The Knicks didn't waste much time replacing Rasheed Wallace on their roster, announcing in a press release that they have signed Earl Barron. The club announced earlier today that Wallace has retired.

Barron, like Quentin Richardson, who was inked to a deal yesterday by the club, is a former Knick. New York is one of seven teams Barron has played for during his seven-year NBA career. Most recently, the seven-footer appeared in 11 games for the Wizards earlier this season, averaging 2.5 PPG and 3.9 RPG with the team before he was released.

With many of the Knicks' injured bigs, including Tyson Chandler, Marcus Camby, and Kenyon Martin, expected back for the postseason, Barron is unlikely to receive significant minutes. However, he'll provide some frontcourt depth in case any of the Knicks' regulars are sidelined again.

8:01am: The team is planning on filling the open roster spots with backcourt reinforcements, sources tell Michael Lee of The Washington Post.

1:28am: The Wizards waived a pair of minimum-salary players overnight, cutting center Earl Barron and point guard Shaun Livingston, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. The team confirmed the moves on its website. Barron's contract was non-guaranteed, and Livingston's likely was as well. Washington is left with the minimum of 13 players on its roster.

It's clearly a sign of cost-cutting for the Wizards, as both players made starts for the team within the last week. The release of Livingston is surprising, though, since that leaves the Wizards without any healthy point guards. Swingman Jordan Crawford has assumed much of the ball-handling duties while A.J. Price is on the mend from a broken hand, and John Wall remains out indefinitely with a stress fracture in his left kneecap. Unless either of them is ready to return, the Wizards may once more look to the free agent market, as they did when they brought in Ben Uzoh and Blake Ahearn for workouts earlier this month.

The timing of the moves is a bit curious, since it wouldn't have cost the Wizards much to keep Livingston and Barron around until January 10th, when contracts become guaranteed for the rest of the season. The prorated amount the team paid for each per day was only about $5K, a relative pittance. If Price makes it back at the early end of his initial recovery prognosis of four to six weeks, he would do so before January 10th, which would make the case for the Wizards to keep Livingston, unless they simply prefer another short-term option. Derek Fisher was waived by the Mavericks today, but he reportedly wants to retire and spend time with his family in L.A., so it would make no sense for him to move across the country to play for the 3-22 Wizards.  

Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast hard, but it won't postpone Thursday's clash between the Knicks and Nets in Brooklyn, as had been feared. That's just one of many intriguing openers this week, including the Celtics' visit to Miami, where the Heat were presented with their championship rings. As the NBA tips off, we'll share some Eastern Conference news to go along with our update from the West earlier this evening.  

• Raptors president and GM Bryan Colangelo admitted it's been difficult not to try to speed up his team's rebuilding process, as he tells Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun. "We passed on multiple opportunities to bring in players via transactions that would have thwarted our efforts," Colangelo said. "At times, it was tempting. But we had to stick to the plan. There has had to be a patience and strategy to every decision we’ve made. The deals we could have made were more of a tonic than a long-term solution."
• Colangelo also shared his feelings about rookie Jonas Valanciunas, saying, "It’s become apparent that in order for us (to get better) Jonas needs to be thrown into the fire. The sooner he develops into a nightly contributor, the sooner we get closer to our goal.”
• Wizards coach Randy Wittman said injuries to John Wall and Nene Hilario influenced the team's decision to keep Jannero Pargo and Earl Barron over Shelvin Mack and Brian Cook, reports Michael Lee of The Washington Post.
  
• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel believes the Magic should give rookie Maurice Harkless significant playing time this season so they can figure out whether the 19-year-old small forward is a building block for the future. 
• A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com notes via Twitter that every player in the three-team trade that brought Courtney Lee to the Celtics has been waived except Lee and Sasha Pavlovic, whose presence on the Blazers roster is helped along by the fact the Celtics are paying his salary.
• Carlos Boozer's five-year, $75MM contract obscures the valuable production he brings to the Bulls, argues Scoop Jackson of ESPN.com.
• Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer saw lots of positives about the Cavs' youth movement in the team's opening-night win against the Wizards.

Perhaps the most surprising training camp cut was Quentin Richardson, whom the Magic waived despite $5.438MM worth of guaranteed money on his contract for the next two seasons. The surprising play of DeQuan Jones, who appears to have made the team on a non-guaranteed deal, pushed Richardson out the door, writes John Denton of Magic.com. There's plenty of other news about players coming and going today, in advance of the 4:00pm Central time deadline for teams to let go of camp invitees so that they clear waivers before rosters must be down to 15 players.

• While an earlier report indicated the Lakers were expected to waive Darius Johnson-Odom, Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com believes the guard still has a shot to make the team (Twitter link).
• The Heat are at the regular-season roster limit of 15 players, but Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel doesn't rule out the possibility that the team could pick up one of the guys that other teams let go in the past few days (Twitter link). 
• John Rohde of The Oklahoman shares insight from Thunder coach Scott Brooks on the team's cuts and its decision to keep DeAndre Liggins. "With DeAndre, we felt that his size, his athleticism, his defensive toughness is something we are intrigued with and we like," the coach said.
• Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio saw Hollis Thompson play Thomas Robinson evenly while both were in college last season, and believes Thompson, whom the Thunder let go today, should wind up with another NBA team (Twitter link).
• The Rockets still must waive three players, and Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle points to reasons why Jon Brockman, JaJuan Johnson and Gary Forbes could be the ones to go.
• HoopsWorld's Derek Page checks in with Mavs waiver claim Eddy Curry, and wonders whether his 11 points, seven rebounds and three blocks in Friday's preseason game against the Bobcats might have been enough for him to win a roster spot.
• Shavlik Randolph and Steven Gray are likely out of the discussion to make the Wizards opening night roster, but Earl Barron is making a late push for a spot, as Michael Lee of The Washington Post examines.

76ers point guard Jrue Holiday enters his fourth season as the youngest starting floor general in the Atlantic Division, and head coach Doug Collins appears confident in giving him the reigns to Philadelphia's offense: "I want that ball in Jrue's hands...I want our wings getting down the floor, I want Jrue to be the one getting that ball and pushing it. For the most part I want our guys sprinting the floor, getting down the floor and flattening it out and let Jrue come down and make plays." Dei Lynam of CSNPhilly.com also points out that the team now has more capable perimeter shooters compared to having to rely on multiple playmakers last year, which implicitly benefits the spacing on the floor and allows Holiday more room to operate. Here are a few more notes out of the Eastern Conference:

• Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago chronicles the shooting struggles of Marco Belinelli during the preseason, but Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau doesn't appear too concerned.  
• Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun believes that the Raptors could have one of the better combinations of reserve players in the league this season. 
• Al Iannazzone of Newsday says that Knicks guard/forward Ronnie Brewer will go through contact work during Sunday's practice and could play as soon as Monday night if he doesn't feel any pain. The 6'7 veteran has been sidelined since undergoing knee surgery in early September. 
  
• Heat sharpshooter Mike Miller looks forward to playing a full season this year, as Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today writes that he is the healthiest he's been in two seasons. 
• Newsday's Al Iannazone provided an update on Rasheed Wallace, who according to Knicks head coach Mike Woodson is still doing conditioning work and will be re-evaluated on Tuesday after the team returns from its current pre-season road trip (Sulia link). Woodson hinted that the team may play Wallace next week in order to get an idea of his progression.  

• Earl Barron talks to Michael Lee of The Washington Post about trying to make the most of his opportunities on the Wizards' pre-season roster.  
• Bob Finnan of The News-Herald writes about the impact that Jerry Sloan had on the development of Cavaliers forward C.J. Miles. 
• Knicks center Marcus Camby told Al Iannazone of Newsday that he expects to be cleared to start scrimmaging around mid-to-late next week and is targeting the team's season opener on November 1st for his return (Sulia link). The 38-year-old center has been dealing with a strained left calf over the last two weeks. 

SEPTEMBER 19TH: The Wizards have officially signed Barron, the team announced today in a press release.

SEPTEMBER 11TH: The Wizards have agreed to terms on a non-guaranteed contract with Earl Barron, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter). The unrestricted free agent big man will receive an invitation to the team's training camp with a chance to earn a roster spot.

Barron, 31, has appeared in games for the Heat, Knicks, Suns, Bucks, Trail Blazers, and Warriors in his NBA career, meaning he'll have a chance to make the Wizards his seventh team in seven seasons. Outside of a moderately productive 2007/08 season with Miami and an impressive seven-game stint with the Knicks in 2009/10 (11.7 PPG and 11.0 RPG), Barron has never been more than a very limited contributor. He appeared in two games for Golden State last season before being waived.

Barron will be the 15th player under contract for the Wizards.

We'll track today's notable international transactions here:

• Puerto Rican team Mets de Guaynabo has officially signed Joey Graham, the team announced via Twitter (hat tip to Sportando). The six-year NBA veteran had joined the D-League in March in hopes of returning to the Association.
• Puerto Rico's Atleticos de San German has parted ways with Earl Barron, replacing him with Willie Warren, according to Sportando. Barron, who was released by the Warriors in February, just signed with the Puerto Rican club last week.

The latest news regarding the Golden State Warriors on Thursday evening:

• The Bay Area News Group's Marcus Thompson suggests the Warriors may have interest in free-agent forward Antawn Jamison this summer. He cited Jamison's closeness with new Golden State GM Bob Myers and willingness to come off the bench as reasons he could be a fit.
• Thompson also notes (via Twitter) that if the Warriors lose tonight, the likelihood of keeping their first-round pick in June's draft will come down to a coin-flip on Friday. Utah owns Golden State's pick unless it falls in the top seven slots.
• Sportando reports that journeyman center Earl Barron, released by the Warriors earlier this season, has signed a contract in Puerto Rico.

The Warriors have waived Earl Barron, according to a team release. Golden State has recalled Chris Wright from the D-League to take Barron's roster spot.

Barron, 29, has seen action with six NBA teams since 2005. The Warriors signed him following Kwame Brown's pectoral injury in January, though Barron appeared in just two games for Golden State.

Wright, 23, signed with the Warriors as an undrafted free agent prior to the season. He played in five games for Golden State before being sent to the D-League's Dakota Wizards. In three games for Dakota, he averaged 20.7 PPG and 10.0 RPG.