Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot

Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot Signs One-Year Deal With ASVEL

Free agent wing Timothe Luwawu-Cabbarot is returning to his native France, having signed a one-year deal with ASVEL Villeurbanne, the team announced in a press release.

It’s a great honor to attract one of the very best French players of the moment,” ASVEL president Tony Parker said, per BasketNews.com. “I know Timothe perfectly, and I have no doubts about everything he can bring to the team. I’m very happy he trusts our project, and I can’t wait to see him wear our jersey.”

Luwawu-Cabbarot, 28, was drafted 24th overall by Philadelphia in 2016. He spent six seasons in the NBA, playing for the Sixers, Thunder, Bulls, Nets, and Hawks from 2016-22.

In 2021/22, the 27-year-old appeared in 52 games for Atlanta, averaging 4.4 PPG and 1.6 RPG on .398/.361/.854 shooting in 13.2 minutes per contest. He holds career averages of 5.9 PPG and 2.0 RPG in 328 regular season games.

The veteran swingman signed a training camp deal with Phoenix prior to last season, but didn’t make the team’s roster and was released before ’22/23 began. He wound up returning to Europe, signing a deal with Italy’s Olimpia Milano. His contract expired in April, making him an unrestricted free agent.

ASVEL competes in both the LNB Pro A — France’s top basketball division — and the EuroLeague, which is widely considered the second-most competitive league in the world.

And-Ones: Expansion, Luwawu-Cabarrot, NBL, Kemp

The idea of expanding the NBA beyond its current 30 teams is a popular one that the league is widely expected to consider more seriously within the next few years. However, according to Chris Mannix of SI.com, some top team executives around the NBA are worried about the extent to which the league’s talent pool could be diluted by adding more teams. That’s a concern shared by commissioner Adam Silver.

“The dilution point doesn’t get as much attention,” Silver said. “It always fascinates me that in a league of what most people would acknowledge are the 450 best players in the world or close to it, despite enormous amount of basketball being played on a global basis, that even once you take that pool—450 players—there are only so many true difference-makers who without one or possibly two, or maybe even three of those players, you don’t have a realistic chance of winning the championship. And so the more teams you add, the more diluted, potentially, the talent will be around the league.

“… On the other hand, this is a sport that is an Olympic sport. It’s truly played on every corner of the planet. And so I think over time … you have this enormous new pool of top-notch talent that’s constantly coming into the league,” Silver continued. “So do I think the league from a competitive standpoint could absorb two more teams? Absolutely. We’re not there yet. … But overall, my biggest concern is not an impact it would have on competitive balance.”

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

  • Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot‘s contract with Olimpia Milano in Italy has ended, making the former NBA swingman a free agent once again, per Cesare Milanti of Eurohoops.net. Luwawu-Cabarrot has appeared in 328 regular season NBA games since 2016, including 52 with Atlanta in 2021/22. He was in camp with Phoenix last fall.
  • A.J. Johnson, a potential 2024 NBA lottery pick, decommitted from Texas in order to sign with the Illawara Hawks of Australia’s National Basketball League, according to Adrian Wojnarowski and Jonathan Givony of ESPN. Johnson is the highest-profile U.S. prospect since LaMelo Ball to forgo college basketball in favor of the NBL’s Next Stars program, Wojnarowski and Givony note.
  • Former Seattle SuperSonics star Shawn Kemp has been charged with first-degree assault related to a shooting incident in Tacoma, Washington in March. ESPN has the story.
  • Under the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Players Association will receive 50% of team fines, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. The current CBA splits player fines between the league and union, but team fines – like the $750K penalty assessed to the Mavericks this week – go only to the NBA.

Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot Signs With Olimpia Milano

NOVEMBER 19: Olimpia Milano has officially announced its agreement with Luwawu-Cabarrot, confirming the deal in a press release.

“I’m very happy to return to Europe to be part of this organization in Milan,” Luwawu-Cabarrot said in a statement. “I’m extremely excited to have the opportunity to help the team try to reach the goals they for the season. Which is to win as much as possible. Can’t wait to meet all the fans and start.”


NOVEMBER 18: Free agent wing Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot is expected to sign with Italian team Olimpia Milano, reports Emiliano Carchia of Sportando.

A first-round pick in the 2016 draft, Luwawu-Cabarrot has spent six seasons in the NBA, playing for the Sixers, Thunder, Bulls, Nets, and Hawks since entering the league. In 2021/22, the 27-year-old appeared in 52 games for Atlanta, averaging 4.4 PPG and 1.6 RPG on .398/.361/.854 shooting in 13.2 minutes per contest. For his career, he has averaged of 5.9 PPG and 2.0 RPG in 328 regular season games.

Luwawu-Cabarrot became an unrestricted free agent in July when his contract with the Hawks expired and signed a training camp deal with the Suns in September. However, he didn’t earn a spot on Phoenix’s regular season roster and was waived last month at the end of the preseason, returning to the free agent market.

