Pelicans Sign Jordan Crawford To 10-Day Deal
3:03pm CST: The Pelicans have made their deal official, announcing they’ve signed Jordan Crawford to a 10-day contract (Twitter link). According to a team press release, Crawford will wear #4, and is available for tonight’s game against the Jazz.
12:48pm CST: The Pelicans have a newly-opened spot on their roster, and they have a specific player in mind to fill it. According to ESPN’s Marc Stein (via Twitter), New Orleans is eyeing D-League guard Jordan Crawford as a candidate for a 10-day contract.
While Stein’s report suggests that an agreement hasn’t necessarily been finalized yet, the Pelicans are in action tonight, with a game in Utah. If New Orleans wants Crawford to play in that game, the team will have to move quickly to officially get something done. Otherwise, Crawford could perhaps make his Pelicans debut at home on Wednesday. A deal is expected to be made official “early” this week, per Stein (Twitter link).
A former first-round pick, Crawford has appeared in 257 total NBA games for the Wizards, Celtics, Warriors, and Hawks, but hasn’t played in a regular season contest since the 2013/14 season. The 28-year-old guard has been a top scoring threat for the Grand Rapids Drive, Detroit’s D-League affiliate, this season, averaging 23.5 PPG with a .473/.355/.870 shooting line.
In the wake of the DeMarcus Cousins trade, which sent three guards to Sacramento, the Pelicans replenished their backcourt by signing Hollis Thompson, Jarrett Jack, and Reggie Williams to 10-day contracts. Thompson has since been signed to a second 10-day deal, but Jack suffered a meniscus tear and won’t be re-signed, opening up a spot for another guard. Williams’ 10-day deal expires after tonight’s game, so it remains to be seen whether he’ll stick with the franchise.
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript: 3/6/2017
Click here to check out the transcript for today’s Hoops Rumors live chat. Our live chat will take place on Monday afternoons going forward.
Heat Met With Jared Sullinger
Having been sent to Phoenix in a deadline-day trade, Jared Sullinger was subsequently waived and became a free agent. Now, he’s in the “exploratory stages” of finding a new team, per agent David Falk, who confirmed to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald (Twitter link) that Sullinger met with Heat president Pat Riley in recent days.
As Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel observes (via Twitter), the Heat may soon have a roster spot opening up, if they can finalize the removal of Chris Bosh‘s contract from their books. Although that spot isn’t necessarily ticketed for Sullinger, Winderman reports that the Heat have “kicked the tires” on the veteran big man.
Sullinger, who turned 25 on Saturday, averaged at least 10.3 PPG and 7.6 RPG in each of his previous three seasons with Boston before signing a one-year pact with the Raptors last summer. However, his season was derailed by foot surgery, which prevented him from making his debut with Toronto until well until the new year. For the season, Sullinger has played sparingly in just 11 games, averaging 3.4 PPG and 2.5 RPG.
While a healthy Sullinger could potentially be an asset to a team in need of rebounding help and interior scoring down the stretch, he didn’t look to be at 100% during his time with the Raptors. Any team with interest in adding him as a free agent in the coming days or weeks will likely want to take a close look at his health and conditioning before making any commitments.
NBA D-League Assignments/Recalls: 3/6/17
Here are Monday’s D-League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
- The Cavaliers have recalled rookie guard Kay Felder from their D-League affiliate in Canton, the team announced today in a press release. With Deron Williams now in the mix in Cleveland, there isn’t much of a role available for Felder, who is coming off a 26-point, 10-assist performance for Canton on Sunday.
- Rookie guard Malik Beasley has been recalled from the Sioux Falls Skyforce by the Nuggets, according to a press release issued by the team. Denver doesn’t have its own D-League squad yet, so Beasley has been playing for Miami’s affiliate. In his latest stint, he appeared in three games, averaging 16.0 PPG, 8.7 RPG, and 2.7 APG.
- Rookie forward Joel Bolomboy, who has been assigned and recalled 16 times this season, is back with the Jazz, the team announced today. Bolomboy posted yet another double-double for the Salt Lake City Stars on Sunday, with 17 points and 11 boards.
