Odds & Ends: Collins, Augustin, Mavs, Cavs
Jannero Pargo‘s contract with the Bobcats became fully guaranteed when the team didn’t waive him yesterday, and A.J. Price passed his contract guarantee threshold with the Timberwolves this weekend. That means the rest of the players with non-guaranteed contracts won’t have their deals fully guaranteed unless they remain on their teams until the leaguewide guarantee date of January 10th. We’ll continue to track non-guaranteed contracts here until that date. Here’s more from around the league:
- Free agent center Jason Collins told Michael K. Lavers of the Washington Blade that he doesn’t pin the reluctance of NBA teams to sign him on his sexual orientation. Collins, who hasn’t appeared in an NBA game since publicly revealing last spring that he is homosexual, says he hopes a team will sign him by March 1st.
- The Bulls are zeroing in on D.J. Augustin, and the move would give them four point guards, not including the injured Derrick Rose. They probably won’t be carrying all four by the end of the season, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune.
- With Devin Harris suffering a setback in his rehab, Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News wonders if the Mavericks will go after Augustin.
- The Cavs have assigned Carrick Felix, Sergey Karasev and Henry Sims to their D-League affiliate, the team announced. It’s the first assignment for Karasev, while Felix and Sims are making return trips to the Canton Charge.
- Other teams reportedly expect the Nuggets will soon trade Jordan Hamilton for little in return, but the third-year small forward has earned the trust of coach Brian Shaw, according to Aaron J. Lopez of Nuggets.com.
- Shelvin Mack is making the most of his non-guaranteed contract with the Hawks, as Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution examines (subscription required).
Bulls In Lead To Sign D.J. Augustin
WEDNESDAY, 4:20pm: Augustin has cleared waivers, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
TUESDAY, 11:49am: The Bulls are the clear leaders to sign D.J. Augustin when he clears waivers Wednesday, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Augustin was a victim of a numbers crunch in Toronto, where the Raptors had to release a player to fit under the 15-man roster limit to accommodate yesterday’s Rudy Gay trade.
Augustin is on a one-year contract worth a guaranteed $1.267MM, not much more than what the minimum salary for the five-year veteran would be, so it’s conceivable a team could claim him off waivers. The capped-out Bulls can’t make a claim, so they’d likely sign him to a non-guaranteed pact for the minimum-salary if he hits free agency. Perhaps another club could resort to a waiver claim to thwart Chicago’s attempt to sign him, though that’s just my speculation.
Derrick Rose‘s injury has left the Bulls shorthanded at point guard, where the backups to Kirk Hinrich are disappointing second-year man Marquis Teague, whom the Bulls shopped in trade talks before the season, and 38-year-old journeyman Mike James. James hasn’t played in more than a week as he recovers from a sprained knee, and with two roster spots available, the team is looking to bolster its depth at the position, Wojnarowski writes. Augustin has had his own struggles the past two seasons, flaming out as a backup for the Pacers in 2012/13 before averaging just 8.2 minutes per game in 10 appearances for the Raptors this year.
The Raptors would benefit if a team claimed Augustin off waivers, since they’ll otherwise be on the hook for the contract they signed with the Thad Foucher client. They could still see some relief if he becomes a free agent and signs with the Bulls or another team, since that might allow Toronto to defray the cost of its contract with Augustin via set-off rights.
Knicks May Make Run At Tom Thibodeau
The Knicks might attempt to pry Tom Thibodeau out of his contract from the Bulls, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com, who gets the sense that current Knicks head coach Mike Woodson will only last until owner James Dolan can find a splashy replacement. Soon-to-be free agent Carmelo Anthony wouldn’t object to the move, Stein also hears. Thibodeau, like Anthony, is a client of the Creative Artists Agency, a firm with close ties to the Knicks.
Thibodeau has two seasons remaining on his deal with Chicago, but he’s reportedly feuding with Bulls GM Gar Forman. It would nonetheless be hard to convince the Bulls to let him go, Stein writes, but the ESPN scribe figures the Knicks stand a better chance of pulling that off than they do of landing marquee names like John Calipari, Phil Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy and Stan Van Gundy.
The Knicks are also apparently considering assistant GM Allan Houston as a possible replacement for Woodson. Houston played for the Knicks when Thibodeau was an assistant coach for the team. Perhaps Houston could serve as an interim if the Knicks decide to replace Woodson during the season, with a pursuit of Thibodeau happening in the summer, but that’s just my speculation.
Coaching transactions between teams are rare, but the Knicks once received compensation for letting Pat Riley go to the Heat, and this summer’s Doc Rivers swap is the most recent example. The Celtics acquired a 2015 first-round pick in exchange for letting Rivers out of his deal so the Clippers could hire him, but the earliest first-rounder the Knicks can surrender is their 2018 pick. The NBA prohibits teams from exchanging players for coaches, so it would indeed be difficult for the Knicks to bring Thibodeau back to Madison Square Garden.
