Eric Moreland

Eric Moreland Headed To China

Center Eric Moreland has agreed to a contract with the Chinese team Shanxi, according to Alessandro Maggi of Sportando.

Moreland spent the preseason with the Thunder, who waived him last week.

The 27-year-old Moreland spent time last season with the Suns and Raptors but only appeared in five games. He saw action in 67 games the previous season with the Pistons, backing up center Andre Drummond.

Overall, he has played a combined 83 games for the Kings, Pistons, Suns and Raptors over the past five years.

Thunder Waive Four Players

The Thunder trimmed their roster this morning by placing DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell, Abdul Gaddy, Myke Henry and Eric Moreland on waivers, the team announced in a press release.

The moves indicate that Justin Patton, who has been limited by injuries to a combined four games in his first two NBA seasons, has won the 14th roster spot. Oklahoma City may not carry a 15th player because of salary cap concerns. The 16th pick in the 2017 draft, Patton signed with OKC in August and had a $700K guarantee on his $1,620,564 contract.

Of today’s four cuts, Moreland is the only one with significant NBA experience. He played a combined 83 games for the Kings, Pistons, Suns and Raptors over the past five years. Henry appeared in 20 games for the Grizzlies in 2017/18, while Akoon-Purcell got into seven games with Denver last year. Gaddy was also cut by the Thunder in training camp last season.

Thunder Officially Sign Four Players To Camp Roster

The Thunder have officially signed four players to their roster for training camp, filling up their 20-man squad, the team announced today in a press release. Swingman DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell, big man Eric Moreland, guard Abdul Gaddy, and forward Myke Henry have all joined the Oklahoma City roster.

The team’s deals with Akoon-Purcell and Moreland were previously reported. We broke word of Akoon-Purcell’s contract agreement on Saturday, while Moreland agreed to terms with the Thunder back in August. Akoon-Purcell spent part of the 2018/19 season on a two-way deal with Denver, while Moreland finished the year with the NBA champion Raptors.

Gaddy, 27, joined the Thunder for training camp a year ago but was waived before the regular season began. He spent the 2018/19 campaign in the G League with the Oklahoma City Blue, averaging 9.5 PPG, 6.7 APG, and 3.2 RPG in 49 games (29.1 MPG). The former Washington standout appears likely to return to the Thunder’s G League affiliate again this season.

As for Henry, his deal with the Thunder was first noted by his agency Edge Sports earlier in September. The 6’6″ forward made his NBA debut in 2017/18 when he appeared in 20 games for the Grizzlies. He played in Israel last season but has previously spent time with the OKC Blue and is another candidate to return to the Blue in 2019/20.

The Thunder now have 13 players on fully guaranteed salaries, two on two-way contracts, and Justin Patton on a partially guaranteed contract. Patton is the favorite to win the 14th spot on the roster and Oklahoma City may not carry a 15th man, so it would be an uphill battle for any of today’s signees to earn a regular season roster spot.

Thunder, Eric Moreland Agree To Training Camp Deal

The Thunder have agreed to a training camp deal with center Eric Moreland, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports. The 27-year-old will seek to crack the regular season roster of a retooling franchise that will feature plenty of new faces.

Moreland split last season between the Suns and Raptors but never saw consistent playing time. Moreland only played double digit minutes twice in 2018/19, which is considerably less than the previous year when he battled for the primary backup spot to Pistons center Andre Drummond.

Moreland joins a Thunder squad with only 13 guaranteed contracts, meaning it’s possible that he could stay with the team through to the regular season. He’ll presumably be in competition with fellow recent Thunder signee Justin Patton for reps in the team’s frontcourt, with Patton’s multiyear deal and $700K partial guarantee likely giving him a leg up on Moreland.

Raptors Sign Eric Moreland

The Raptors have signed Eric Moreland, according to a team press release.

Toronto will play its final game of the regular season tonight, meaning today was the final day for the team to sign a player. The Raptors entered the day with 14 players under traditional contracts and two players under two-way deals, so the team will not need to make a corresponding move in order to accommodate Moreland’s signing.

Moreland inked a 10-day deal with Toronto earlier this season, playing three games with the club. The franchise opted to not offer him an additional 10-day contract when his deal expired.

Moreland will be eligible to play in the postseason, since he has not been released by an NBA team since March 1. However, he’s unlikely to see any real action in the playoffs unless one of Toronto’s two centers – Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka – goes down with an injury.

Atlantic Notes: Zion, Raptors, Loyd, Moreland, Sixers

The Knicks apparently won’t have to worry about Zion Williamson demanding a trade if they win the lottery. Williamson said on Friday that he would “love to play” for the Knicks if they drafted him, Adam Zagoria of the New York Times tweets. The Duke freshman made the remark during a Final Four press conference while accepting the Oscar Robertson (Player of the Year) Award. He went on to say he’d be happy to go wherever he was drafted.

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

  • The Raptors made a number of cost-cutting moves during the course of the season that saved an approximate $18MM, as Blake Murphy of The Athletic details. Waiving Lorenzo Brown, dumping the salaries of Malachi Richardson and Greg Monroe, trading three players for Marc Gasol, getting Gasol to waive his trade kicker, and signing players to 10-day contracts to meet roster requirements all contributed to a healthier bottom line.
  • The Raptors still have an open roster spot heading toward the playoffs and will likely sign a player, Murphy writes in the same story. Guard Jordan Loyd’s two-way contract could be converted to a standard contract and center Eric Moreland, who recently played on a 10-day contract, is another candidate. Veteran center Marcin Gortat could also be in play.
  • The 76ers believe their powerhouse starting lineup will be the difference in the playoffs, even though they haven’t played much together, Michael Lee of The Athletic reports. They’ve gone 8-2 in games that Tobias Harris, J.J. Redick, Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid and Jimmy Butler have all been available to play. “Although that starting group hasn’t played that much basketball together, especially relative to the other teams, the excitement is to take the talent we have and quickly try to maximize that,” coach Brett Brown said.

Raptors Re-Sign Jodie Meeks

MARCH 26: The Raptors have officially signed Meeks, the team confirmed today in a press release.

MARCH 25: After letting Eric Moreland‘s 10-day contract expire over the weekend, the Raptors plan on filling one of their open roster spots by bringing back Jodie Meeks, per Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that Toronto will sign Meeks to a rest-of-season contract.

Meeks, 31, appeared in 77 games in 2017/18 for the Wizards but saw his season come to an early end when he was suspended 25 games for violating the NBA’s anti-drug policy. Meeks was traded to Milwaukee in the offseason, where he served the rest of his suspension at the start of 2018/19 before being waived.

Since then, Meeks has signed just one NBA contract, inking a 10-day deal with Toronto after the All-Star break. Although he only got into a couple games with the Raptors, the veteran sharpshooter provided a spark off the bench, scoring 15 points and knocking down three 3-pointers in just 24 total minutes. The former Kentucky standout is a career 37.2% shooter from beyond the arc.

While Meeks is unlikely to play much of a role for Toronto in the postseason, he figures to see some action in the club’s final regular season games. Still, it’s not clear when the Raptors will officially sign Meeks, since they’re over the tax line and aren’t under pressure to add a 14th man right away.

When he does sign, Meeks will earn $12,295 per day for the rest of the regular season, with the contract counting against the Raps’ cap at a rate of $8,546 per day. The team will still have one more open roster spot once Meeks is back on board.

Raptors Sign Eric Moreland To 10-Day Contract

MARCH 14: The Raptors have officially signed Moreland to a 10-day deal, per the NBA’s transactions log. It will run through next Saturday, March 23.

MARCH 13: The Raptors will fill one of the open spots on their 15-man roster by signing big man Eric Moreland to a 10-day contract, reports Michael Scotto of The Athletic (Twitter link). I’d expect the move to become official on Thursday before Toronto’s game vs. the Lakers.

Moreland, 27, spent a few weeks with the Suns earlier in the season, but appeared in just one game for the club. He was also with the Raptors for training camp and the preseason back in the fall and suited up for Team USA during FIBA World Cup qualifiers. Previously, the former Oregon State standout played a total of 78 games for the Kings and Pistons from 2014-18.

It’s unlikely that Moreland will see much playing time in Toronto, but he’ll provide the team with some depth at center behind Marc Gasol while Serge Ibaka serves a three-game suspension. Chris Boucher figures to be first in line as Gasol’s backup during those three games, and Pascal Siakam could also see time at the five, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if Moreland also plays a few minutes during his stint with the Raptors.

[RELATED: Serge Ibaka suspended three games by NBA]

Toronto was one of three teams required to sign a 14th man in the coming days, since the club had only been carrying 13 on its roster. The Raptors had until Saturday to make a move, but Ibaka’s suspension likely pushed them to add a player sooner than expected.

Moreland will earn $88,531 on his 10-day deal, which will count for a little less than that ($85,457) for cap and tax purposes.

And-Ones: A. Davis, Moreland, Weber, Stokes

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported last week that the Pelicans were told by the NBA that they’d be subject to fines of $100K per game if they sit a healthy Anthony Davis for the rest of the season, but league spokesperson Mike Bass suggested today that that’s not quite right, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter links).

“The NBA did not tell New Orleans that it would be fined $100K per game if Anthony Davis were held out for the remainder of [the] season,” Bass said in a statement to Stein. “The Pelicans were advised that the team had not identified a proper basis for making that determination at this time and league rules governing competitive integrity therefore require that he be permitted to play.”

It seems clear that the Pelicans will face penalties if they elect to sit Davis and ensure that he’s healthy in advance of summer trade talks, and the league’s approach to the issue has been the subject of plenty of debate among NBA observers.

Several other teams, including the Rockets (Carmelo Anthony), Cavaliers (J.R. Smith), and Grizzlies (Chandler Parsons) have held out healthy players for much of the season, not even requiring those players to be with the team, and they haven’t faced any sort of discipline from the NBA, as Stein tweets. Of course, those players don’t have nearly the same on-court impact that Davis has — the Pelicans can’t make the case that they’re better off without AD, whereas perhaps those teams could have made that case with regard to their exiled players.

On the other hand, Davis and his representatives were fined by the league for making a public trade request, and it’s probably in the Pelicans’ best long-term interests to sit the All-NBA big man to protect their trade asset and to improve their spot in the draft lottery, writes Michael McCann of Sports Illustrated. You could make the case that the Pelicans should be allowed to run their team as they wish, given the unusual circumstances surrounding Davis and the franchise.

As we wait to see how the AD saga plays out, let’s round up some odds and ends from around the basketball world…

  • While players who were released at the trade deadline are generating the most speculation at the moment, keep an eye on Eric Moreland, tweets Michael Scotto of The Athletic. According to Scott, Moreland – who was waived by Phoenix last month – is on NBA teams’ radars.
  • It got lost amidst last week’s trade deadline madness, but journeyman guard Briante Weber has landed in the EuroLeague, inking a contract with Greece’s Olympiacos. Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops first reported that Weber was nearing an agreement with Olympiacos, while Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (Twitter link) confirmed that a deal was in place.
  • Free agent big man Jarnell Stokes, who last played in the NBA in 2016/17 for Denver, has reached an agreement with the Xinjiang Flying Tigers in China, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. We reported at the end of January that Stokes was drawing interest from Chinese clubs.
  • Longtime NBA guard Carlos Arroyo, who played in 569 total regular season games for seven teams, has joined the BIG3 draft pool for the 2019 season, the league announced today (via Twitter). The BIG3 has slowly been revealing the new additions to its player pool for ’19, as we noted last week.

Suns Sign Quincy Acy To 10-Day Deal

JANUARY 7: The signing is official, according to the team’s Twitter feed.

JANUARY 5: With 10-day contracts now permissible, the Suns will sign veteran forward Quincy Acy to the first one of the season, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.

The 28-year-old played 70 games for the Nets last season, but hasn’t been in the league since Brooklyn renounced his rights to generate extra cap space over the summer. Acy spent a year and a half with the Nets after joining the team in January of 2017. He has also played for the Raptors, Kings, Knicks and Mavericks since coming into the league in 2012, but has never spent two full seasons with any team.

Phoenix waived forward/center Eric Moreland on Thursday, giving the team two roster openings. The Suns have until January 17 to get back to the league minimum of 14 players, but they’ve decided not to wait. Moreland cleared waivers today and became a free agent, according to Real GM.