Prior to entering the NBA, Luwawu-Cabarrot spent multiple seasons with the Antibes Sharks in his home country of France, then played for Mega Basket in Serbia for a year, so if he finalizes a deal with Olimpia Milano, this won’t be his first stint in Europe.

Milano has a 5-1 record this season in the Lega Basket A, Italy’s top basketball league, but is off to a slower start in EuroLeague play, having gone 3-4 so far.

Suns Waive Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Adonis Arms

The Suns have waived Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Adonis Arms, the team announced in a press release relayed by Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports (Twitter link). Phoenix also confirmed that it has waived Saben Lee, whose release showed up earlier this week on NBA.com’s transactions log.

The moves bring the team’s roster down to 14 players, plus two on two-way deals. The Suns have 13 players with fully guaranteed contracts, along with Jock Landale, who appears to have made the team with a partially guaranteed deal.

Luwawu-Cabarrot has been a journeyman since being selected with the 24th pick in the 2016 draft, playing for five teams in six years. He appeared in 52 games with the Hawks last season and signed with Phoenix shortly before the start of training camp.

Arms signed with the Suns on Tuesday after he was waived by the Nuggets. Phoenix doesn’t have a G League team, so it’s not able to secure Arms’ G League rights.

Contract Details: Lakers, Galloway, DSJ, McCollum, More

When the Lakers signed Matt Ryan and Dwayne Bacon to non-guaranteed training camp contracts earlier this month, both players received Exhibit 9 clauses in their new deals, but not Exhibit 10s, Hoops Rumors has learned.

Exhibit 9 contracts are non-guaranteed camp deals that don’t count against the cap during the preseason and offer teams some protection in the event of an injury. Exhibit 10s are similar, but also allow teams to convert the player to a two-way deal (if he’s eligible) or to give him a bonus worth up to $50K if he’s waived and then spends at least 60 days with the team’s G League affiliate.

As a general rule, a player who signs a training camp contract without an Exhibit 10 clause is usually just competing for a spot on his team’s 15-man regular season roster and won’t end up playing for the club’s G League affiliate if he doesn’t make the cut.

Langston Galloway (Pacers), Dennis Smith Jr. (Hornets), LiAngelo Ball (Hornets), Cody Zeller (Jazz), Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (Suns), and Wes Iwundu (Trail Blazers) are among the other recently signed free agents who signed Exhibit 9 – not Exhibit 10 – contracts.

Here are a few more contract details from around the NBA:

Suns Sign Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot

The Suns have signed free agent forward Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, the team announced in a press release today. Phoenix also formally confirmed the signing of Frank Jackson, who reportedly inked a non-guaranteed contract with the team.

Luwawu-Cabarrot averaged 4.4 points and 1.6 rebounds in 13.2 minutes per game with the Hawks last season. The terms of his agreement with Phoenix are unknown, but the 24-year-old carries six years of NBA experience.

Before joining Atlanta, Luwawu-Cabarrot made stops with the Sixers, Thunder, Bulls and Nets. He was drafted No. 24 overall by Philadelphia in 2016 after playing four professional seasons in France and Serbia.

Luwawu-Cabarrot recently helped France to a silver-medal finish at EuroBasket 2022. Phoenix’s roster now stands at 18 players, which includes two-way players Duane Washington Jr. and Ish Wainright.

More Than 30 NBA Players On Track To Suit Up For EuroBasket

The first EuroBasket tournament in five years will tip off in two weeks and there are currently 34 NBA players on track to participate in the event, representing 17 different countries, according to Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops.net.

EuroBasket is a 24-team international basketball competition also known as the European Basketball Championship. It historically took place every two years, but that gap was recently adjusted to four years, emulating the FIBA World Cup schedule.

The last EuroBasket tournament was played in 2017 — the next one had been scheduled for 2021, but was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics. As a result, after being played every two years since 1947, it has now been five years since the last EuroBasket tournament, easily the longest layoff since World War II.

It’s possible that some NBA players will be cut from their teams’ rosters or will have to drop out due to injuries or personal reasons before the event begins on September 1, but in general enthusiasm to participate in the long-awaited event appears high.

Here’s the list of NBAers currently set to play in EuroBasket, per Eurohoops:

There are also multiple NBA free agents on EuroBasket rosters, including French swingman Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and German guard Dennis Schröder.

A number of young NBA players, such as 2022 draftees Jeremy Sochan and Nikola Jovic, have dropped out to focus on getting ready for the 2022/23 season, while others, including Bogdan Bogdanovic (Serbia) and Frank Ntilikina (France), were ruled out due to injuries.

Round robin play will begin on September 1, with each team facing the other five clubs in its group once. The top four teams in each group will advance to a 16-team bracket that begins on September 10. The final will take place on September 18, just over a week before NBA training camps get underway.

Hawks Notes: Offseason Priorities, Draft Workouts, More

Appearing on 92.9 The Game in Atlanta, Hawks president of basketball operations Travis Schlenk said, unprompted, that the front office is committed this offseason to making roster changes in an attempt to improve the team after standing relatively pat a year ago.