One-Day D-League Assignments
The D-League season is only a few weeks old, but a few trends involving the way NBA teams use their D-League affiliates are already developing. Six NBA teams have so far assigned a total of 10 players to the D-League for just a single day, as our list of D-League assignments and recalls shows. In many cases, such moves demonstrate an organizational willingness to shuttle players back and forth in an effort to maximize their playing time in the D-League and practice time with the big club.
Sometimes, a one-day assignment is more by happenstance than design, as with Marquis Teague‘s abbreviated stint with the Iowa Energy. Mike James suffered an injury while Teague was en route to join the D-League team, so the Bulls recalled Teague as soon as his plane landed. His was the only D-League assignment the Bulls have made all year, and it was the team’s first assignment since the 2010/11 season, so despite the relative proximity of Chicago to the Energy’s home base in Des Moines, it’s unlikely the Bulls will make a habit of such one-day stints.
The Bulls are one of five teams sharing the Energy as an affiliate, and most of the NBA clubs that shuttle players back and forth have one-to-one affiliations with their D-League partners. That’s the case with every other team that’s made a one-day assignment so far this season. All five of Golden State’s D-League assignments have lasted just a single day, and the Warriors lead the league in this category, making frequent use of their affiliate in nearby Santa Cruz.
The Lakers took the concept a step further last month, recalling Elias Harris and Ryan Kelly the same day they were assigned. It helps that the D-Fenders, the D-League affiliate of the Lakers, play their games at the Toyota Sports Center, the same complex where the Lakers practice.
The Thunder were one of the leading practioners of the one-day assignment last season, but they haven’t pulled off the trick so far this year, keeping Andre Roberson with the Tulsa 66ers for six days in the team’s only 2013/14 assignment. That figures to change as the season wears on, and other teams will likely join this list as well. Still, early returns help show which clubs are exploiting the NBA’s burgeoning player development system to its fullest.
Warriors (5):
- November 24th: Assigned Dewayne Dedmon (Recalled November 25th)
- November 24th: Assigned Nemanja Nedovic (Recalled November 25th)
- November 19th: Assigned Dewayne Dedmon (Recalled November 20th)
- November 19th: Assigned Ognjen Kuzmic (Recalled November 20th)
- November 19th: Assigned Nemanja Nedovic (Recalled November 20th)
Spurs (4):
- December 8th: Assigned Aron Baynes (Recalled December 9th)
- December 8th: Assigned Nando De Colo (Recalled December 9th)
- December 1st: Assigned Aron Baynes (Recalled December 2nd)
- December 1st: Assigned Nando De Colo (Recalled December 2nd)
Lakers (2):
- November 23rd: Assigned Elias Harris (Recalled November 23rd)
- November 23rd: Assigned Ryan Kelly (Recalled November 23rd)
Bulls (1):
- December 3rd: Assigned Marquis Teague (Recalled December 4th)
Kings (1):
- December 6th: Assigned Hamady N’Diaye (Recalled December 7th)
Nets (1):
- November 10th: Assigned Tornike Shengelia (Recalled November 11th)
Pacific Rumors: Jackson, Rivers, Bledsoe
A pair of Pacific Division teams have turned their final roster spots over to experienced players, with the Clippers signing Stephen Jackson and the Warriors bringing on Hilton Armstrong. Doc Rivers says he wanted a player who’s been around, as Brian Robb of ESPN.com notes, and the 35-year-old Jackson, who’s played 13 seasons in the NBA, certainly fits the profile. Rivers also enjoys getting to make that kind of decision, as we detail in our roundup from the Pacific:
- The opportunity to coach as well as run the front office helped make the Clippers job appealing to Rivers, as he said on radio with Felger and Massarotti of 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston (link via CBS Boston).
- Soon-to-be restricted free agent Eric Bledsoe says he feels more confident and has a greater sense of freedom playing for the Suns this year as opposed to his time with the Clippers, observes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic.
- The Suns are 12-9, just a game and a half out of first place in the division, and the success is surprising even to members of the team’s braintrust, notes Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). Phoenix’s unexpected victories hurt the team’s chances of landing a superstar in the draft, but they don’t necessarily derail an ascent to contention, writes Mark Whicker of the Orange County Register.
- The Warriors made the right decision when they traded Monta Ellis at the 2012 deadline to free up playing time for Klay Thompson, and the move has worked out well for Ellis, too, as Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com argues in an Insider piece.
- There’s plenty of activity surrounding the Kings, as we passed along earlier today.
Warriors Sign Hilton Armstrong
1:01pm: Golden State has officially announced the signing.
10:49am: The Warriors will sign big man Hilton Armstrong, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Armstrong has been playing with the team’s D-League affiliate in Santa Cruz. Golden State has an open roster spot, so the team won’t have to cut anybody to make room for the veteran of five NBA seasons.
Armstrong was with the Pacers in training camp, but he hasn’t appeared in an NBA regular season game since the 2010/11 season. The 29-year-old has played in France, Greece and the D-League since then, and was averaging 15.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.0 blocks for Santa Cruz this year. New Orleans made the 6’11” Armstrong the 12th overall pick in the 2006 draft.
