Travis Leslie's 10-day contract with the Jazz will expire tonight, and with Utah off today, Leslie's time with the club is essentially over. According to the team's official Twitter account, the Jazz have decided not to re-sign Leslie to a second 10-day deal.
Leslie, 22, didn't see any game action with the Jazz during his brief stint with the team, and hasn't appeared in a regular-season contest since last March with the Clippers. The 6'4" guard spent most of this season with the Santa Cruz Warriors, averaging 16.1 PPG and 7.4 RPG while shooting 51.5% from the floor in 28 games for Golden State's D-League affiliate.
The Jazz had been carrying 15 players prior to signing Leslie, releasing Raja Bell to make room. When Leslie's deal expires overnight, Utah will open up that 15th spot again, so an additional roster move won't be necessary if the club decides to add another player in Leslie's place.
SBNation's Tom Ziller looks at Basketball-Reference statistics to examine players who've significantly outperformed their contracts this season. Not surprisingly, Chandler Parsons, in the middle of a four-year, $3.63MM contract that runs through 2015, rates highly. Many of the other players Ziller mentions are either minimum-salary signees or former first-round picks still on their rookie-scale deals. There's more on a few players who could be the next to sign rookie contracts and other news from around the Association, as we share here:
A few notes from around the NBA's Northwest Division:
MONDAY, 7:44am: The Jazz officially finalized Leslie's 10-day deal yesterday after releasing Bell, announcing the signing in a press release.
FRIDAY, 10:56pm: It appears Raja Bell will indeed be waived in order to make room for Leslie, Kennedy tweets, adding that Leslie will join the Jazz tomorrow. Earlier tonight, Bell's agent, Herb Rudoy, told Bill Oram of The Salt Lake Tribune that he has yet to hear anything from the Jazz about his client.
1:49pm: It's already been a busy day for D-League call-ups, with Terrel Harris receiving a 10-day deal from the Hornets, Maalik Wayns signing a 10-day contract with the Clippers, and Malcolm Thomas expected to finalize a 10-day contract of his own with the Warriors. The Jazz will get in on the action as well, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, who tweets that Utah is expected to sign Travis Leslie to a 10-day deal. Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld first tweeted word of Leslie's agreement.
Leslie, 22, appeared in 10 games for the Clippers last season, but hasn't played in the NBA this year. The 6'4" guard has spent the season with the Santa Cruz Warriors, averaging 16.1 PPG and 7.4 RPG while shooting 51.5% from the floor in 28 games for Golden State's D-League affiliate.
The Jazz currently have a full roster of 15 players, so the club will have to release a player to clear a spot for Leslie. The most likely candidate to go is Raja Bell, who is on an expiring contract and hasn't played for the Jazz this season. If Bell is released, another team could pick him up, but he wouldn't be eligible to play in the postseason with a new club.
Eddie Sefko of SportsDayDFW writes that the Mavericks are now in the market for adding a player after severing ties with guard Dominique Jones. Sefko comprises a list including Mike Bibby, Michael Redd, Earl Boykins, and Gilbert Arenas as available veterans who could be worth a look. Among the D-League hopefuls who could warrant an opportunity, Justin Dentmon, Chris Wright, or Sean Singletary come to mind. Sefko rules out the chances of Delonte West making a return to Dallas, citing that the team wouldn't want to reconnect after how badly things ended with him last year. You can find more of tonight's miscellaneous news and notes below:
The NBA D-League held its annual draft on Friday. Former Celtics forward JaJuan Johnson, traded to the Rockets this summer and waived during training camp, was drafted first overall by the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
Other players with NBA experience taken in the first round include former Lakers guard Andrew Goudelock, former Wizards guard Shelvin Mack, and former Clippers guard Travis Leslie.
Be sure to check out the official D-League site for the complete draft recap.
The Clippers have waived guard Travis Leslie, trimming their roster to 14, reports Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). The team will be on the hook for the one-year veteran's guaranteed minimum salary of $762,195. They could have saved some of that money by waiving him by August 1st, when the deal included only a partial guarantee of $250K for this season, but opted to bring him to training camp instead.
Leslie, whom the Clippers drafted 47th overall in 2011, saw action in just 10 games for the team last season, averaging 1.4 points in 4.5 minutes. The 6'4" University of Georgia product got in just as many games for the Bakersfield Jam, the Clippers' D-League affiliate, putting up 10.2 PPG in 20.4 MPG. He appeared in four of L.A.'s preseason contests this year, putting up 3.0 PPG in 8.2 MPG.
The move frees up a roster spot, though the Clippers can only sign someone to the minimum salary after using their full mid-level exception on Jamal Crawford and their bi-annual exception on Grant Hill over the summer. That would seem to put them out of the running to re-sign Kenyon Martin, who's reportedly seeking a deal around $3MM.
We'll track today's D-League and international news here, with the latest up top:
We'll track the day's notable international and D-League-related transactions here:
A day after losing to the Lakers, the Celtics return to the Staples Center to face the Clippers and try earn one win in Los Angeles. That contest figures to be the highlight of an evening schedule that also includes the Bobcats and Hornets squaring off in a battle of Conference cellar-dwellers. While we wait for the first of tonight's seven games to tip off, let's round up a few odds and ends:
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