- The Spurs recalled Davis Bertans and Dejounte Murray from the Austin Spurs, the team announced on its official website (link). Bertans and Murray each received over 30 minutes of court time in Austin’s match-up with the Salt Lake City Stars on Sunday.
Larry Bird Talks Magic Johnson, Paul George, Trades
Larry Bird, the Pacers’ president of basketball operations, had planned to call longtime rival and friend Magic Johnson after the trade deadline to congratulate him on being named to the same role with the Lakers, according to Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times. However, as Ganguli details, Johnson beat Bird to the punch by a couple days, placing a call to the Pacers executive prior to the deadline.
That phone call sparked a series of rumors about Paul George, who reportedly has interest in signing with the Lakers as a free agent in 2018 if he doesn’t re-up with the Pacers. According to Bird though, the discussion lasted less than five minutes, and he downplayed the idea that George was the subject of the conversation.
In addition to weighing in on that phone call with his old friend, Bird also offered some advice to the new Lakers president of basketball operations and provided some perspective on how often he expects to do business with Johnson. Here are those highlights from his conversation with Ganguli:
On the pre-deadline phone call with Johnson, and the idea that they discussed George:
“I wasn’t motivated to move Paul George at the deadline. I can’t remember if it was even brought up or not. I don’t think it was. It’s all fake news anyway. You know that. Somebody’s gonna start it and [it] just was a snowball effect. [The phone call] was not about Paul George.”
On his advice for Johnson on running an NBA franchise:
“You can put a team together, what you think is gonna be a pretty solid team on paper, and then when they get out there they don’t mesh well. I’m sort of going through that this year. We thought we had a decent team that we thought could compete for the fourth or fifth seed. We haven’t played as well as I thought we would all year. That’s the growing pains. That’s the frustration about it.”
On the odds that he and Magic will make trades with any frequency:
“I’ve been here for, I don’t know how many years, 12, 13, and I haven’t made a deal with [Celtics GM] Danny Ainge yet. That should tell you something. I’ve always been closer with Danny, because I played with him for all them years, than Earvin. … Talked to Danny about a lot of trades, but never did one. I just feel it’s gotta be a fair deal for both sides and we never got there. Maybe he thought it was fair, but I didn’t think so.”
Sixers Sign Shawn Long To 10-Day Contract
10:10am: The Sixers have formally announced their deal with Long, issuing a press release to confirm the signing.
9:15am: The Sixers will bring back a player who was with them in training camp, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer, who reports (via Twitter) that Shawn Long is signing a 10-day contract with the club.
Long, 24, signed with the 76ers last summer as an undrafted free agent out of Louisiana-Lafayette. However, despite receiving a $65K guarantee from the team, Long failed to earn a spot on Philadelphia’s regular-season roster. He was cut before the regular season began and joined the Sixers’ D-League team, the Delaware 87ers, as an affiliate player.
In 37 games for Delaware this season, Long has been one of the D-League’s most productive players, averaging 20.3 PPG and 11.2 RPG with a .538 FG%. The performance has earned him another shot with the Sixers, who don’t currently have a ton of depth at the four. The club also recently signed Justin Harper to a 10-day deal to help fortify the power forward position.
Although the Sixers don’t currently have a spot open on their 15-man roster, they won’t have to release a player in order to officially sign Long. As Pompey explains, the club will be granted an injury exception to add a 16th player to the roster.
Teams can be granted injury exemptions when they have been missing at least four players for at least three games. In the Sixers’ case, Jerryd Bayless, Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Tiago Splitter are all sidelined, and none of those four players are expected back anytime soon, allowing the club to carry an extra player.
Hornets Sign Johnny O’Bryant To Second 10-Day
MARCH 6, 9:23am: Following the expiration of his initial 10-day deal overnight, O’Bryant has formally signed a second 10-day contract with the Hornets, the team announced today in a press release.
MARCH 5, 10:38am: The Hornets will sign power forward Johnny O’Bryant to a second 10-day contract, tweets Chris Haynes of ESPN.com. The signing will take place Monday when his first 10-day deal expires.
O’Bryant had 15 points and six rebounds in a reserve role in Saturday’s win at Denver. He is averaging 8.5 points and 3.0 boards in two games with the Hornets.
