Jazz Release Elijah Millsap
2:11pm: The move is official, the team announced.
2:06pm: The Jazz have told Elijah Millsap that they’re waiving him, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. Charania indicates that the team has already released his non-guaranteed contract, though Utah has yet to make an official announcement. His minimum-salary pact would become fully guaranteed if not waived by the close of business Thursday, and it would also be guaranteed if another team claims him off waivers and keeps him after that date. Several other clubs are expected to have interest in the 6’6″ swingman, according to Charania. Millsap is in the second season of a three-year deal, so only a limited number of teams can snag him off waivers, unlike players signed to two-year minimum contracts.
The move, once official, will bring Utah down to 14 players, one under the limit. Chris Johnson also has a non-guaranteed contract, and while Jeff Withey has a partial guarantee of $200K, he’s already earned more than that by virtue of sticking on the roster as long as he has. That means Utah can waive Withey and avoid further financial obligation, just as with Johnson and Millsap.
Millsap, a younger brother of former Jazz power forward Paul Millsap, joined Utah on a 10-day contract almost a year ago to the day. Once that expired, he signed another 10-day deal and finally the three-year pact as the Jazz turned him into a rotation mainstay last season. That changed this year, as his 19.7 minutes per game from 2014/15 dwindled to 8.7 in 2015/16. He shot just 28.2% in 173 attempts from the floor this season, so it appears the team concluded his defensive prowess couldn’t make up for his offensive shortcomings. The 28-year-old client of Brendrick DeAngelo Simmons and Daniel Hazan has been to training camp with the Lakers, Thunder and Bucks in the past since going undrafted out of UAB in 2010, and he spoke with Zach Links of Hoops Rumors in September 2014 about his journey to the NBA.
The Jazz gave out more 10-day contracts than any other NBA team last season, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see them use Millsap’s roster spot to again cycle through players on those short-term deals. Millsap would be eligible to re-sign with Utah if he clears waivers, though that would seem unlikely.
Can you envision another NBA team as a better fit for Millsap? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
DeAndre Daniels Joining Raptors D-League Team
The D-League affiliate of the Raptors has acquired DeAndre Daniels, whom Toronto selected 37th overall in the 2014 NBA Draft, a source tells Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor (Twitter link). NBA teams are allowed to bring draftees directly onto the rosters of their D-League teams without them being subject to the D-League’s waiver system. The small forward from the University of Connecticut spent last season, when the Raptors didn’t have a one-to-one D-League affiliate, playing for the Perth Wildcats in Australia.
The Raptors weren’t ruling out the idea of adding Daniels to the NBA roster for this season, as Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca reported in June, but the small forward has instead remained unsigned since suffering a Jones fracture in his right foot during preparations for summer league in July. His numbers in Australia last season weren’t overwhelming, as he averaged 14.8 points and 7.7 rebounds in 30.7 minutes per game with 34.1% 3-point shooting.
Toronto is also adding four-year NBA veteran center Greg Smith to its D-League roster, as Reichert also reports and as we detail here. Daniels, who turns 24 in April, isn’t allowed to sign with any NBA team other than the Raptors, unlike Smith and most of his soon-to-be D-League teammates, since Toronto still owns his NBA draft rights. The Raptors don’t have much flexibility on their NBA roster, with 15 fully guaranteed contracts, so it appears Daniels has a lengthy D-League stay ahead of him.
Greg Smith To Play For Raptors D-League Team
TUESDAY, 11:36am: Smith is joining the affiliate of the Raptors, a league source tells Reichert (Twitter link).
SUNDAY, 4:36pm: Four-year NBA veteran Greg Smith, who played on the Mavs last season, has signed with the D-League, Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor reports (Twitter link). The D-League has yet to make an announcement, but Reichert indicates Smith has put pen to paper. The Mavs’ affiliate, the Texas Legends, hold waiver priority so it would get the first chance to land Smith, Reichert tweets.
Smith, a center, had signed with the Pelicans in October, but the deal was voided after he failed his physical. Smith, who will turn 25 this week, did not generate much interest in free agency this summer after he saw little playing time for the Mavs. He then failed to impress in a workout last month for China’s Guangdong Southern Tigers, as international journalist David Pick reported.
Smith spent most of his career so far with the Rockets, but they waived him shortly before the 2014 playoffs. He saw 15.9 minutes per game with Houston in the 2012/13 season and scored six points per game. Both numbers remain career highs.
Western Notes: Rondo, Hornacek, Randle, Simmons
Rajon Rondo said he has “no regrets” about his brief, tumultuous Mavericks tenure, calling Mark Cuban a “great guy” an interview with Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. Rondo said he and Rick Carlisle both tried their best to get on same page but couldn’t and insisted a back injury was the reason he didn’t play after Game 2 of the team’s playoff series against the Rockets last year, even though MacMahon reported that the injury was a ruse. Rondo admitted after MacMahon pressed him that he and the Mavs organization “had some talks” regarding his departure. The ESPN scribe asked the point guard whether he felt as though it perhaps would have hurt the team if he stuck around for the remainder of the playoff series.
“I think it ended up hurting anyway,” Rondo said. “But me just sticking around, I didn’t want any more tension between myself and Rick and all the media attention that it was getting. People were seeing stuff on the floor, like making up plays that I took off, and it’s like, some plays I might take off to this day. I mean, I was tired, so you just never know. I just wanted to get out of there and just lay low and had a talk with my agent. But that’s water under the bridge.”
Here’s more from the Western Conference:
- Suns higher-ups are fond of Jeff Hornacek and don’t want to fire him, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com hears, but the situation in Phoenix is worsening, Windhorst writes. Still, while coaching changes around the league don’t appear to have a measurable positive effect, it doesn’t seem as though teams will be any less hesitant to make bench bosses pay for poor on-court results, the ESPN scribe contends amid a broader piece.
- Byron Scott‘s handling of the young players on the Lakers has drawn criticism, and his relationship with Julius Randle has been up-and-down, with the coach on Monday imploring the 2014 No. 7 overall pick to “grow up,” as Baxter Holmes of ESPNLosAngeles.com details.
- The most significant offseason acquisition for the Spurs admits he didn’t know much about Jonathon Simmons, perhaps the most anonymous of the new Spurs, when camp began, but LaMarcus Aldridge and the rest of the NBA are learning just what the rookie can do, notes Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. Simmons had a career-high 18 points Monday. “[The Spurs] always try to find guys they can fit into the system, and he’s no exception to that,” Aldridge said. “He’s the energy guy we need, and he’s gotten better every game.”
2015/16 NBA Reverse Standings
The 2015/16 NBA season covers 24 weeks, and we’ve already burned through 10 of them. The fate of many teams has become apparent, and scouts and executives for teams around the league are getting a clearer picture of where they’ll be picking in the 2016 NBA draft. With our Reverse Standings, which list the NBA’s 30 teams from worst to first, you can easily follow along, too. Hoops Rumors is continuing to update these standings daily to reflect the outcomes of the games that took place the night before.
The Reverse Standings take into account playoff teams in each conference, so they’re essentially a reflection of what the 2016 first-round order would look like with no changes to lottery position. Traded picks are included via footnotes. For instance, the note next to Sacramento’s pick indicates that if the team finishes outside the top 10, it’ll relinquish the pick to the Bulls. If the Kings wind up in the top 10, they have a chance to keep the pick, though the Sixers would have the right to switch it out for their pick. The Kings are currently in spot No. 10, so it’s a situation that bears watching the rest of the season.
The existence of the lottery means the teams atop the Reverse Standings aren’t guaranteed to draft in the order in which they finish, but the worse a club’s record, the better shot it has at landing the cream of the 2016 draft class. This year’s group of prospects, which includes Ben Simmons, Brandon Ingram and Dragan Bender, is heavy on frontcourt players, and we’ll be finding out more about them in the month ahead with posts under our 2016 NBA Draft tag.
Our Reverse Standings feature can be found at anytime on our right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features.” It’s a great resource not just for monitoring a team’s draft position, but also for keeping an eye on whether or not traded picks with protection will be changing hands in 2016. Be sure to check back often!
Central Notes: Jennings, Tolliver, Prunty, Gibson
Brandon Jennings isn’t sure whether the Pistons will trade him, but he said Monday that he hopes he’ll finish the season in Detroit, MLive’s David Mayo notes. Coach/executive Stan Van Gundy will listen to offers but has consistently attempted to tamp down trade rumors involving the point guard who’s successfully returned from injury, Mayo writes.
