Sixers Sign Ronald Roberts Jr.
SEPTEMBER 29TH: The team acknowledged the signing, including Roberts on the preseason roster it sent via press release.
SEPTEMBER 12TH: The Sixers and Roberts have a signed contract, according to the RealGM transactions log, which confirms the arrangement is for multiple years. The team has yet to make an official announcement.
AUGUST 12TH: 7:33pm: Adam Pensack, Roberts Jr.’s agent, wouldn’t confirm that there was a deal in place between the two sides, reports Dei Lynam of CSNPhilly.com. Pensack added that there’d be news on his client within the next few weeks, says Lynam.
8:41am: The Sixers have agreed to a partially guaranteed deal with undrafted power forward Ronald Roberts Jr. that covers three seasons, as Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi confirms. Cauchi reported earlier this month that Roberts was likely to join the team. The 23-year-old from St. Joseph’s had inked a preliminary deal with Chalon-Sur-Saone of France, but it included a clause that allows him to back out to head to the NBA. It’s likely a minimum-salary arrangement with Philadelphia, though the Sixers have no shortage of cap room if they wanted to exceed that amount.
Roberts had been a long shot to hear his name called on draft night, ranking 93rd in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress listings and just 143rd with Chad Ford of ESPN.com, but an impressive summer league stint lifted his stock. He averaged 10.2 points and 7.4 rebounds in 23.4 minutes per game across five appearance for the Sixers summer league team in Orlando. He saw fewer minutes in four games with the Heat’s summer league squad in Las Vegas, notching 7.0 PPG and 3.8 RPG in 14.0 MPG, but he apparently had shown the Sixers enough.
The client of Pensack Sports Management Group joins 13 others on the Sixers, as our roster counts show. Philadelphia has fully guaranteed deals with only six players, an NBA low, and the team’s five agreements that include no guarantee at all are a league high.
Jazz To Work Out D.J. Stephens
Free agent swingman D.J. Stephens will work out for the Jazz this weekend, a source tells Boston Globe correspondent Jake Fischer (Twitter link). Stephens appeared in three games while on a 10-day contract with the Bucks this past season, though there’s been little chatter this summer about a return to the NBA for the 23-year-old who went undrafted out of Memphis in 2013.
Stephens spent most of last season playing in Greece and Turkey, averaging 8.4 points and 7.0 rebounds in 23.8 minutes per contest over a combined 25 games overseas. His otherworldly jumping ability helped offset his relatively short 6’5″ stature as he went after those boards, and the 46-inch vertical leap he performed at the predraft combine in 2013 was the highest ever recorded at the showcase, as DraftExpress shows.
Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey has cast a wide net in his player evaluations during his tenure with the club, so the chance that Stephens’ workout is a precursor to a deal isn’t quite as strong as it might be if he were auditioning for another NBA team. The Jazz are carrying 18 players, and 17 of them are known to have partially guaranteed salary, as our roster counts show, so Stephens has no easy path to the opening-night roster in Utah.
Free Agent Stock Watch: Ryan Hollins
There’s always a market in the NBA for seven-footers who’ve proven capable of handling one or two specific duties, and the interest that a handful of teams are reportedly showing in Ryan Hollins is evidence. Hollins is to have met with the Heat, with the Kings, Bulls and Spurs having etched his name near the top of their remaining wish lists, too. Many NBA clubs take chances on undrafted rookies and second-tier pros as they fill out their training camp rosters this time of year, holding out hope that they can unearth a hidden gem, and while there’s no such upside with Hollins, there’s little risk involved with him, either.
The former UCLA Bruin fell out of the rotation for the Clippers late last season after the team acquired Glen Davis, even though Hollins was as efficient as ever in the minutes he did see. He put up an 11.9 PER, a number better than in all but one of his eight NBA seasons. That’s well below 15.0, the mark of an average NBA player, but for a career reserve who’s never averaged more than 16.9 minutes per game, that stat is not a discredit. More impressive is his 73.6% shooting percentage, a product of self-awareness as much as any other factor. He took 65.3% of his shots from three feet and in, and he made them count, connecting on 87.2% of those looks, according to Basketball-Reference. Just 4.2% of his shots came from farther away than 10 feet. Hollins, less than a month shy of his 30th birthday, is not part of the new breed of floor-stretching big men, and he knows it.
