Xavier Silas

International Notes: Caboclo, Silas, Hezonja, Embiid

Free agent power forward Bruno Caboclo, most recently with the Celtics, has signed with the NBA G League’s Mexico City Capitanes, a source informs Jared Weiss of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Caboclo, 27, was initially drafted with the No. 20 pick in the 2014 draft by the Raptors. From 2014-21, the 6’9″ big man split his time between the Raptors, Kings, Grizzlies, and Rockets, plus their respective G League teams. He joined Brazilian team São Paulo FC for the 2021/22 season. Following a 2022 Summer League stint with the Jazz, he joined the Celtics on a training camp deal, before being released late last month.

Caboclo was always a tantalizing athlete, thanks in part to his raw athleticism and 7’7″ wingspan. He failed to make an impact at the NBA level. Across 105 games, Caboclo holds averages of 4.2 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 0.7 APG and 0.6 BPG in 12.3 MPG.

There’s more basketball news from beyond the NBA:

  • Former NBA pro and, more recently, G League assistant coach Xavier Silas will make his debut as a head coach for Puerto Rican club the Guaynabo Mets, writes Spencer Davies of Basketball News. “It’s a team that has had a really good history,” Silas told Davies. “They went to the championship not last year, but the year before, so they have a really nice base and foundation of what they’re trying to do. The owners [Marc Grossman and Mark Linder], everybody has been super nice and helpful with everything, so I think it’s gonna be a good situation.” In the NBAGL, Silas has enjoyed stints with the Delaware Blue Coats and the Motor City Cruise.
  • 2015 lottery pick Mario Hezonja hasn’t closed the door on an NBA comeback, though for now he is enjoying his time with Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid, per Alex Madrid of Eurohoops. “I have a lot of things to do in Europe and well, in the future, if something happens we’ll see,” Hezonja said. “But really, I want to be here as long as I can, I want to earn a lot and I am happy.” After being selected with the fifth pick in 2015 by the Magic, Hezonja spent five seasons in the NBA, splitting his time between Orlando, the Knicks and the Trail Blazers, before returning overseas, where he has since suited up for clubs in Greece, Russia, and now Spain, where he also got his professional start prior to his NBA journey. Prior to being drafted stateside, the 6’8″ forward played in Barcelona from 2012-2015.
  • Cameroon-born Sixers All-NBA center Joel Embiid can suit up for either France or the U.S. in the 2024 Paris Olympics, as he possesses citizenship in both countries. French national team coach Vincent Collet told Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press that he hopes the seven-foot big man will choose his club. All-NBA Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert currently mans the middle for the French national team. “Now he has both nationalities, and he has to choose one basketball nationality, which is not the same,” Collet said. “So, that is a choice. Nobody can do anything to change it.”

Eastern Notes: Oladipo, Sixers, Celtics

There is still no timetable for when Victor Oladipo will return to the court. Oladipo, who ruptured his quad tendon back in January, continues to make progress and the Pacers are encouraged by his rehab.

“He’s not playing live, but he’s moving. He’s in a good position mentally,” head coach Nate McMillan said. “He feels that everything is going well. I like what I see with him. … He’s doing great. He’s not doing any live contact, still in that rehab stage of working with the trainers.

“I just know [opening night on October 23] he probably won’t be there. The time frame, we have no idea of when he will return.”

Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:

  • Romeo Langford has been medically cleared to play, Ben Stinar of Amico Hoops hears (Twitter link). The Celtics rookie had thumb surgery in April.
  • Xavier Silas has joined the Delaware Blue Coats’ coaching staff, Kyle Neubeck of The Philly Voice reports (Twitter link). Silas briefly played for the Sixers back in 2011.
  • Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports examines the Celtics‘ most intriguing storylines heading into training camp. Gordon Hayward has worked hard all offseason and Forsberg wonders if the veteran wing will look much better than he did last season.