“Our plan, right now, is that Brandon can help us make a playoff push, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Van Gundy said. “That’s our plan right now. If something happens in the next five weeks, we’ll look at it. But right now, he’s a very good player who can help us, and that’s the only way we’re looking at him.”
Jennings called his one-game D-League rehab stint critical to his comeback, as Mayo also relays, and Reggie Jackson continued his praise of Jennings, calling him “the ultimate teammate,” as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press details. See more on the Pistons and the rest of the Central Division:
- Soon-to-be free agent Anthony Tolliver wants to re-sign with the Pistons in the offseason, as he wrote recently on his personal blog and as Aaron McCann of MLive points out. “I want to have a good, solid season and help my team win as much as possible,” Tolliver wrote. “And then when I’m a free agent this summer, I hope to sign back with Detroit and try to make this a long-term home for my family and me.”
- Bucks interim coach Joe Prunty got his start in the NBA with the Spurs, and he’s using Gregg Popovich as a model for success, as Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel details. Still, head coach Jason Kidd remains influential, and Prunty said he and the rest of the coaching staff keep in close contact with Kidd, who’s on a leave of absence as he recovers from hip surgery.
- The offseason surgery that uncovered and repaired a torn ligament in Taj Gibson‘s formerly troublesome left ankle has the trade candidate feeling much better, notes K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. “I’m completely stronger as far as my lateral movement and being able to switch more to guards,” the Bulls power forward said. “I feel a lot faster.”
Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround 1/4/16
The Celtics, much like the Bulls, have an overabundance of front court players on their roster this season. While depth is certainly a nice luxury to possess for any franchise, having more players than minutes to go around can create locker room issues if some team members feel slighted by playing time cuts. It can also slow the development of younger players needing as much game experience as they can get their hands on. With the February trade deadline rapidly approaching and the team clinging to the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, Boston’s president of basketball operations, Danny Ainge, could look to alleviate Boston’s frontcourt logjam, as Chris Forsberg of ESPN.com noted on Sunday.
This brings me to the topic for today: Should the Celtics look to deal one or more of their current crop of frontcourt players, and if so, who should the team look to move?
Tyler Zeller and Jared Sullinger are both eligible to hit restricted free agency after the season, provided Boston tenders them qualifying offers, and David Lee is playing on an expiring deal, which makes them all prime candidates to be moved. The team would likely prefer to deal Lee, seeing as he’s not in the Celtics’ long-term plans, but his $15,493,680 salary for 2015/16 makes him a difficult player to find a suitor for without having to take back a less than desirable contract or two in return. Offseason signee Amir Johnson is also a possibility, and his non-guaranteed salary for next season could certainly be attractive to a team looking to free up cap space. Boston could also look to make a smaller trade involving Jonas Jerebko, whose 2016/17 salary is non-guaranteed, or Kelly Olynyk, who still has one more season on his fully guaranteed contract remaining after this one.
But what say you? Should the team look to deal one of the players I mentioned above, or would you prefer the Celtics stand pat? If you think Boston needs to make a trade, who should the team look to move first? What’s the best realistic trade you can come up with for your choice? Take to the comments section below to weigh in and share your thoughts on the matter. We look forward to what you have to say.
And-Ones: McCalebb, Looney, Chandler
Bo McCalebb, who was cut by the Pelicans during the preseason, has signed with the French club Limoges CSP, the team announced (translation by Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). McCalebb, 30, has played overseas since going undrafted in 2008, save for a summer league stint with the Kings in July of that year and his time this fall with the Pelicans. He was the top scorer in the Euroleague in 2011/12, notching 16.9 points per game for Siena of Italy. McCalebb played for FC Bayern Muenchen of Germany last season, when he averaged 4.8 assists per game to go along with 12.4 points in 25.7 minutes per contest.
Here’s more from around the league:
- In light of the season-ending injury that point guard Eric Bledsoe suffered, the Suns need to focus on developing younger players like Devin Booker, T.J. Warren and Alex Len, Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM writes. Phoenix should consider trading center Tyson Chandler, whose signing made sense when the team was pursing LaMarcus Aldridge over the summer, but now the veteran only serves to cut into Len’s playing time, Tjarks adds.