The Todd Ramasar client also knows to stick close to the rim on the other end of the floor. He blocked 2.3 shots per 36 minutes last season, which put him in a three-way tie with Tim Duncan and John Henson for 14th in the league in that category among those who played at least as many total minutes as he did. There’s a decent chance his block rate was artificially high thanks to a small sample size, since he only racked up 482 minutes over the course of the entire season, but it’s not too far removed from the 1.8 blocks per 36 minutes he recorded in 2012/13, when he hit the floor for 663 minutes.
The Clippers were a significantly more effective team defensively when Hollins played the past two seasons, which is surprising, considering that starting center DeAndre Jordan placed third in Defensive Player of the Year balloting this past spring. They gave up 4.4 fewer points per 100 possessions when Hollins played compared to when he didn’t in 2012/13, as NBA.com shows, and 3.9 fewer in 2013/14. Of course, there are a variety of influences that go into that statistic, and it’s far from enough evidence to suggest that Hollins is a better defender than Jordan, or even in the same class. Still, it points to the notion that Hollins should have an NBA job this year, and he probably deserves a role greater than the one he played in the second half of this past season, when he was largely an afterthought.
Doc Rivers has an opening on his Clippers roster, but Spencer Hawes figures to absorb nearly all of the backup minutes behind Jordan. Hollins would provide an inside complement to Hawes’ long-range shooting, but it’s doubtful that Hollins would want to go into the year with little hope of being more than a third-stringer. The Heat have Chris Bosh, Josh McRoberts and Chris Andersen to take the bulk of the minutes at the power positions, and Udonis Haslem will receive plenty of consideration for playing time, too, so Miami might not be the fit that Hollins seeks, even though the Heat lack a true center. The Bulls have Joakim Noah, Pau Gasol, Taj Gibson and Nikola Mirotic crowding the frontcourt. The backup center job for the Kings seems to be a tossup, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the club envisions sliding one of its many power forwards, like Jason Thompson or Reggie Evans, into minutes at center when DeMarcus Cousins sits. Few on the Spurs roster have trouble hitting the floor thanks to Gregg Popovich‘s egalitarian allocation of minutes, but Duncan, Tiago Splitter, and Jeff Ayres are all still around to play center and Hollins is just one of many free agents the team is targeting for its final opening-night roster spot.
There’s no obvious fit for Hollins among the suitors that have so far been identified, so perhaps that explains why he remains unsigned. It’s a distinct possibility that Hollins is better suited to sign after the season begins, when a team might need added depth at center because of injuries. That would allow Hollins to jump immediately into the lineup without having to compete for minutes during training camp. It would also give Ramasar increased leverage in negotiations, since in such instances the team would figure to have greater motivation to make a deal and close on it quickly than most clubs appear to have at this point. In any case, it would be surprising to see Hollins go without an NBA deal this year, and I suspect he’ll sign with a team with playoff aspirations. He’s not the sort of player that a franchise focused on the future would seem to want, but for a club that can’t afford too many mistakes this year, he’d fit right in.
Julyan Stone Signs To Play In Italy
Point guard Julyan Stone has signed with Reyer Venezia of Italy, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Armando Caporaso). The news is surprising, since a half-dozen NBA teams had reportedly shown interest of late and Stone had apparently fielded a couple of lucrative offers from China. It’s possible that the Italian deal includes some sort of escape clause that would allow him to latch on somewhere else for camp, but that’s not immediately clear, and it seems most likely that the 25-year-old who’s spent the past three years in the NBA won’t be in the league when the 2014/15 season begins.
Reports have indicated that the Spurs, Lakers, Cavs, Clippers and Heat have all been on Stone’s workout agenda in the past couple of weeks, and the Kings looked like they were in the running for him, too. The Raptors cut Stone in July rather than guarantee his minimum salary for the season, though it appeared Toronto had interest in signing him to a new deal once he cleared waivers. He was reportedly in talks with the Sixers, Bucks and Kings around the same time, too, but chatter surrounding the Giovanni Funiciello client dried up until late August.
Raptors GM Masai Ujiri signed the former UTEP Miner to both of his NBA deals, the first coming when Ujiri was in charge of the Nuggets front office. Injury helped keep Stone from seeing much action the past three years, but when he has been available to play, his teams haven’t often called upon him, and he’s averaged just 1.3 points and 1.1 assists in 7.0 minutes per game across 47 appearances for his NBA career.
The addition of Stone makes up for Reyer Venezia’s loss of fellow NBA veteran Lorenzo Brown, whose deal with the team was voided after he failed his physical.
Cavs Sign Chris Crawford
FRIDAY, 7:56am: The contract runs two years and is partially guaranteed, sources tell Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). It’s almost certainly for the minimum salary, since that’s all the Cavs are able to give.
THURSDAY, 11:07pm: The Cavaliers have signed Chris Crawford to a multi-year deal, according to the RealGM Transactions log. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it’s most likely a non-guaranteed camp deal. This signing brings Cleveland’s pre-season roster count to 18, with 12 of those contracts being guaranteed.
Crawford appeared in five games for the Rockets’ entry in the Orlando Summer league, where he averaged 10.2 PPG on 38.8% shooting. He will compete in training camp with John Lucas III and Matthew Dellavedova for a backup guard slot on the final roster.
The 6’4″, 22 year-old went undrafted out of Memphis, where he put up career averages of 8.7 PPG, 3.5 RPG, and 3.3 APG. His career slash line was .391/.367/.753.
Mustafa Shakur Signs To Play In Lithuania
FRIDAY, 7:48am: The deal is official, the Euroleague announced.
THURSDAY, 4:15pm: Two-year NBA veteran Mustafa Shakur has signed a deal to play for Neptunas, a team in Lithuania, reports Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. The team has yet to make an official announcement, and the terms of the deal aren’t immediately clear, so it’s unknown whether the contract includes any sort of NBA escape clause, but it appears the point guard won’t return to the NBA for camp this fall.
Shakur made cameos in three games with the Thunder after inking a 10-day contract this past March, but Oklahoma City decided against re-signing him once it expired. The Keith Kreiter client spent much of last season in the D-League with the affiliates of the Thunder and Knicks, and he also made a brief two-game sojourn to play for Tadamon Zouk of Lebanon.
The 30-year-old’s most extensive NBA action came in 2010/11 with the Wizards, when he averaged 2.3 points in 7.2 minutes per game across 22 contests. Shakur joins James Anderson and Maalik Wayns among players heading to Lithuania after having spent at least part of last season in the NBA. Both Anderson and Wayns are set to play for Zalgiris Kaunas.
Eastern Notes: Knicks, Pistons, Cavs, Sixers
Team USA continued their run through the FIBA World Cup with a 96-68 victory over Lithuania earlier today. Kyrie Irving led the way with 18 points and four assists, James Harden and Klay Thompson added 16 points each, and Stephen Curry dropped 13. For Lithuania, Jonas Valanciunas led the way with 15 points and seven rebounds.
Here’s the latest from the Eastern Conference:
- The Knicks have partially guaranteed the contracts of Travis Wear for $62K, and Langston Galloway for $31K, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). Both players were recently signed to one-year, minimum salary deals.
- The Cavaliers had the biggest offseason of any franchise with the return of LeBron James and the acquisition of Kevin Love. The crew at Basketball Insiders previews Cleveland’s upcoming season, and the consensus has them finishing first in the Central Division.
- There’s a new regime in Detroit this season with the arrival of Stan Van Gundy. In their season preview, the majority of the staff at Basketball Insiders pick the Pistons to improve slightly and finish third in the Central Division this upcoming season.
- The Sixers might “best” their 2013/14 total of 63 losses this upcoming season, according to Adi Joseph of USA Today. In his pre-season rankings, Joseph predicts Philadelphia will lose 74 games next season, which would eclipse the current NBA record of 73 losses set by the 1972/73 Sixers team.
Western Notes: Faried, Warriors, Andersen
Kenneth Faried‘s stellar play with Team USA is going to raise his asking price during his upcoming extension talks with the Nuggets, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News writes. A few months ago a GM told Deveney that Faried was going to be paid in the Paul Millsap ($9.5MM) or Taj Gibson ($8MM) range, but now he’ll most likely command a salary more comparable to Al Jefferson‘s ($13.7MM), the GM opines.
Here’s more from the west:
- Such a deal for Faried would carry a risk for Denver, according to what one Western Conference assistant coach told Deveney. The assistant said, “I guess you don’t know what kind of production he would give you over a long period of time. What happens if they get Danilo Gallinari back and healthy? Now they have Arron Afflalo back. Ty Lawson and JaVale McGee were not healthy last year. How much will having those guys affect his numbers?”
- The Warriors gave partial guarantees of $35K apiece to Aaron Craft, James Michael McAdoo, Mitchell Watt and Justin Holiday, all of whom are on one-year deals for the minimum salary, as Pincus reports in a pair of tweets and on the Basketball Insiders Warriors salary page.
- David Andersen has signed with ASVEL Villeurbanne of the French League, the team announced via Twitter (translation by Enea Trapani of Sportando). Earlier this summer he was eying a possible return to the NBA. Andersen played two seasons in the league, and made his last appearance in the association during the 2010/11 campaign with the Pelicans. His NBA career averages are 4.9 PPG and 2.8 RPG. His career slash line is .440/.347/.674.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Hawks Rumors: Thursday
The Hawks scandal is in its fifth day, and revelations continue to surface. We’ll track today’s latest developments here, and any additional updates will be added to the top of the post:
6:30pm update:
- Portions of the audio tape from the conference call during which Ferry’s comments were made have now been released, courtesy of Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
2:34pm update:
- Raptors GM Masai Ujiri penned a piece for The Globe and Mail in which he called upon people to “measure [Ferry’s] heart” and forgive him if they believe that he made “an honest and isolated error.” “I spoke to Danny myself about this,” Ujiri wrote in part. “He started off by apologizing to Luol. He apologized to me and apologized for any insult he’d offered to African people in general. He explained the incident as best he could to me. There are some things about that conversation I would like to keep between the two of us, but I came away feeling like I’d understood what he had to say.”
1:29pm update:
- GM Danny Ferry‘s fateful remarks about Luol Deng weren’t the first racially charged statements attributed to Ferry, as SB Nation’s Tom Ziller details. Agent William Phillips told Marty McNeal of The Sacramento Bee in 2006 that Ferry, then a player for the Spurs, used an racist slur to insult Phillips client Bonzi Wells during a game in 2002, as McNeal reminded with a pair of tweets this week. Ferry called McNeal after the story ran to deny using the epithet. Commissioner Adam Silver cited Ferry’s clean track record when he said Wednesday that he didn’t think the Hawks should fire Ferry.
- Ferry’s “smug manner” of dealing with some Hawks staffers rubbed co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. the wrong way, a source tells Michael Lee of The Washington Post. Gearon was reportedly an opponent of Ferry even before Ferry made his comments about Deng in June.
- Steve Belkin’s departure from the Hawks ownership group a few years ago left Bruce Levenson with a stake representing close to 60% of the franchise, a source tells TNT’s David Aldridge. That seems to conflict with a report we passed along Tuesday from Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution indicating that Levenson doesn’t own a majority of the team. Levenson was acting as the controlling owner of the Hawks until this past weekend, when he announced that he was selling his share after the revelation of a racially charged 2012 email.
Mavs Notes: Parsons, Liz, Ledo
Mark Cuban is an outspoken critic of the league’s lenient policies toward players who take part in international competitions, and while he allowed Chandler Parsons to participate in the run up to the FIBA World Cup, he made sure Parsons knew he’d prefer him to stay home.
“Yeah, he made that clear to me,” Parsons told reporters, including Jeff Caplan of NBA.com. “He did. He’s great … He obviously told me how he felt. He told the world how he felt about his guys playing for USA Basketball. But at the same time he understood it was something that I was really passionate about and it was something that I really wanted to do. So, I was planning on making the team and playing for the team. You take a risk of getting hurt anytime you step on the floor.”
There’s more from Parsons amid the latest on the Mavs, as we detail:
- Point guard Víctor Liz told reporters, including Rafael A. Faneyte of Curiosibasket, that the Mavericks have extended him an invitation to training camp, as Rafael A. Faneyte of Curiosibasket tweets (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). It’s not entirely clear whether Liz, who spent the last couple of weeks playing for the Dominican Republic in the FIBA World Cup, has worked out a deal to accept the invitation and join the Dallas roster.
- Parsons says he believes the Mavs caught the Rockets off guard with the size of the offer sheet, worth more than $46MM over three years, that the Mavs made to him, as Caplan also notes in his piece. “Give Mark credit and my agency credit, they put up a contract that was pretty tough for them to match and put them in a tough situation to make a hard decision,” Parsons said. “They did what they thought was best for their organization.”
- Ricky Ledo is entering the last fully guaranteed season of his contract, but Scott Rafferty of Ridiculous Upside believes he’s better suited to spend much of the coming season on D-League assignment, as he did last year, than on the Mavs bench.