in 2018/19 and $3,529,555 the final season, Pincus tweets. Ronnie Price‘s two-year pact, which is fully guaranteed, will see him earn $2,557,545 this year and $2,442,445 in 2017/18, Pincus adds. OKC’s guaranteed commitments currently total up to $91,860,496 for 2016/17.

Raptors Sign Drew Crawford, Yanick Moreira

After playing for the Raptors last month in Summer League action, guard Drew Crawford and center Yanick Moreira will join the team in training camp this fall. The Raptors announced today (via Twitter) that they have signed both Crawford and Moreira to contracts.

Crawford and Moreira each spent last season overseas, with Crawford playing for Bnei Hertzeliyya in Israel, while Moreira split time between UCAM Murcia (Spain) and Rouen (France). Crawford has also spent some time in the D-League, playing for the Erie BayHawks in 2014/15 after playing his college ball at Northwestern. Moreira spent two seasons at SMU before going undrafted last year.

Neither Crawford nor Moreira will head into camp with great odds of earning a regular-season roster spot for the Raptors. The club already has 14 players with guaranteed contracts, which ostensibly just leaves one opening available.

[RELATED: Toronto Raptors’ depth chart at RosterResource.com]

Besides Crawford and Moreira, Fred VanVleet and Jarrod Uthoff will also be competing for that open roster spot, and the Raptors – who still have two openings on their offseason roster – may bring in a couple more players to join that competition. With Delon Wright sidelined for several months as he recovers from shoulder surgery, VanVleet may be the frontrunner for that 15th spot.

Camp invitees who don’t make the Raptors’ regular-season roster could ultimately end up playing for Toronto’s D-League affiliate.

Eastern Notes: D-League, Jenkins, Magic

Chris Babb, Tim Frazier, Rodney McGruder and Christian Watford are joining the Celtics D-League affiliate, the team announced (Twitter links). The Celtics are using their ability to retain the D-League rights to up to four camp cuts to keep Frazier, McGruder and Watford out of the D-League draft, but they don’t have to do so with Babb, since he played for Boston’s D-League team last season.

Here’s more from the east:

  • The Magic‘s D-League team has signed Seth Curry, Peyton Siva, Kadeem Batts and Drew Crawford, the club announced, The Magic waived the foursome last week.
  • The first two years of Anderson Varejao‘s extension with the Cavs are fully guaranteed with the third year being a team option, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link).
  • Varejao will make $9,638,554 the first year; $10,361,446 the second year of the deal, with $9.36MM guaranteed; and the third season is set at $10MM,  Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). If Varejao is on the Cavs‘ roster past August 1st, 2017 then $4.5MM of the third year will become guaranteed, adds Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
  • John Jenkins admitted he’s upset that the Hawks decided to decline his rookie scale team option for 2015/16, but he called it “part of the game” and a potential blessing in disguise, observes Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
  • While it’s still a bit too early in the season for any coaches to truly be on the hot seat just yet, Fran Blinebury of NBA.com takes a look at eight coaches who are under the most pressure this year, including David Blatt (Cavs), Mike Budenholzer (Hawks), and Derek Fisher (Knicks).

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Magic Waive Batts, Crawford, Curry, Siva

The Magic have waived Kadeem Batts, Drew Crawford, Seth Curry and Peyton Siva, the team announced via press release. The moves bring Orlando’s roster to the regular season maximum of 15 players, so the Magic don’t have to make any more cuts. All four had small partial guarantees that add up to $425K, so that total will stick on the team’s books for the season assuming they go unclaimed on waivers. Orlando’s other 15 contracts are fully guaranteed.

Siva has the most NBA experience of the foursome, having played 24 games last season with the Pistons, who made him the 56th overall pick in 2013. The report of his deal with the team over the summer indicated the Magic brought him on board to secure his D-League rights more so than to have him make a run at a regular season roster spot, and presumably that’s the case with all four of today’s cuts. Siva’s partial guarantee is worth $100K.

Batts has the largest partial guarantee, worth $150K, though he has a low profile, having gone undrafted out of Providence this year. He averaged 9.3 points and 5.3 rebounds in 19.7 minutes per game across four preseason games with the Magic. Curry has brief NBA experience from a short stint with the Grizzlies last season as well as a 10-day contract with the Cavs. He only played in one game at each stop, however. Curry, the brother of Stephen Curry, had a partial guarantee for $100K. Crawford only had $75K guaranteed. The son of NBA referee Danny Crawford went undrafted out of Northwestern this year and didn’t appear in a preseason game for the Magic.

And-Ones: Butler, Spurs, Magic

Let’s round up the latest news and notes from the Association on Tuesday night:

  • Jimmy Butler said extension talks between his representatives and the Bulls were going in the right direction, telling reporters that he wants to remain with the team “however long it takes,” writes Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com. The deadline for an extension is October 31st, but Butler could instead re-sign with the team as a restricted free agent next summer.
  • Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News examines the Spurs roster, reminding us that San Antonio already has 15 guaranteed deals on the books, as shown in our 2014/15 Expanded Roster Counts. If the Spurs do decide they want to keep Bryce Cotton, Josh Davis, JaMychal Green or John Holland, McCarney opines that they might consider eating the $1.063MM salary of Austin Daye.
  • Orlando’s deals with Peyton Siva, Kadeem Batts, Drew Crawford and Seth Curry all contain partial guarantees, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. The Magic have promised Siva $100K, Batts $150K, Crawford $75K and Curry $100K despite having room for only one more fully guaranteed deal on their roster (via Twitter).

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Magic Sign Curry, Batts, Crawford For Camp

SEPTEMBER 29TH: All three deals are official, the team announced via press release.

SEPTEMBER 16TH: The Magic are bringing one-year veteran Seth Curry and the undrafted Kadeem Batts and Drew Crawford to camp, according to Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link). They’ll join fellow camp invitee Peyton Siva, who reportedly agreed to his deal in July. Orlando still has cap space available, but while it could give one or all of Curry, Batts and Crawford more than the minimum, it seems unlikely the team would do that. Siva received a partial guarantee in his pact, so it’s a distinct possibility that the other three will see at least nominal guarantees as part of their contracts.

Curry had reportedly been weighing overseas opportunities earlier this summer, but he’ll be in an NBA camp for the second straight autumn after joining his brother, Stephen Curry with the Warriors for the 2013 preseason. Seth Curry later resurfaced briefly with the Grizzlies and on a 10-day contract with the Cavs, but he saw action in just two NBA regular season games and spent most of the season in the D-League.

Batts, a 6’9″ power forward, spent the past four seasons playing at Providence, where he put up 12.3 points and 7.4 rebounds in 30.6 minutes per game as a senior before joining the Magic’s summer league team in July. He put up 9.3 PPG and 5.3 RPG in 19.8 MPG for the summer Magic.

Crawford, like Curry, has NBA bloodlines, since he’s the son of NBA referee Danny Crawford. The younger Crawford comes from Northwestern, where he put up 15.7 PPG and 6.4 RPG in 36.6 MPG as a senior. The 6’5″ shooting guard spent summer league with the Pelicans, averaging just 2.0 PPG and 1.8 RPG in 11.8 MPG.

The Magic had been carrying 16 deals, including 14 fully guaranteed pacts. That leaves Siva’s partially guaranteed arrangement and a non-guaranteed contract for Dewayne Dedmon that becomes partially guaranteed for $250K if he makes it to opening night.

Eastern Notes: Rambis, Jefferson, Snell, Sixers

The Lakers have granted the Knicks permission to interview assistant coach Kurt Rambis for a job on head coach Derek Fisher‘s staff, reports Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. Rambis is willing to listen, Medina hears. Rambis also remains a candidate for the Lakers head coaching job, but it’s uncertain whether he’d be retained as a Lakers assistant if they go with someone else for the head job, as Medina points out. Here’s more news related to Eastern Conference teams:

  • Al Jefferson is recruiting free agents to come to Charlotte, and Hornets coach Steve Clifford is confident that the mere presence of the Third-Team All-NBA center makes the Hornets more attractive to potential signees, writes Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer.
  • The Bulls remain sold on Tony Snell as a rotation-caliber talent, as K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune details in his latest mailbag column. Johnson also says he’d be “shocked” if the Bulls don’t address their shooting via the draft.
  • The New Jersey state government gave the OK this morning for the Sixers to build a practice facility in Camden, reports Julia Terruso of the Philadelphia Inquirer, prompting the team to announce plans for the facility. GM Sam Hinkie and coach Brett Brown have contended that the facility will be key to attracting free agents.
  • The Celtics are among the teams that have worked out draft lottery prospect Doug McDermott, as Chad Ford of ESPN.com notes in his Insider-only mock draft.
  • Isaiah Austin and Cory Jefferson will audition for the Pistons, tweets Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press.
  • The Wizards will work out LaQuinton Ross, Devyn Marble, Jarell Eddie, Okaro White and Kendall Williams, the team announced.
  • Semaj Christon, DeAndre Kane, Drew Crawford, Sebastian Koch and Talib Zanna are among those who’ll perform for the Hornets on Wednesday, according to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter links). Crawford was also scheduled to show off for the team last week.
  • Alex Kirk is working out for the Hornets this week, too, and he’ll also do so for the Raptors, tweets Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv.

Draft Notes: Wiggins, Jazz, Randle, Sixers

The debate over how the top three picks of the 2014 NBA Draft will shake out has been covered ad nauseam at this point, and NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper throws his hat in the ring by examining what could dictate where Kansas’ Andrew Wiggins will land. Meanwhile, here are some other draft-related updates:

  • Along with Nick Wiggins (brother of Andrew), the Jazz will work out Deonte Burton, Jordan Clarkson, Alex Kirk, Sean Kilpatrick and Artem Kilmenko on Thursday morning, tweets Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune. The Jazz have three picks on June 26, including two in the first round (5 and 23).
  • As Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders opines, just because Julius Randle is no longer widely classified within the top tier of this draft class isn’t reason enough to sleep on the talented Kentucky forward, who still has a shot at becoming a top-5 pick.
  • In a separate story, Kennedy writes that there is no confusing how much is riding on this talent-rich draft for the Sixers, who are the only team with two top-10 selections (3 and 10). Adding two franchise cornerstones to go with Michael Carter-Williams and Nerlens Noel could make Philadelphia an attractive landing spot around the league, according to Kennedy.
  • After working out for the Hornets today, Northwestern’s Drew Crawford is scheduled to work out with the Kings, Jazz and his hometown Bulls, according to the Wildcats’ Twitter feed.
  • The Nuggets will have Michigan State’s Gary Harris and Mizzou’s Jabari Brown in town for a workout on Thursday, tweets Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post. Denver picks at 11, 41 and 56.
  • According to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter), the Magic will work out Randle, Aaron Gordon and Noah Vonleh individually before the draft. They will also work out Dante Exum at some point and are expected to bring in Marcus Smart for a second look.  Orlando picks at 4 and 12.