- The Warriors have assigned combo forward Kevon Looney to their D-League affiliate, the team announced via a press release. The rookie becomes the first player Golden State has sent to Santa Cruz on the season.
- Sixers coach Brett Brown noted that new team executive Jerry Colangelo was the one who orchestrated the signing of veteran forward Elton Brand, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports relays (on Twitter).
- The Raptors plan on utilizing their D-League affiliate to help Anthony Bennett work through the back issues he is currently experiencing, Sam Amico of AmicoHoops.net tweets. The combo forward has made two trips to the Raptors 905 on the season thus far.
Southeast Notes: Kilpatrick, Skiles, Schröder
The Wizards strongly considered signing shooting guard Sean Kilpatrick prior to inking Jarell Eddie back in December, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN relays (via Twitter). Kilpatrick, 25, was in training camp with the Pelicans this season, and he is currently lighting up scoreboards for the Delaware 87ers, Philadelphia’s D-League affiliate. The guard has made 20 appearances for Delaware this season and is averaging 26.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 38.1 minutes per contest. With teams becoming eligible to sign players to 10-day contracts Tuesday, look for Kilpatrick to end up in the NBA at some point this season, Wolfson adds.
Here’s more from the Southeast Division:
- The Magic have slowed since getting off to a solid start to the 2014/15 campaign, and coach Scott Skiles may have run out of buttons to push with the current roster, Brian Schmitz of The Orlando Sentinel writes. The team’s lack of elite talent has made it difficult for the coach to maintain a consistent rotation, and there appears to be no obvious solution with Orlando’s current crop of players, Schmitz opines.
- Despite Shelvin Mack taking over backup point guard duties during the Hawks‘ last two games, coach/executive Mike Budenholzer insists that Dennis Schröder is not in the doghouse, Matt Winkeljohn of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes. “No. He keeps competing in practice, doing what he’s doing,” Budenholzer said when asked if Schröder has fallen out of favor. “Part of it is Shelvin’s been busting his butt, working hard. I think to give guys opportunities and to develop all 15 guys is important. Dennis will get his opportunities.”
Poll: Should Suns Re-Hire Mike D’Antoni?
According to a report by Marc Stein of ESPN.com, people within the coaching community believe that the Suns will make Mike D’Antoni a candidate for their head coaching job should it come open in the near future. D’Antoni, who recently returned to the NBA as the lead assistant for the Sixers, took Phoenix to consecutive Western Conference Finals during a solid run as Suns head coach from 2003-08. The 64-year-old went 253-136 in the regular season and 26-25 in the playoffs during his time as head coach of the Suns, and he won the NBA’s Coach of the Year award in his first full season in charge of the team.
D’Antoni recently described himself as “happy as heck” to be back in coaching with the Sixers after a sabbatical that lasted about a year and a half following his resignation from the Lakers in the spring of 2014. The offensive-minded coach didn’t enjoy the same success in L.A. or during his time with the Knicks as he did with Phoenix, and he’s gone a combined 202-290 in regular season games and 0-8 in the postseason at his other head-coaching stops in the NBA. D’Antoni had told Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com back in 2012 that he regretted leaving the Suns to take the job in New York, a departure that Shelburne heard was a mutual decision between D’Antoni and the Phoenix organization.
Phoenix’s recent troubles reportedly put current head coach Jeff Hornacek on the hot seat, though the team decided to fire a pair of assistants instead of Hornacek last week. With the Suns having made significant financial commitments to guards Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight, perhaps bringing back D’Antoni, whose offense is geared toward maximizing the production of point guards, can revitalize the floundering organization. But what say you? Would a return to Phoenix by D’Antoni allow the franchise to rise from its current doldrums, or should the organization look to go in a different direction should Hornacek be let go? Cast your vote below and then take to the comments section to continue the discussion. We look forward to what you have to say.
Should the Suns Re-Hire Mike D'Antoni as Head Coach?
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Absolutely. He's just what the franchise needs. 35% (166)
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No. The franchise should give Jeff Hornacek another season to prove himself. 33% (158)
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No way. The team needs to go in a different direction. 32% (154)
Total votes: 478