Golden State is thin in the middle, where Festus Ezeli and Ognjen Kuzmic are sidelined with long-term injuries and Jermaine O’Neal is questionable for tonight’s game. Armstrong appears to be the team’s latest attempt to bolster its depth with a player from its D-League affiliate after signing Dewayne Dedmon in November, only to waive him last week. Like Dedmon, Armstrong will probably be on a non-guaranteed contract for the minimum salary.
Kings/Raptors Notes: Gay, Acy, Arena
The Kings and Raptors hooked up on a seven-player deal this week, and neither club appears ready to stop trading. Every game is an audition of sorts for the players on the Raptors in the wake of this week’s trade, observes Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys sitting in that room who have to take this opportunity and take their chance when their name is called to not only show us, but to show 29 other teams what they can do,” coach Dwane Casey said.
Here’s more on two teams that figure to be surrounded by rumors in advance of the February 20th trade deadline:
- Casey believes the trade was the right move, but says it shouldn’t been seen as an indictment of Rudy Gay‘s talent or Toronto’s decision to acquire him last season, Wolstat notes in a roundup from last night’s game.
- The Kings are enthusiastic about Gay’s game, and he’s excited to be with a team that believes in him, as Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee details.
- Jones, in a separate piece, looks at how the Kings are dismissing Gay’s shortcomings in advanced metrics, and Jeff Caplan of NBA.com crunches the numbers for a similar story.
- Quincy Acy tells Eric Koreen of the National Post that he was “kind of stunned” when he found out he was being traded, and the power forward fondly reflects on his time in Toronto.
- The Bee’s Dale Kasler has the latest on Sacramento’s efforts to build a new arena, noting that it will take weeks to determine whether opponents of the project have enough signatures to force a referendum.
Bobcats Sign Chris Douglas-Roberts
WEDNESDAY, 11:13am: Charlotte has made the signing official, announcing the addition of Douglas-Roberts in a press release. The four-year NBA veteran is a Creative Artists Agency client, as the Hoops Rumors Agency Database shows.
TUESDAY, 8:43pm: The Bobcats plan to sign Chris Douglas-Roberts from the D-League’s Texas Legends, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. In six games with the Legends this year, CDR is averaging 18.7 points, 4.3 boards and 2.8 assists per contest. He’s playing 34 minutes per night and is shooting over 47 percent from the field.
The Memphis product played for the Legends last year as well, and also appeared in six games for the Mavericks. He was in camp with the Knicks this preseason but was waived in late October. As Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer tweets, the Bobcats are likely looking for depth given the injuries to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Jeff Taylor and the inexperience of rookie James Southerland (Twitter links).
Bobcats Waive James Southerland
11:12am: The Bobcats have officially announced the move, via press release.
10:19am: Bobcats coach Steve Clifford has confirmed that the team will sign Douglas-Roberts and waive Southerland, Bonnell tweets.
8:33am: The Bobcats are set to add Chris Douglas-Roberts, and with a full 15-man roster, that means someone must go to accommodate the signing. Rookie small forward James Southerland will be the victim of the numbers crunch, as the Bobcats will waive him, according to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter link).
Southerland signed with Charlotte after he went undrafted out of Syracuse this past June. He made the team out of camp on his non-guaranteed contract for the minimum salary, but he’s barely seen any playing time in the regular season, appearing for just three minutes in a single game on November 29th. He hasn’t gone on a D-League assignment either, meaning he’s simply been stuck on the bench.
The Bobcats were likely looking for depth at small forward, where Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Jeff Taylor are both hurt, and apparently prefer a more experienced hand in Douglas-Roberts. Southerland is the most obvious choice to be cut, since power forward Jeff Adrien, the only other Charlotte player on a non-guaranteed contract, is part of the rotation. Jannero Pargo had been on a partially guaranteed deal that was essentially non-guaranteed, but it became fully guaranteed when the Bobcats failed to waive him yesterday.
Carmelo Only Knick Off-Limits For Trade
The Knicks fell further into last place in the Atlantic Division last night with a loss to the Cavaliers, and with a 5-15 record, Carmelo Anthony is the only player who’s certain not to be traded, writes Marc Berman of the New York Post. The free agents the team signed this past offseason become eligible to be traded Sunday, except for Cole Aldrich, who becomes trade-eligible on December 23rd, and J.R. Smith, who isn’t allowed to be traded until January 15th.
Some have suggested trading Anthony might be the Knicks best course of action, but a recent report indicated that New York has no plans to do so. He’s likely to become a free agent at season’s end, but there are few expiring contracts on the team’s books, limiting flexibility. It would be especially difficult to find takers for Amar’e Stoudemire, the team’s highest-paid player, given that he’s making nearly $21.7MM this year and is set for more than $23.4MM next season. Four Knicks have deals that end after this season, but they’re among the cheapest on the books, and Chris Smith‘s minimum salary for 2014/15 is non-guaranteed
There have been plenty of rumors about Iman Shumpert, and the team is apparently trying to boost his value by telling other front offices that Mike Woodson‘s coaching is hiding the full extent of his abilities. Woodson knows his job isn’t on solid ground. He senses that the vote of confidence owner James Dolan gave him last month no longer applies, according to Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com, who hears from a source that, “People are just waiting for Dolan to snap.”