2015 October | Hoops Rumors

Pacers Sign, Waive Terran Petteway

October 26th, 2015 at 3:43pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Pacers signed Terran Petteway on Sunday night and waived him after practice today, tweets Wheat Hotchkiss of Pacers.com. The moves took place so that Indiana could grab his D-League rights, as Robin Washut of HuskersOnline.com reported that Petteway is joining the D-League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the affiliate of the Pacers (Twitter link). Teams are allowed to claim the D-League rights of up to four players they waive, but usually those players have to spend the majority of the preseason on the NBA roster. That’s not the case for Petteway, whom the Hawks waived last week, through a quirk in the affiliate player rule, one that Adam Johnson of D-League Digest recently pointed out. The Hawks don’t have a D-League team, so any NBA team with an affiliate could have snagged him and quickly released him to gain his D-League rights as the Pacers did.

Petteway, 23, went undrafted out of Nebraska this year but joined the Hawks on a partially guaranteed deal for camp. Lamar Patterson won the open spot on Atlanta’s regular season roster as Petteway saw little time on the floor during preseason games, scoring five points in only about 21 minutes total.

Indiana was one of the NBA teams that worked out Petteway prior to the draft this year. The 6’6″ swingman was an All-Big Ten Third Team selection as a junior last season after earning First Team honors as a sophomore.

He’ll join Indiana’s D-League roster instead of being subject to the D-League draft, assuming he clears NBA waivers. The Pacers trimmed their roster to 15 players today when they released Toney Douglas and his partial guarantee.

Mavs Waive Maurice Ndour

October 26th, 2015 at 2:53pm CST by Chuck Myron

2:53pm: Mavs owner Mark Cuban confirmed the move to Charania, calling it “a really tough decision.” Charania indicates the decision came to down to keeping Ndour and Salah Mejri, who has a fully guaranteed rookie minimum salary but no guaranteed salary beyond that. A stress reaction that Ndour suffered in his left leg that has him out indefinitely weighed heavily in the team’s thinking, Charania writes.

2:10pm: The Mavericks are releasing Maurice Ndour, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). A league source told Charania the move has already taken place, though the Mavs have yet to make a formal announcement. The subtraction of Ndour leaves the Mavs with 15 players, the regular season roster limit. That includes Dwight Powell, who has a non-guaranteed salary, and JaVale McGee, who’s salary is partially guaranteed, so presumably this signals that both have made the opening night roster. Presuming that’s the case, Powell earns a full guarantee on his one-year veteran’s minimum salary of more than $845K, while McGee’s partial guarantee jumps from $500K to $750K.

Ndour’s salary of $525,094 for this season, $1 more than the rookie minimum, is fully guaranteed, and his deal also included a partial guarantee of $437K for 2016/17, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reported. All of that stays on the books for Dallas unless he clears waivers.

The undrafted power forward out of Ohio University impressed while with the Knicks for summer league, and while the Knicks reportedly tried to get him to back out of his deal with the Mavericks, but that effort was to no avail. Ndour, 22, averaged 4.8 points in 22.8 minutes per game across four preseason appearances with Dallas.

Pacers Release Toney Douglas

October 26th, 2015 at 2:32pm CST by Chuck Myron

2:32pm: The move is official, the team announced.

1:22pm: The Pacers are waiving Toney Douglas, a league source tells Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Charania indicates the move has already taken place, though the team has yet to make an official announcement. Indiana had 15 other players with fully guaranteed salaries, but Douglas had a sizable partial guarantee of $600K. The move will leave the Pacers with 15 players, the regular season limit.

Douglas, 29, averaged 6.6 points in 11.6 minutes per game over five preseason appearances with Indiana. It appeared he had an uphill battle to stick for opening night despite his partial guarantee, which was the second largest in the NBA this preseason. The former 29th overall pick was briefly with the Pelicans last season after beginning 2014/15 with Jiangsu Nangang of China.

Today’s move is ostensibly a boon for Shayne Whittington, the Pacer with by far the least amount of guaranteed money on his contract aside from Douglas. He’s assured of only the one-year veteran’s minimum of $845,059, though the Pacers just re-signed him in late July, a couple of weeks before their deal with Douglas.

Did Douglas deserve to stick with the Pacers? Leave a comment to let us know.

Sixers Releasing Jordan McRae

October 26th, 2015 at 2:31pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Sixers are waiving Jordan McRae, a source told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The team hasn’t made an announcement, but the source indicated to Spears that the move has already taken place. That, plus reports that the team is also waiving Furkan Aldemir, Scottie Wilbekin, Pierre Jackson and J.P. Tokoto, will reduce the team’s roster to the 15-man regular season limit. T.J. McConnell has made the opening night roster on his partially guaranteed contract, Spears adds (on Twitter), while Yahoo Sports colleague Shams Charania reported that Christian Wood will stick, too. Robert Covington, Hollis Thompson and JaKarr Sampson are the other Sixers without full guarantees, but they also appear safe for opening night.