“We made the decision last year to kind of run the same group back and we probably should’ve tried to upgrade as opposed to stay status quo,” Schlenk said. “This year, the way the season ended and played out, we’re certainly going to try to upgrade the roster moving forward into next season.”

Asked specifically about how much turnover the Hawks’ roster could experience, Schlenk suggested the club won’t be looking to re-sign all of its free agents.

“We have some guys that are free agents, we have some guys that have contract situations. We’ve got a guy eligible for a contract extension,” Schlenk said. “All that stuff plays into it. Every year, the only thing that’s really consistent in this league is change, so we anticipate that there will be some change, certainly with some of our free agents as we look to upgrade our roster.”

Delon Wright, Lou Williams, Gorgui Dieng, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Kevin Knox, and Skylar Mays will be free agents this offseason, while Danilo Gallinari has a small partial guarantee on his salary for 2022/23 and De’Andre Hunter will be eligible for a rookie scale extension.

Here’s more on the Hawks:

  • Schlenk said during his appearance on 92.9 The Game that the Hawks’ defense was a “big letdown” in 2021/22 and will be an area the club looks to address in the offseason. Schlenk added that having another reliable secondary ball-handler and shot creator to relieve the pressure on Trae Young will be a priority.
  • The Hawks announced in a press release that they’ve brought in 12 prospects this week, hosting six for a group workout on Monday and another half-dozen on Wednesday. Justin Bean (Utah State), Darius Days (LSU), Michael Devoe (Georgia Tech), Gaige Prim (Missouri State), Will Richardson (Oregon), and Cole Swider (Syracuse) were in earlier this week, while Keve Aluma (Virginia Tech), Garrison Brooks (Mississippi State), Jamal Cain (Oakland), Keon Ellis (Alabama), Allen Flanigan (Auburn), and Jaden Shackelford (Alabama) were part of today’s pre-draft workout.
  • Chris Kirschner of The Athletic examines 10 offseason questions facing the Hawks, including whether team owner Tony Ressler is willing to go into luxury-tax territory, whether the team can attract a second star, and what level of pressure head coach Nate McMillan is under.

Five More Players Receive Salary Guarantees

The Hawks are hanging onto forward Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, guaranteeing his salary for the rest of the 2021/22 season, reports Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). The decision assures Luwawu-Cabarrot of his full $1,939,350 salary, which counts against Atlanta’s cap for $1,669,178.

After two seasons in Brooklyn, Luwawu-Cabarrot signed a one-year, minimum-salary deal with the Hawks in September. He has appeared in 24 games so far, averaging 4.5 PPG and 1.5 RPG on .387/.381/.813 shooting in 13.9 minutes per contest. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2022.

Here are more updates on salary guarantees:

  • According to Scotto (via Twitter), Pacers forward Oshae Brissett has survived today’s salary guarantee deadline and is assured of receiving his $1,701,593 salary. Brissett has emerged as a three-and-D piece in Indiana’s rotation since joining the team last April, registering 8.2 PPG and 4.5 RPG with a .399 3PT% in 49 total games (20.7 MPG) across parts of two seasons. The club holds a $1.85MM option on him for next season.
  • The Cavaliers are retaining center Ed Davis and guaranteeing his salary, tweets Scotto. Davis isn’t playing much for Cleveland, logging just 112 total minutes across 12 games so far, but he’s considered a strong veteran presence in the locker room. His salary is $2,641,691, while his cap hit is $1,669,178.
  • The Bucks are guaranteeing Wesley Matthews‘ salary for 2021/22, tweets Eric Nehm of The Athletic. Milwaukee decided to move on from DeMarcus Cousins this week, but will hang onto Matthews, who signed a minimum-salary contract with the team last month. Matthews is on the books for a $1,237,494 cap hit and is earning a $1,958,495 salary.
  • Timberwolves wing Jaylen Nowell has received a rest-of-season guarantee, according to Dane Moore of Blue Wire Pods (Twitter link). Nowell, whose $1,782,621 salary and equivalent cap hit are now locked in, is averaging 7.5 PPG, 1.9 RPG, and 1.9 APG in 24 games (13.8 MPG) for Minnesota so far this season. The Wolves will have to make a decision this summer on his $1.93MM team option for 2022/23.

COVID-19 Updates: Doncic, SGA, Robinson, Hawks, Nuggets, More

Mavericks star Luka Doncic has cleared the league’s health and safety protocols, sources tell Marc Stein (Twitter link). Doncic, who hasn’t played since December 10, missed a combined 10 games due to a left ankle injury and his time in the protocols. He’s expected to meet his teammates in Oklahoma City and may return to the court on Sunday.

Tim Hardaway Jr. and Maxi Kleber may also be able to exit the protocols in time for Sunday’s game, tweets Tim MacMahon of ESPN. Dallas, which has five other players still in protocols, managed to go 5-5 without Doncic and is holding onto eighth place in the Western Conference.

Here are more updates on players entering and exiting the protocols: