James Southerland Rumors

James Southerland To Play In France

October 14th, 2014 at 2:58pm CST by Chuck Myron

2:58pm: Limoges has announced the deal (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Southerland will have to clear NBA waivers first before he can play overseas, but that’s likely a mere formality.

1:27pm: Recent Blazers camp invitee James Southerland has a deal with Limoges CSP of France, tweets David Pick of Eurobasket.com. Portland announced Monday that it had waived the small forward, and while no signing can become official until Southerland clears NBA waivers, Pick indicates that Southerland has already put pen to paper.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports originally reported that Southerland had a European deal and that the Blazers would release him, but the identity of the overseas team had been unknown. It remains unclear whether the pact includes an NBA escape clause.

Southerland was with Charlotte and New Orleans last season after going undrafted out of Syracuse in 2013, but he saw action in only four NBA games. He spent the bulk of last year playing with the Lakers D-League affiliate, averaging 14.7 points and 6.5 rebounds in 28.6 minutes per game, though he made only 32.3% of the 4.8 three-pointers he shot per contest. Still, his performance landed him on the D-League’s All-Rookie Second Team.

Blazers Waive James Southerland

October 13th, 2014 at 7:02pm CST by Charlie Adams

The Blazers have placed James Southerland on waivers, the team announced (on Twitter). Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who was the first to report the the move, tweets that the swingman will ink a new deal overseas now that he’s officially been waived. Wojnarowski doesn’t specify where Southerland intends to sign, but he writes that the new pact will cover the length of the NBA season.

Southerland agreed to join Portland for camp on a non-guaranteed deal in August after the Pelicans opted not to bring him back for the 2014/15 season. The 24-year-old out of Syracuse saw limited action in his first NBA campaign last year, playing in a total of just 30 minutes across four games between time for the then-Bobcats and Pelicans. He didn’t appear in any of the Blazers’ first three preseason games.

It seemed like a long shot that Southerland would stick around long enough to make the opening night roster, given that Portland is already carrying the league maximum of 15 guaranteed contracts, as our list of roster counts shows. Darius Morris and Diante Garrett now stand as the only players left on the Blazers without guaranteed deals, and they seem to like strong candidates to be cut before the season as well.

Blazers Sign James Southerland

September 24th, 2014 at 10:45pm CST by Chuck Myron

SEPTEMBER 24TH, 10:45pm: The deal is official, the team announced.

AUGUST 8TH, 12:33pm: The Blazers have signed free agent small forward James Southerland, according to the RealGM transactions page. The team has made no formal announcement, but the move took place Thursday, according to RealGM. The 24-year-old was briefly with Charlotte and New Orleans last season after going undrafted out of Syracuse in 2013. Terms of the deal are unclear, but it’s likely a summer contract that’ll give Southerland the chance to make the opening night roster out of training camp.

The Spurs had interest in making Southerland the 58th pick of the draft last year if he’d agree to play overseas, but he declined and wound up signing a non-guaranteed deal with the then-Bobcats. He made the team out of camp, though he appeared in only one regular season game before injuries to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Jeffery Taylor prompted the club to give Southerland’s roster spot to the more experienced Chris Douglas-Roberts.

The Cavs, Bulls, Thunder and Hawks eyed Southerland once Charlotte cut him loose, but he remained out of the league until the Pelicans inked him in the season’s final week. A spate of injuries worked in Southerland’s favor on that occasion, as he became the 16th player on the New Orleans roster at the mercy of the league, which granted the Pelicans permission to go over the 15-man regular season roster limit so they’d have enough healthy bodies. It might take another unusual set of circumstances for Southerland to remain on Portland’s roster come opening night, since the Blazers already have 15 guaranteed deals, as our roster counts show.

Still, Southerland appeared in just four NBA games last season. He spent the majority of his time with the D-League affiliate of the Lakers, averaging 14.7 points and 6.5 rebounds in 28.6 minutes per game across 42 contests for the L.A. D-Fenders.

And-Ones: Parsons, Heat, Southerland, Pistons

August 8th, 2014 at 2:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

Chandler Parsons was an all-around contributor for the Rockets, averaging 16.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists this past season, but that sort of production isn’t why the Mavs gave him a near-max offer sheet that Houston declined to match. They’re confident he can be a “far better” player than he was with the Rockets, as owner Mark Cuban said, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. While we wait to see whether Parsons proves worthy of Cuban’s investment, here’s more from around the league:

The Heat will likely sign a center for the reserve role that Greg Oden played last season, writes Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Andray Blatche is available, but the Heat have shied away from him in the past because they’ve disliked his maturity level and behavior, according to Jackson, who seconds the notion that the Heat are unlikely to re-sign Oden following Oden’s arrest Thursday.
The contract that James Southerland signed Thursday with the Blazers is a one-year, non-guaranteed pact, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM. That means it’s a summer contract, as I speculated. It also fits the stipulations required to make it an Exhibit 9 contract, though it’s not necessarily one.
Former NBA players Tim Hardaway Sr. and Malik Allen will serve as assistant coaches for the Pistons next season, the team announced. The Pistons also announced the hiring of former Knicks executive Jeff Nix as assistant general manager. He’ll serve alongside fellow assistant GM Brian Wright underneath president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy and GM Jeff Bower.

Western Notes: Pelicans, Parsons, Grunwald

July 12th, 2014 at 6:03pm CST by Cray Allred

The Thunder lost a valuable weapon Friday with the expiration of a $6.5MM trade exception left over from last year’s sign-and-trade of Kevin Martin to the Wolves. The Thunder had hoped to use the exception to acquire Pau Gasol, and today lost out on the big man, report Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com. Here’s more from out West:

The Warriors had considered using their own expired trade exception to acquire Brandon Bass, among other players, reports Zach Lowe of Grantland.
The Pelicans renounced their rights to Al-Farouq Aminu, Jason Smith and James Southerland, tweets Mark Deeks of ShamSports. That means they no longer hold any form of Bird rights on the trio.
The Suns also renounced Emeka Okafor‘s rights in a move that will erase his $19.2MM cap hold from Phoenix’s books, Deeks reports in a separate tweet.
Sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com (via Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com) that although the Rockets just snagged small forward Trevor Ariza, Houston is still deciding whether to match Chandler Parsons‘ max offer sheet with the Mavs.
The Grizzlies have been talking up Glen Grunwald as a candidate for their GM-in-waiting search, Mitch Lawrence of New York Daily News reports. Lawrence expects Memphis to hire Grunwald for the job.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

And-Ones: Sterling, Parker, Crawford

July 1st, 2014 at 9:44am CST by Chuck Myron

Attorneys for Donald Sterling will argue that wife Shelly Sterling exerted undue influence on one of the two doctors who examined Donald and declared him mentally incompetent, as Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com details. Donald’s mental competency is no longer on trial. Instead, the probate trial between the Sterlings will center on whether Shelly followed the rules of the Sterling family trust, according to Shelburne. Those rules required that two mental health experts submit letters to the effect that Donald was mentally incompetent before allowing Shelly to take full control of the trust, Shelburne writes. Shelly agreed to sell the Clippers in May to Steve Ballmer, claiming that she fully controlled the trust, but Donald is fighting the sale. Here’s more from around the league:

The Spurs kept Tony Parker through Monday, unsurprisingly, but doing so means his $3.5MM partial guarantee is now a fully guaranteed $12.5MM salary for 2014/15.
Jamal Crawford of the Clippers had his $1.5MM partial guarantee bumped to a full guarantee of $5.45MM when he remained on the roster through Monday.
Kosta Koufos remains on the Grizzlies, so his $500K partial guarantee is now a $3MM full guarantee.
Parker’s teammate Austin Daye is also still with the Spurs, so his $250K partial guarantee is a fully guaranteed minimum salary.
The Hornets kept Jeffery Taylor around, so his minimum salary went from non-guaranteed to fully guaranteed.
It appears as though the Magic are officially under the cap, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). That means Orlando loses access to a $6,077,280 trade exception it could have reaped from last week’s Arron Afflalo deal.
The Hawks didn’t give big man Gustavo Ayon a qualifying offer by Monday’s deadline, making him an unrestricted free agent, notes Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link). There weren’t reports of qualifying offers to James Southerland of the Pelicans, Adonis Thomas of the Sixers and Bernard James of the Mavs, so presumably they’re all unrestricted free agents as well.
The Wolves hired Ryan Saunders as an assistant coach, the team announced (on Twitter). Saunders, the son of Wolves head coach/executive Flip Saunders, had served the last five seasons as a Wizards assistant.

And-Ones: Hoiberg, Knicks, Pelicans, Magic

April 11th, 2014 at 4:04pm CST by Chuck Myron

The final Friday night of the NBA’s regular season features 13 games, and 12 of them have some sort of playoff implications. The other is a key contest for the Bucks, who can clinch pole position for the NBA draft lottery with a loss and a Sixers win. Here’s the latest from around the Association:

Iowa State has hiked coach Fred Hoiberg‘s annual salaries to $2.6MM from $2MM in an effort to keep him, writes Luke Meredith of The Associated Press. The sought-after NBA head coaching candidate is unlikely to take the Wolves job, as we noted earlier today.
Knicks GM Steve Mills said in Thursday’s radio interview that owner James Dolan wanted to make sure he and Phil Jackson could work together before the team hired the Zen Master, and Marc Berman of the New York Post takes that as a positive sign for Mills’ job security.
James Southerland‘s contract with the Pelicans only runs through the end of the season, but coach Monty Williams isn’t ruling the small forward out of the team’s plans for the future, notes Jim Eichenhofer of Pelicans.com. “If he plays well here [in the last week of the season], he could be in our discussions come summer league, if it works out,” Williams said. “We’ll see.”
E’Twaun Moore is set to become a restricted free agent in the offseason, but he says he “most definitely” would like to return to the Magic, observes Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel.
The desire for maximum flexibility probably played a significant role in the Rockets‘ decision to waive Greg Smith, as Mark Deeks of ShamSports explains in a piece for the Score.
The Oregonian’s Mike Tokito explains how the NBA divvies up the $14MM it awards in playoff bonuses.

Pelicans Sign James Southerland

April 11th, 2014 at 10:10am CST by Chuck Myron

FRIDAY, 10:10am: New Orleans has formally announced the signing on the team’s website. The Pelicans haven’t announced a corresponding move, so the team has indeed taken advantage of the league’s permission to expand its roster to 16 players.

THURSDAY, 3:10pm: The Pelicans have received clearance from the league to add Southerland without waiving a player, reports Shams Charania of RealGM. The NBA lets teams carry 16 players on a temporary basis if they have four or more players who have missed the past three games and who will continue to be unavailable to play. The Wolves received the same allowance last season. Southerland’s deal won’t carry into 2014/15, Charania adds.

2:00pm: The Pelicans will sign James Southerland, a source tells Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com (Twitter link). Southerland has been playing for the D-League affiliate of the Lakers. New Orleans has a full 15-man roster, so the team will have to waive someone to accommodate Southerland, who was with the Bobcats at the beginning of the season.

The 6’8″ small forward appeared in just one game for three minutes for the Bobcats, who waived him in December after carrying him through preseason and the first six weeks of the regular season. Charlotte let him go largely to clear room for Chris Douglas-Roberts, who could more readily step in for an injured Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and coach Steve Clifford spoke highly of Southerland, who once more drew NBA interest in early January.

Southerland went undrafted out of Syracuse this past summer, and he’s averaged 14.7 points and 6.5 rebounds in 28.6 minutes per game in the D-League. The Pelicans announced today that Anthony Davis and Eric Gordon will miss the rest of the season, so perhaps New Orleans is adding Southerland to bolster its roster for the final week. I think it’s more likely that the Pelicans have the future in mind, and that his deal will cover next season with non-guaranteed salary.

Possible 10-Day Contracts From The D-League

January 7th, 2014 at 7:52pm CST by Jonathan Nehring

With the D-League Showcase under way in Reno, more league attention has been turned the direction of the young players outside the NBA. The Showcase alone is not the reason for the shift in focus. All of the players on NBA rosters are now guaranteed salaries for the remainder of the season, and teams are now able to sign players to 10-day contracts. Below are a few of the players that have already drawn attention around the league.

Ike Diogu is playing well at the D-League Showcase and league sources say he could draw interest from Lakers, Clippers, Thunder and Pelicans, according to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com (Twitter links).
James Nunnally of the Bakersfield Jam is a D-League call-up candidate and has had meetings with the Cavs, Bulls, and Thunder at the D-League showcase in Reno, tweets Sam Amick of USA Today. Amick later tweeted the Hawks are also a team interested in Nunnally.
James Southerland has met with at least three teams this week, according to Shams Charania of RealGM.com. He has played one game with the Bobcats and spent the summer with the 76ers and Warriors.

Zach Links contributed to this post.

Odds & Ends: Exum, Southerland, Nuggets

December 19th, 2013 at 4:03pm CST by Luke Adams

The Rockets had been expected to move Omer Asik today, so it was a bit of a letdown when news broke that the team had shut down trade discussions involving the big center. Still, while Houston’s unofficial December 19th deadline may pass without an Asik trade, that doesn’t mean there are no other notes to pass along today. Here are a few items from around the league:

Top prospect Dante Exum told Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com that he intends to set up visits to Indiana, North Carolina, Kentucky, Michigan, and Oregon. There’s a general belief that the Australian point guard will declare for the draft in 2014, but he has the option of attending an NCAA school and is still going through the recruiting process as well as meeting with NBA agents (Twitter links).
A little more than a week after being released by the Bobcats, James Southerland has landed with the D-League’s Los Angeles D-Fenders, the team announced today (Twitter link). The Lakers‘ affiliate will hold Southerland’s D-League rights, but the former Syracuse forward will still be free to sign with any NBA team.
Recent reports have suggested that Asik, Pau Gasol, and Zach Randolph are going nowhere for now, but Jabari Davis of HoopsWorld looks into the possibility of the trio of Western big men being moved by the deadline.
UCLA’s Kyle Anderson is poised to enter the 2014 NBA draft and that stance likely won’t change between now and the spring, as his father tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. “There’s a chance that Kyle could play horrendous the rest of this year and be a second-round draft pick,” Kyle Anderson Sr. said. “That’s not going to change our strategy. We know that he just needs a chance to play for a team, and like all the teams he’s played for, he can help you win. His draft position is not a reason why he’s coming or staying. He’s coming out regardless. It has nothing to do with his draft position.”
In his latest mailbag, Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post discusses some Nuggets-related trade scenario.