McRae signed the required tender of a one-year, non-guaranteed, minimum-salary deal that Philadelphia had to offer to retain his draft rights. The Spurs picked him 58th overall out of Tennessee in 2014, trading his rights the same night to the Sixers. The 24-year-old shooting guard averaged 7.1 points in 19.9 minutes per game across seven preseason appearances this month.

His release means the Sixers are giving up his NBA rights, though they can still retain his D-League rights. McRae played for Philadelphia’s D-League affiliate late last season after spending the first part of 2014/15 playing in Australia.

Nets Waive Dahntay Jones, Justin Harper

October 26th, 2015 at 2:21pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Nets have waived Justin Harper and Dahntay Jones, the team announced via press release. The moves take Brooklyn to the 15-man regular season roster maximum. Neither had any guaranteed money. Their subtractions appear to indicate that Donald Sloan and Willie Reed have made the opening night roster on their partially guaranteed salaries. The other 13 Nets have full guarantees.

Jones, 34, was attempting to make the Nets after averaging less than a point in 3.7 minutes per game for the Clippers last season. That’s the only regular season NBA action the former 20th overall pick has seen since 2012/13. He performed relatively well for the Nets during the preseason this month, notching 7.5 points in 24.5 minutes per game over four appearances, but it wasn’t enough to secure his place on the roster.

Harper joined the Nets after having been out of the NBA since 2012. The 26-year-old former 32nd overall pick averaged 9.0 points and 4.7 rebounds in 19.1 minutes per game over six preseason contests, including one start.

Sloan’s place on the roster has appeared safe since the Nets waived Ryan Boatright last week, leaving them with only two other point guards aside from Sloan. Reed is likely out until at least the start of December with a right thumb injury, but it appears his $500K partial guarantee played a key role in helping him stick on the roster. The team is out two days’ worth of salary to Jones and Harper, though much of that is offset by their training camp compensation, as former Nets executive Bobby Marks explained (All Twitter links).

Sixers Cutting Furkan Aldemir

October 26th, 2015 at 2:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Sixers are waiving Furkan Aldemir, league sources tell Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Charania indicates the move has already taken place, though the team has yet to make an official announcement. Philadelphia will eat his fully guaranteed salary of nearly $2.837MM for this season unless he clears waivers. Aldemir’s release is part of a series of moves the Sixers are making today, but they still must cut one more player to get to the 15-man regular season roster limit.

Aldemir dealt with a case of plantar fasciitis in his right foot, slowing him during the preseason. He nonetheless averaged 4.8 points and 5.8 rebounds in 18.4 minutes per game across six preseason appearances. At 6’10”, he also showed proficiency on the boards in 41 games during the regular season last year after he signed with the Sixers in December.

The now 24-year-old was a draft-and-stash signee who played for Galatasaray in his native Turkey before coming stateside. The Sixers acquired his draft rights from the Rockets, who in turn had picked them up from the Clippers, the team that drafted him 53rd overall in 2012.

Pistons Waive Danny Granger

October 26th, 2015 at 1:53pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Pistons have waived Danny Granger, the team announced. The move has been widely expected for weeks as Granger didn’t join the Pistons during the preseason, instead rehabbing on his own in Arizona. Granger has a fully guaranteed salary of $2,170,465 for this season that Detroit will be responsible for, barring a highly unlikely waiver claim from another team. The move takes the Pistons to 15 players, the regular season roster limit. Granger has experienced knee trouble in recent years, but it’s plantar fasciitis that has been the issue of late, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports details. He’ll need about a month more to return to health, Wojnarowski hears.

Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy conceded over the past few days that the team was “probably sort of at the end of the road with” the 32-year-old Granger and that it’s all but inevitable the team would waive him. Detroit acquired the former high scorer via trade with Phoenix this summer in a move that also brought in Marcus Morris, who was the centerpiece of the deal for the Pistons, and Reggie Bullock. Indications surfaced even at the time of the trade that the Pistons would waive Granger, as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press recently explained to Hoops Rumors. Granger signed a two-year deal with the Heat in 2014 that included a player option, but his health never allowed him to live up to the contract. He picked up his player option in June a few months after Miami traded him to Phoenix in the Goran Dragic deal.

The Pistons spent much of the offseason with 17 fully guaranteed contracts on their books, but they essentially removed any remaining question over who would go when they waived Cartier Martin’s fully guaranteed pact on Friday. That confirmed a regular season roster spot for Bullock, whose strong preseason prompted the team to pick up his option for 2016/17, too.

Do you think we’ll see Granger play in the NBA again? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

76ers To Cut Scottie Wilbekin, Keep Christian Wood

October 26th, 2015 at 1:46pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Sixers will waive Scottie Wilbekin and have told Christian Wood that he’s made the opening night roster, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Wilbekin has a partial guarantee of $200K, while Wood’s partial guarantee is worth only $50K. The move takes the Sixers closer to the regular season roster limit of 15, though with Wilbekin, J.P. Tokoto and Pierre Jackson the reported cuts today, the team still must part ways with at least two more players.