2019 NBA G League Expansion Draft Results

The NBA G League conducted its 2019 expansion draft on Wednesday, allowing the latest iteration of the Erie BayHawks to acquire the rights to up to 14 players.

Erie has been a G League mainstay in recent years. However, after serving as the affiliate for the Atlanta Hawks last season, the BayHawks were relocated to College Park and renamed the Skyhawks. As such, the Erie BayHawks team that participated in today’s expansion draft is technically a new G League franchise — it’ll be the affiliate for the Pelicans in 2019/20.

[RELATED: NBA G League Affiliations For 2019/20 Season]

As Adam Johnson of 2 Ways & 10 Days recently outlined, each of the G League’s other 27 teams were permitted to protect the rights for up to 12 players. Although the BayHawks could select up to 14 players in the expansion draft, they weren’t permitted to acquire more than two players from any one team.

Here are the 14 players whose rights were acquired by New Orleans’ G League affiliate, with each player’s previous NBAGL team noted in parentheses:

  1. Taylor Braun (South Bay Lakers)
  2. Trey Burke (Westchester Knicks)
  3. Quinton Chievous (Capital City Go-Go)
  4. Xavier Gibson (Sioux Falls Skyforce)
  5. Isaac Hamilton (Canton Charge)
  6. Isaiah Hartenstein (Grande Valley Vipers)
  7. Derrick Jones Jr. (Northern Arizona Suns)
  8. Scottie Lindsey (Grand Rapids Drive)
  9. Erik McCree (Lakeland Magic)
  10. Codi Miller-McIntyre (College Park Skyhawks)
  11. Xavier Silas (Iowa Wolves)
  12. Matt Williams Jr. (Grand Rapids Drive)
  13. Kyle Wiltjer (Canton Charge)
  14. Michael Young (Northern Arizona Suns)

Not all of the players whose rights the BayHawks acquired today will actually suit up for the team. In fact, many won’t.

Multiple players selected by Erie – Burke, Hartenstein, and Jones – are currently under contract with NBA teams and won’t be available to the BayHawks as long as they remain on those NBA deals. Other players will spend the 2019/20 season playing overseas.

However, if any of the players selected in today’s expansion draft sign contracts to play in the G League in ’19/20, the BayHawks will have their rights. Erie will hold each of these 14 players’ NBAGL rights for the next two seasons.

Nuggets Waive Donald Sloan, Xavier Silas

11:17pm: The Nuggets have confirmed Sloan’s release and also announced that they’ve waived Xavier Silas too (Twitter link). The moves reduce Denver’s roster to 15 players on standard contracts and a pair on two-way deals, so the club is at the regular season roster limit.

8:51pm: The Nuggets have waived guard Donald Sloan, Hoops Rumors’ JD Shaw tweets.

The move reduces Denver’s camp roster to 18 players. It waived forward Emanuel Terry earlier this week.

Sloan, 30, has played more than 200 regular season games over the course of his career, but hasn’t appeared in an NBA regular-season contest since 2015/16, when he saw action in 61 games for the Nets.

Last season, he averaged 18.8 PPG, 5.5 APG, and 4.2 RPG in 24 games (34.6 MPG) for the Texas Legends, Dallas’ G League affiliate, before heading to China for a third stint with the Guangdong Southern Tigers.

Nuggets Sign Xavier Silas To Camp Deal

SEPTEMBER 22: The Nuggets officially signed Silas to a contract, according to the RealGM transactions log.

SEPTEMBER 17: Guard Xavier Silas has agreed to a training camp contract with the Nuggets, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.

Silas, 30, made a couple of cameo appearances with the Celtics late last season after signing a 10-day contract.

The 6’5” shooting guard also played two games with the Sixers during the 2011/12 season. He spent most of last season with Northern Arizona in the G League, averaging 18.4 points in 43 games. Over the past five seasons, Silas has been with several G League teams and played overseas in Israel, Greece, Germany, Argentina and China. He also played with the Wizards during their 2014 training camp but didn’t make the opening-night roster.

