Blazers Invite Dee Bost To Training Camp
Dee Bost was with the Trail Blazers summer league team a year ago, but he didn't get a training camp invitation last fall and wasn't with Portland's summer league squad this year. Nonetheless, he remained on the team's radar, and he's agreed to join the Trail Blazers in training camp this fall, tweets Jared Zwerling of ESPNNewYork.com.
Bost went undrafted in 2012 after four years at Mississippi State, where the 6'2" point guard put up 15.8 points, 5.6 assists, and 3.0 turnovers per game as a senior. He spent last season playing in Montenegro, and his numbers dipped to 8.3 PPG, 1.8 APG and 1.3 turnovers in 21.5 minutes per contest. He wasn't too statistically impressive in summer league last year, but he did knock down 45.5% of his three-point attempts across a small sample size.
Like most training camp invitees, Bost will probably receive a "summer contract," or a non-guaranteed minimum-salary arrangement that would cover just 2013/14 if he were to make the regular season roster. Teams can carry as many as 20 players into training camp, which gives fringe prospects like Bost a chance.
Eastern Notes: Price, Magic, Antic, Raptors, C’s
Ronnie Price's minimum-salary contract with the Magic was originally reported as a one-year deal, but in his latest update of the team's books at ShamSports.com, Mark Deeks notes that Price will actually be locked up for two years. The second season will be non-guaranteed, with Orlando having the chance to avoid Price's cap hit if he's released on or before July 10th, 2014. Here are more Magic notes, more contract details from Deeks, and more items from around the Eastern Conference:
- While it's been a fairly quiet offseason for the Magic, the team still needs to resolve a few outstanding issues, says Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. Among Robbins' tidbits: The team is making sure there are no possible trades involving Hedo Turkoglu and Al Harrington before getting serious about buyouts; the club's $17.8MM Dwight Howard trade exception will likely go unused; and the Magic were never as interested in Eric Bledsoe as various reports suggested.
- Pero Antic's contract with the Hawks is worth a guaranteed $1.2MM for 2013/14 and a non-guaranteed $1.25MM in '14/15, notes Deeks.
- In his latest update of the Raptors' salaries, Deeks points out that the second and third years of Quentin Richardson's new contract with Toronto will become guaranteed if he's not waived by January 1st, 2014. In other words, there's no chance that Richardson sticks on the team's roster all season. The Raps will likely release the veteran prior to opening night.
- J. Michael of CSNWashington.com explores a few possible options for the Wizards' 15th roster spot.
- New Celtics head coach Brad Stevens appeared on WEEI's Green Street podcast, and provided plenty of interesting quotes on a variety of Celtics-related topics. Ben Rohrbach of WEEI.com passes along the highlights.
Magic To Pick Up Options On Four Players
The Magic will exercise their 2014/15 options on Maurice Harkless, Andrew Nicholson, Nikola Vucevic, and Tobias Harris, according to Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (via Twitter). For Harkless and Nicholson, the options are for their third years, while for Vucevic and Harris, they're fourth-year options.
Given the promise shown by Orlando's young players on rookie-scale contracts, none of these decisions comes as any surprise, and the moves may not become official for a while. The deadline to exercise team options on rookie-scale contracts is October 31st, so the Magic aren't in any rush. Still, Robbins says the moves could become formally completed prior to October 1st.
Picking up all four options will ensure that Vucevic (due $2.75MM in 2014/15), Harris ($2.38MM), Harkless ($1.89MM), and Nicholson ($1.55MM) will all remain under contract until at least the summer of 2015. In the 2014 offseason, the Magic will face decisions on fourth-year options for Harkless and Nicholson, and will have the opportunity to sign Vucevic and Harris to contract extensions.
Bucks Sign Miroslav Raduljica
3:46pm: Gardner is hearing that Raduljica's deal is for $3MM over two guaranteed seasons, with a third non-guaranteed year included as well (Twitter link).
12:01pm: A day after releasing one international big man, the Bucks have signed another. The team announced today (via Twitter) that it has signed Serbian free agent Miroslav Raduljica to a contract. According to Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (via Twitter), it'll be a two-year deal.
Raduljica, 25, played last season for Ukraine's Azovmash Mariupol, averaging 14.2 PPG and 5.9 RPG in 53 Ukranian League contests, to go with 61.6% shooting from the floor. The seven-footer has also played professionally in Serbia, Turkey, and Germany.
Terms of the agreement aren't known, but the Bucks still have a solid chunk of cap space, so they'd be able to ink Radjuljica to a deal worth more than the minimum.
Mavericks Sign Wayne Ellington
JULY 26TH: The Mavericks have finally made the deal with Ellington official, the team announced today in a press release.
JULY 9TH: Wayne Ellington has reached an agreement on a two-year, $5MM contract with the Mavericks, according to Yahoo! NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski.
His fourth team in five seasons, Ellington spent half of last year with the Grizzlies before getting traded to the Cavaliers. While in Cleveland, Ellington saw the most playing time of his career, running for 25.9MPG and averaging 10.4PPG.
With news earlier in the night that Mavericks free agent Anthony Morrow had signed a two-year deal with the Pelicans, it's probable that Dallas views Ellington as a replacement from the viewpoint that he can also shoot threes while providing more versatility with the ball.
Nuggets Sign Nate Robinson
FRIDAY, 3:28pm: The Nuggets have officially signed Robinson, the team announced today in a press release.
MONDAY, 2:47pm: The second year of Robinson's deal will be a player option, according to Amick. That will give the veteran point guard the chance to opt out in search of a larger or longer-term contract next summer.
2:26pm: The Nuggets and Nate Robinson have reached a contract agreement, reports Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post. According to Hochman, Robinson will ink a two-year deal with the Nuggets. Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports and Sam Amick of USA Today reported earlier this afternoon that the two sides were moving toward an agreement.
According to Amick's previous update, the Nuggets were offering Robinson the bi-annual exception, since the team no longer has its mid-level exception, having used it to sign J.J. Hickson. Assuming Robinson signs for the full value of the BAE for two years, his deal would be worth about $2.02MM for the coming season, and $4.12MM in total.
Robinson appeared in all 82 regular season games for the Bulls last year, averaging 13.1 PPG and 4.4 APG in just 25.4 minutes per contest, good for a 17.4 PER. The Aaron Goodwin client also had some memorable performances in the playoffs, including scoring 34 points in a triple-overtime Bulls win against the Nets.
Once Robinson is locked up, the Nuggets will have three quality point guards on the roster, with Ty Lawson and Andre Miller also on board. At least one report earlier this month suggested the Nuggets were exploring trade options for Miller, so perhaps signing Robinson means the team will revisit that possibility.
International Notes: Celtics, Calathes, Goudelock
After publishing a pair of posts yesterday rounding up the latest international updates on current, past, or future NBA players, we have a few more items of note today, including a follow-up on yesterday's Colton Iverson report. Here are this afternoon's international notes:
- There were conflicting reports yesterday on whether or not Iverson was heading overseas, but Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe writes that the Celtics second-rounder has agreed to a deal with Besiktas of the Turkish League. It's a two-year contract with an NBA out after the first season, says Washburn.
- According to a report from RSport.ru (English translation via Sportando), Nick Calathes has informed Lokomotiv Kuban that he would like to come to the NBA for the 2013/14 season. The Russian club still hopes to hang on to Calathes, who would need to be bought out of his deal in order to join the Grizzlies.
- Ex-Laker Andrew Goudelock has signed a one-year contract with Russian club Unics Kazan, the team announced today (Twitter link). Goudelock was last season's D-League MVP and played well for the Bulls in this year's Summer League, so it seemed as if there would have been NBA opportunities available for him. However, according to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (via Twitter), Goudelock had yet to receive a guaranteed contract offer from an NBA team, prompting him to head overseas.
Potential Destinations For Gustavo Ayon
Before Gustavo Ayon's 2013/14 contract could become fully guaranteed yesterday, the Bucks made a somewhat surprising decision, electing to release him and avoid paying his modest $1.5MM salary. Ayon isn't a star, or even a starter, but he has size (6'10") and has exhibited an ability to be productive and efficient (15.1 PER) in limited playing time in his first two NBA seasons. As ESPN.com's Kevin Pelton tweeted last night, the 25-year-old would make a good, cheap fourth or fifth big man for many teams around the league.
Ayon is currently on waivers, set to become a free agent this weekend if he goes unclaimed. Considering we recently saw promising big man Bernard James clear waivers without any teams placing a claim, it's certainly not a lock that any club claims Ayon — particularly since his $1.5MM salary would be fully guaranteed for a team that grabbed him off waivers.
Still, let's assume that a number of teams are at least mulling the possibility of placing a claim, if not entirely committed to the move quite yet. Ayon isn't on a minimum-salary contract, which means not every NBA team is able to submit a claim. As we note in our glossary entry on the waiver process, only teams with at least $1.5MM in cap space or a traded player exception worth $1.5MM+ are eligible to claim Ayon.
Keeping those criteria in mind, and recalling that if two or more teams place a claim, the club with the worst record last season gets first priority, here are the teams who could claim Ayon, in order of priority:
- Charlotte Bobcats: Renouncing Gerald Henderson would be necessary to place a claim on Ayon, so the Bobcats probably won't be in the mix.
- Cleveland Cavaliers: Like the Bobcats, the Cavs would have to make a corresponding move (waiving C.J. Miles' non-guaranteed contract) to create the necessary room for Ayon, so they're not a likely suitor.
- Philadelphia 76ers: The 76ers still appear to have more than $11MM in cap room, per Mark Deeks of ShamSports.
- Utah Jazz: Within the same piece, Deeks notes that the Jazz should still be about $2.4MM below the cap, even without making additional cap-clearing moves.
- Atlanta Hawks: The Hawks have about $1.8MM in space, according to Deeks, and could create more by waiving their non-guaranteed players. That figure doesn't take into account Pero Antic's new deal with the team though.
- Golden State Warriors: Having created a pair trade exceptions in their three-way deal with the Nuggets and Jazz, the Warriors could use the smaller of the two ($4MM) to claim Ayon.
- Los Angeles Clippers: The Clippers created a TPE worth Eric Bledsoe's salary (about $2.6MM) in the trade that sent him to the Suns.
- Memphis Grizzlies: The Grizzlies have stockpiled a number of TPEs, but the $2.08MM exception created in last January's deal with the Cavs would make the most sense for claiming Ayon.
- Denver Nuggets: In the aforementioned three-way deal with Golden State and Utah, the Nuggets created a trade exception worth nearly $10MM.
- Oklahoma City Thunder: OKC has a pair of TPEs large enough to absorb Ayon — one was created when they moved Eric Maynor, while the more recent one came as a result of signing-and-trading Kevin Martin.
Even though 10 teams can technically place a waiver claim on Ayon, there's no guarantee that any of them actually will. Pelton thinks the Sixers, Jazz, Warriors, and Clippers represent the likeliest candidates for a claim, and I agree with him.
Philadelphia and Utah have room to add salary (in the Sixers' case, they need to add salary to reach the cap floor) and are heading into rebuilding years, which would allow them to take a long look at Ayon. Meanwhile, the Warriors and Clippers could each use one more big man, and Ayon's inexpensive salary wouldn't take Golden State into tax territory.
If Ayon goes unclaimed, I imagine he'd strongly consider returning overseas, since he'd at least have a chance to earn more playing time there. Don't be surprised to see one of the 10 NBA teams above take a shot on him though.
This post originally listed the Magic as a team eligible to claim Ayon, but because Orlando traded him in February, the club can't claim or re-sign him until the one-year anniversary of the deal.
Grizzlies Sign Jamaal Franklin
FRIDAY, 12:07pm: The Grizzlies have officially signed Franklin, the team announced today in a press release.
THURSDAY, 4:12pm: The Grizzlies have reached agreement with Jamaal Franklin on a three-year deal, according to Sam Amick of USA Today (on Twitter). The third year of the deal will be a team option.
Memphis drafted the former San Diego State swingman with the 41st overall pick last month. The 22-year-old also drew interest from the Bulls, Knicks, Clippers, and Hawks and was thought by some to be a late-first round talent. In his final collegiate season, Franklin averaged 17 PPG, 9.5 RPG, and 3.3 APG.
Mavericks Re-Sign Bernard James
JULY 26TH: The Mavericks have officially re-signed James, the team announced today in a press release.
JULY 22ND: Having cleared waivers yesterday after being released by the Mavericks last week, Bernard James is expected to return to Dallas, according to ESPN.com's Marc Stein (via Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com).
The Mavericks had previously pushed back James' contract guarantee date in hopes of keeping him on the roster, but ultimately needed to waive him to clear about $300K in cap room to help sign Monta Ellis. James had been on a minimum-salary ($789K) contract, whereas an empty roster spot only has a cap hold of about $490K.
When Ellis signs, the path will be clear for the Mavs to re-sign James to another minimum-salary deal, since teams are permitted to go over the cap for minimum deals. According to Stein, the two sides have an agreement in principle to complete a new contract once Ellis officially inks his deal.