George de Paula

Chris Johnson Among Four Rockets Cuts

The Rockets have waived Chris Johnson, Isaiah Taylor, Tim Quarterman and George de Paula, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle tweets. The four cuts slash Houston’s roster down to 15 players in time for the 2017/18 season.

Johnson, the 27-year-old veteran out of Dayton, last suited up for the Jazz back in 2015/16 while point guard Taylor spent time with Houston in 2016/17.

Quarterman on the other hand was acquired by the Rockets in the flurry of trades leading up to the Chris Paul deal and de Paula, the undrafted rookie out of Brazil, has yet to make his NBA debut.

Rockets Sign George De Paula

The Rockets have officially signed Brazilian guard George de Paula to their roster, the team announced today (via Twitter). The move brings Houston’s roster count back up to 20 players after the club parted ways with Shawn Long on Tuesday.

De Paula, 21, went undrafted in June and caught on with the Rockets’ Summer League team in July. ESPN’s Chris Haynes (Twitter link) first reported his agreement with the club.

While details of the agreement aren’t known, the newly-signed guard figures to receive little to no guaranteed money to join the Rockets for camp. De Paula is a good bet to ultimately land with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Houston’s G League team, as an affiliate player.

Rockets To Sign L.J. Peak, George De Paula

The Rockets have agreed to free agent deals with a couple of undrafted prospects, though the moves are not yet official. Per Mark Berman of Fox 26, the club has an agreement in place to sign Georgetown’s L.J. Peak.

Ranked 46th of DraftExpress.com’s list of top 100 prospects, the junior Hoya will look to stick on a roster seeking to add as many potential weapons as possible. In Peak, the Rockets will get a 21-year-old fresh off a campaign in which he posted 16.3 points and 3.5 assists per game.

Per Chris Haynes of ESPN, the Rockets will also take a flyer on Brazilian point guard George de Paula. An international early entrant in this year’s draft, de Paula comes in at No. 72 on DraftExpress’ big board.

At this time it’s not entirely clear whether the deals will be for Summer League or for training camp, but it sounds like both players should have a spot on Houston’s 20-man camp roster.

NBA Confirms 182 Early Entrants For 2017 Draft

With the deadline for early entrants to enter the 2017 NBA draft now behind us, the league has officially released the list of this year’s early entry candidates, and it’s a long one. According to the NBA’s announcement, 182 players have declared early for the draft — 137 college players and 45 international prospects. That’s a new record.

As was the case a year ago, NCAA rules changes allow underclassmen to “test the waters” before officially committing to the 2017 NBA draft. NCAA early entrants can withdraw their names any time up until May 24 while maintaining their NCAA eligibility, as long as they haven’t hired agents. That means that prospects testing the waters can take part in the NBA draft combine from May 9-14 – if invited – and they can work out for individual teams in the coming weeks.

International early entrants can also withdraw their names from the draft pool within the next several weeks. The final draft list will be set after the early entrant withdrawal deadline for international and other non-NCAA players passes on June 12.

A year ago, a whopping 162 NCAA and international players declared their intent to enter the draft early, but 91 of those players eventually withdrew. This year should follow a similar pattern, so the group of eligible draftees for 2017 figures to be reduced significantly by June 12.

Listed below are the current early entrants, according to the NBA. Players whose intent to declare wasn’t previously reported on Hoops Rumors are listed in italics.

Read more

Draft Notes: Hornets, Looney, Jazz, Turner

The Hornets will work out Kevon Looney, according to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter links). The team owns the No. 9 selection in the upcoming draft. Looney’s agents believe his range is anywhere from No. 7 to No. 20, as the UCLA product tells Zach Links of Hoops Rumors. Looney is represented by both Aaron Goodwin of Goodwin Sports Management and Todd Ramasar of Stealth Sports, as our agency database indicates.

Here’s more news on player workouts:

  • The Hornets are also scheduled to work out Jonathan Holmes, Jay Hook, Cady Lalanne, Josh Richardson and LeBryan Nash, as Bonnell reports in the same set of tweets.
  • Myles Turner has worked out for the Jazz, Aaron Falk of Salt Lake Tribune reports (Twitter link).  Falk notes that this was Turner’s first workout with any team. Chad Ford of ESPN.com ranks the Texas product as the ninth best prospect, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress ranks him as the 13th. Eddie Scarito of Hoops Rumors has Kelly Oubre Jr. going to the Jazz with the No. 12 selection, but he mentions Turner as a possible alternative.
  • The Jazz will conduct workouts for Will Cummings, Rakeem Christmas, Kelly Oubre Jr., Keifer Sykes, Chris Walker and K.T. Harrell, according to the team’s Twitter feed.
  • Utah will also work out George de Paula, Royce O’Neale, Ousmane Drame, Levi Randolph, Derrick Marks and Jarvis Williams, according to the team’s Twitter feed.

Northwest Notes: Aldridge, Jazz, Nuggets

Earlier today, a report surfaced indicating that Blazers star LaMarcus Aldridge had put his Portland area home up for sale.  Apparently, that is not the case.  Yes, the house is up for sale, but the 29-year-old free agent isn’t the owner.  It turns out that the West Linn, Oregon home is actually owned by former Blazers guard Damon Stoudamire and Aldridge was simply renting it, as John Canzano of The Oregonian writes.  Stoudamire later confirmed as much on Twitter [sic]:

eating lunch and my house in West Linn comes across the screen. Don’t know if LA is leaving PO but, thx for the pub! #4sale,” Stoudamire wrote.

While Blazers fans calm down a bit, let’s take a look at more news out of the Northwest Division..

  • The Jazz have a greater chance at bringing over Tibor Pleiss next year than Ante Tomic, ESPN700’s Andy Larsen tweets.  However, it’s also possible that both players make the jump or that neither player does.  Larsen notes that what Utah does with both players is very much dependent on who they draft (link).  There won’t be much room for both players if they draft a big man at No. 12 later this month.
  • The Jazz formally announced on Twitter that they will work out six prospects on Friday.  That group includes SMU center Yanick Moreira, UNC Asheville center Jaleel Roberts, Kentucky guard Aaron Harrison, Maryland guard/forward Dez Wells, N.C. State guard Trevor Lacey, and St. John’s guard Phil Greene.  Hoops Rumors spoke with Greene and his former coach Steve Lavin recently about the guard’s NBA prospects.  Greene is represented by veteran NBA agent Keith Kreiter.
  • In a press release, the Nuggets announced that they will audition seven players on Friday.  The morning group will feature forward Darion Atkins (Virginia), guard Devin Booker (Kentucky), forward Sam Dekker (Wisconsin), guard Jerian Grant (Notre Dame),  guard Pierria Henry (Charlotte), and guard/forward SirDominic Pointer (St. John’s).
  • The Blazers‘ second pre-draft workout includes Henry, George de Paula, Chris Walker, Joshua Smith, and Seth Tuttle, according to Joe Freeman of The Oregonian (on Twitter).  As previously reported, Jarell Martin will also be a participant.