Silas’ chances of making Denver’s opening-night roster are slim, considering the Nuggets already have 15 players with guaranteed deals. The Nuggets have plenty of options at the wing spots, including Gary Harris, Malik Beasley, Will Barton, Tyler Lydon, Torrey Craig, Jarred Vanderbilt, Emanuel Terry, first-round pick Michael Porter Jr. and two-way player DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell.

Nets Notes: FA Mini-Camp, RFA Market, LeVert

The Nets hosted a three-day mini-camp this week for veteran free agents, according to Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype (Twitter link), who identifies former Thunder guard Semaj Christon and 2016 first-round pick Brice Johnson as a pair of the participants.

Per Kennedy (Twitter link), other players with previous NBA experience who took part in Brooklyn’s mini-camp include Xavier Silas, Josh Gray, Naz Mitrou-Long, Jarrod Uthoff, and Byron Mullens. Walt Lemon Jr., who saw a little action with the Pelicans this season, was also in attendance, tweets NetsDaily.

While the Nets may not end up adding any of those players to their roster for next season, the mini-camp gives the club a chance to get a closer look at some players who might have flown under-the-radar, and perhaps some candidates for two-way contracts next season.

Here’s more on the Nets:

  • The Nets have been the NBA’s most active club in restricted free agency over the past two years, with little success. The club signed Allen Crabbe, Tyler Johnson, Donatas Motiejunas, and Otto Porter to offer sheets, but saw all four of those offers matched at the time (Crabbe was later traded to Brooklyn). With that recent history in mind, NetsDaily explores whether the club will foray into the RFA market again in 2018, with Aaron Gordon looming as a possible target.
  • The first draft pick of the Sean Marks era in Brooklyn, Caris LeVert showed impressive potential and versatility during his second NBA season in 2017/18, writes Michael Scotto of The Athletic. LeVert, who could become a long-term starter for the Nets, won’t be eligible for restricted free agency until 2020.
  • Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov is on the wrong end of a lawsuit in New York State Court, as Brian Lewis of The New York Post details. Prokhorov is being counter-sued by Grigory Rodchenkov, the whistle-blower who exposed Russian cheating in the 2014 Olympics, for backing a libel lawsuit that Rodchenkov viewed as an intimidation tactic.

Celtics Sign Jonathan Gibson

APRIL 6: The Celtics have officially signed Gibson, the team confirmed today in a press release. Boston’s announcement doesn’t mention Silas, but the assumption is that his 10-day deal was terminated a day early in order to accommodate the signing of Gibson.

APRIL 5: The Celtics will be signing free agent point guard Jonathan Gibson to a rest-of-season contract, according to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports.

Gibson, who appeared in 17 games for the Mavericks during the 2016/17 season, has otherwise spent his professional career playing for a variety of international teams. Since going undrafted in 2010, Gibson has made stops in Turkey, Israel, Italy, Iran, and China.

In 2017/18, the former New Mexico State standout appeared in 38 Chinese League games for Qingdao, averaging 33.7 PPG with 6.8 RPG and 4.7 APG.

Gibson will be a much-needed backcourt addition for a Celtics team that will be without Kyrie Irving for the rest of the season. Marcus Smart also remains sidelined with a thumb injury, while Shane Larkin has missed Boston’s last two games with an illness and Terry Rozier has been dealing with an ankle issue.

[RELATED: Kyrie Irving to miss playoffs]

The Celtics currently have a full roster, with Xavier Silas serving as the team’s 16th man via a hardship exception. According to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (Twitter link), Gibson will replace Silas on the roster. Silas’ 10-day deal had been set to expire on Friday night, but the team could opt to terminate it before it expires in order to sign Gibson — Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald suggests (via Twitter) that the Gibson signing won’t become official until Friday at the earliest.