The former LSU star spent seven games with the Nuggets earlier this season. He spent his first two years in the NBA with the Bucks.
Charlotte, which has 13 players on guaranteed contracts and Briante Weber also on a 10-day contract, will continue to have a full 15-man roster once O’Bryant officially re-ups.
Carlos Delfino Signs With Team In Argentina
Last September, we heard that Carlos Delfino was still aiming to make an NBA comeback, and while the veteran forward hasn’t caught on with an NBA club this season, he has signed a new professional contract. According to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando, Delfino will play in his native country of Argentina, signing with Boca Juniors for the rest of the season.
A first-round pick in 2003, Delfino played eight seasons in the NBA with the Pistons, Raptors, Bucks, and Rockets, averaging 8.1 PPG and shooting 36.5% from downtown in 507 career regular-season games. He also made the playoffs with all four teams, appearing in 41 total postseason contests. However, a broken foot sidelined him for the 2013/14 season and he hasn’t played in another NBA game since then.
Delfino was healthy enough last summer to participate in the 2016 Olympics for Argentina, but his showing in those games in Brazil didn’t earn him another shot in the NBA. It will be interesting to see if a stint in Argentina catches the eye of any NBA scouts.
The veteran swingman’s game would translate well to the current style of play in the NBA — in his final season with the Rockets in 2012/13, Delfino launched a career-high 6.3 three-pointers per game, making 37.5% of them. Those numbers would fit right in with the ones being posted by many current Houston players. However, being away from the NBA for four years makes a return a long shot for Delfino.
Community Shootaround: In-Game Music
The Knicks made headlines with their decision to forgo in-game music during the first half of Sunday’s games against the Warriors. As Andrew Joseph of USA Today wrote, the result was a genuinely interesting example of what professional basketball games could be.
We know now, per Chris Haynes of ESPN, that Draymond Green was not a fan of the experiment saying that it interrupted game flow but Joseph and Kenny Ducey (whose videos were embedded in the USA Today piece) aren’t the only ones who appreciated the gesture. Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post thought it was a good idea, too.
Not only did the stadium avoid the in-game music that typically plays sporadically while the clock is ticking and during timeouts, it served the national anthem and starting lineups acapella as well.
What do you suppose you would prefer at the next professional game you attend? And would this differ if you were a player who had grown accustomed to playing under certain conditions?
Finally, should it be up to the discretion of each venue to determine whether music gets played during games or should there be some element of uniformity throughout the league?
Weigh in below!
And-Ones: All-Star Game Changes, Teague, MSG
Changes to the All-Star Game are on the horizon, writes Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press. NBA commissioner Adam Silver recently spoke about the mid-season festivities at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.
“We will change it by next year,” Silver said. “It shouldn’t be playoff intensity, but the guys should be playing.”
The commissioner speculated that the game could include four-point shots, perhaps even a ten-point shot, although there’s no guarantee those are in fact changes being floated. Regardless, one theme that appears likely to change is the lack of competitiveness that has taken away from the games in recent years.
“In an All-Star game like this, guys aren’t trying to get hurt,” guard Kyrie Irving said following this year’s All-Star Game. “We all enjoy the company of each other’s presence. But at the same token, us as competitors, when it starts getting close, you can feel it. For me, I would love to play in a competitive game.”
- Count Warriors head coach Steve Kerr among those disappointed in the competitiveness of the All-Star Game. “I think we could talk about gimmicks and talk about anything we want, whether it’s the money or involves charity, it just comes down to the players taking it seriously,” Kerr told Chris Haynes of ESPN. “I don’t think they have to be out there taking charges, but it’s a collective thing. I think they have to decide, maybe with the players’ association, they have to decide what they want that game to look like, and right now, it’s a joke.”
- The D-League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants have acquired former NBA player Marquis Teague, Scott Agness of Vigilant Sports reports. Teague last played in the NBA for the Nets in 2013/14.
- The Knicks experimented with cutting out the in-game music during the first half of Sunday’s game against the Warriors, tweets Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post. According to Chris Haynes of ESPN, Draymond Green was not a fan. “That was pathetic,” Green said. “It was ridiculous.”