Wilbekin, 22, displayed a scoring touch in the preseason, averaging 10.0 points in 17.6 minutes per game across five appearances. Still, it wasn’t enough for the undrafted shooting guard from the University of Florida.

Wood, another undrafted rookie, joined the Sixers after a deal with the Rockets fell through. The 20-year-old power forward from UNLV posted 6.2 points and 4.8 rebounds in 12.6 minutes per game over five preseason contests with Philadelphia.

Lakers To Waive Jabari Brown, Retain World Peace

October 26th, 2015 at 12:52pm CST by Chuck Myron

12:52pm: The release of Brown is official, the team announced. The Lakers didn’t mention World Peace in its statement, but presumably he’s sticking around.

12:24pm: The Lakers will waive Jabari Brown and keep Metta World Peace for the opening night roster, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). One of them had to go, since the Lakers have been carrying 16 players, one over the regular season limit, and the deadline to cut to 15 is today. Neither have any guaranteed money on their contracts, but since the Lakers failed to make their final cut by Saturday’s deadline to waive non-guaranteed players without them counting against the cap, they’ll be stuck with two days’ worth of salary to Brown, assuming he clears waivers. That’s minus $8K in training camp compensation that Brown already earned, as former Nets executive Bobby Marks notes (All Twitter links), so the Lakers are poised to be out a mere $1,972 because they waited an extra two days.

Brown, 22, is a holdover from last season, when the Lakers signed him to multiyear deal after a pair of 10-day contracts ran to term. The shooting guard averaged 6.0 points in 14.3 minutes per game across six preseason appearances this fall, and while World Peace put up only 3.7 points in 14.1 minutes per contest in the same number of preseason games, the 35-year-old’s mentorship ability loomed large. The move isn’t a shock, as Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times suggested last week that World Peace had a slight edge over Brown in the competition for the final regular season roster spot.

The Lakers also cut Brown at the end of the preseason a year ago, and they claimed his D-League rights, making him an affiliate player. The team still has those rights, and the Lakers would like to have him with their D-League affiliate again this year, according to Bresnahan (Twitter link). However, if he clears waivers and doesn’t have another NBA offer, the Lakers would have to convince him to sign with the D-League rather than overseas, where he would probably make more money. Brown’s priority is to sign overseas, reports Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News.

World Peace isn’t assured of much beyond opening night, since his contract wouldn’t become guaranteed until the leaguewide guarantee date in January. Still, it’s an intriguing comeback story for the veteran combo forward who spent last season playing overseas and whom the Lakers waived via the amnesty provision in 2013.

Did the Lakers make the right choice in keeping Metta World Peace over Brown? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

Sixers To Waive Pierre Jackson

October 26th, 2015 at 12:36pm CST by Chuck Myron

12:36pm: Brown confirmed the team is waiving Jackson, Cooney tweets.

11:06am: The Sixers will waive Pierre Jackson today, the last day teams have to cut down to 15 players, reports Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News spotted Jackson leaving the team’s practice facility this morning while the rest of the team was practicing inside (Twitter link). Philly is letting go of Jackson even though he has a fully guaranteed salary of $750K for this this season. He’s one of 20 Sixers still under contract, so the team has at least four more cuts to make today.

The subtraction of Jackson would leave only 11 Sixers with full guarantees for this season. T.J. McConnell, Scottie Wilbekin and Christian Wood have partial guarantees, while Robert Covington, Jordan McRae, JaKarr Sampson, Hollis Thompson and J.P. Tokoto are without guaranteed money. Covington and Thompson are candidates to start, but while their places on the roster appear relatively safe, the same can’t be said for the others. Philadelphia is also reportedly thinking about claiming Ish Smith off waivers from the Wizards today.

It appears that it will be the second straight year that Philadelphia has signed and waived Jackson prior to the start of the regular season, as the team gave him a $400K partial guarantee last season before cutting him even though he’d already torn his Achilles tendon. The 24-year-old dealt with groin issues this year, and he wasn’t 100% during the preseason even as he made it onto the court, as coach Brett Brown said last week, according to Brian Seltzer of Sixers.com.

Jackson, who took part in a wide-open preseason competition for Sixers point guard duties, averaged 2.0 points, 2.3 assists and 1.7 turnovers in 14.3 minutes per game during three appearances this month. The Sixers signed Jackson to a four-year deal in July, but only this season’s salary was guaranteed. His D-League rights belong to the affiliate of the Jazz, so the Sixers can’t make him an affiliate player, notes Adam Johnson of D-League Digest (Twitter link).

Who else do you think the Sixers will end up cutting? Leave a comment to let us know.

Month: October 2015