Boston’s hardship exception, which allows the club to carry a 16th man, won’t extend into the playoffs. As such, Gibson won’t be postseason-eligible unless the C’s cut another player, which seems unlikely.

Celtics Notes: Irving, Brown, Silas, Stevens

The surgical procedure that Kyrie Irving had on his knee last week may not be the last one of his career, relays A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston. The operation was performed to remove a tension wire that was causing irritation. It was inserted after Irving fractured his patella during the 2015 NBA Finals.

“We tried to do a minimal amount of surgery at this moment,” Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said on 98.5 the Sports Hub. “And it might require some more. We don’t know any of that. I don’t know. … When I say it shouldn’t affect his career, I’m saying his knee is very structurally sound. It isn’t like a long-term thing. There could still be some challenges.”

Ainge added that Celtics didn’t discuss the possibility of surgery for their point guard until he started experiencing discomfort earlier this month. He is projected to be sidelined for three to six weeks.

There’s more today out of Boston:

  • Jaylen Brown was relieved to get back on the court this week after missing six games with a concussion, Blakely writes in a separate story. Brown was sidelined after landing hard on a dunk in a March 8 game. “I was tired of sitting down,” he said. “I just wanted to play, get ready for the playoffs. This is what it is about. Anytime I’m out there I feel happiness.”
  • Thirty-year-old guard Xavier Silas never gave up on his NBA dream while playing on a series of G League and overseas contracts, relays Mark D’Amico of NBA.com. Silas had just wrapped up his latest G League season with Northern Arizona when he learned that the Celtics were offering him a 10-day contract. “I think with me being older, I think I understand a little bit that it’s not about trying to do too much, or trying to make a big bang or a big splash,” Silas said. “It’s just, do what I’m supposed to do, and helping out the team, even if it’s little increments here and there.”
  • Tim Cato of SB Nation examines how the Celtics are able to keep winning with so many key players sidelined. Last night’s comeback in Utah was the latest example as Boston wrapped up a 4-0 road trip with little-used Guerschon Yabusele making his second start of the season. Cato contends the performance makes Brad Stevens a strong contender for Coach of the Year.

Xavier Silas Signs 10-Day Deal With Celtics

The Celtics have signed Xavier Silas to a 10-day contract, the team announced on its website.

The 30-year-old shooting guard is returning to the NBA for the first time since 2012, when he played two games for the Sixers. He spent this season with Northern Arizona in the G League, averaging 18.4 points in 43 games. Over the past five seasons, Silas has been with several G League teams and played overseas in Israel, Greece, Germany, Argentina and China. He was with the Wizards in training camp in 2014, but was unable to earn a roster spot.

Silas played in the BIG3 league last summer, being drafted fourth overall by Tri-State and later traded to the Ball Hogs.

The Celtics are using a hardship exception to sign Silas, so another roster move won’t be necessary. Boston thought it had a 10-day deal with Sean Kilpatrick last week, but he wound up signing a multiyear contract with the Bulls.

Celtics To Sign Xavier Silas To 10-Day Deal

The Celtics will sign G League guard Xavier Silas to a 10-day contract, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.

Silas, 30, has not played in the NBA since the 2011/12 season, when he made a two-game cameo with the Sixers. The 6’5″ guard has played 40-plus games for the G League’s Northern Arizona Suns the last two years. In 43 games this season, he averaged 18.4 PPG and 4.1 RPG.

Boston was granted a roster hardship exception to sign another player due to a high volume of injuries. To qualify for the exemption, a team must have at least four players who have missed three consecutive games and are deemed likely to be out for an additional two weeks.

The team is currently without Gordon Hayward (dislocated left ankle), Daniel Theis (torn left meniscus), Marcus Smart (right thumb), and Kyrie Irving (left knee).

The Celtics had agreed to a 10-day deal with Sean Kilpatrick, but he received a better offer from the Bulls, with whom he signed a 10-day deal earlier today.