Heat Waive Liggins, McCree, Mitchell
Miami trimmed its roster to 17 players by waiving DeAndre Liggins, Erik McCree and Tony Mitchell, the team announced on its website.
Liggins signed with the Heat on Tuesday after being acquired and waived by the Hawks last month. He started Friday’s preseason game and scored five points. A two-time G League Defensive Player of the Year, Liggins will likely wind up with Miami’s affiliate in Sioux Falls if he clears waivers.
Mitchell, a 25-year-old power forward who signed with Miami on Thursday, has played 96 games for Sioux Falls since 2013. McCree, who inked a training camp deal in September, is a 23-year-old forward from Louisiana Tech.
With Derrick Walton on a two-way contract, Miami still has one more move to make to reach the roster limit. It’s possible that rookie guard Matt Williams‘ contract could be converted to a two-way deal.
C.J. McCollum Suspended For One Game
The NBA has suspended Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum for one game without pay for leaving the bench during an altercation during a preseason contest, the league announced today in a press release. The incident took place during Wednesday’s game in Phoenix.
The Trail Blazers are scheduled to return to Phoenix to play the Suns on Wednesday in their first game of the season, so McCollum will be ineligible to appear in that contest. McCollum’s season will begin next Friday in Indiana against the Pacers.
The suspension will cost McCollum $165K in salary, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN.
Emeka Okafor To Play For Sixers’ G League Team
Former second overall pick Emeka Okafor has opted to join the Sixers’ G League team, the Delaware 87ers, after being cut today by Philadelphia, tweets Ian Begley of ESPN.com. According to Begley, Okafor will look to boost his value with his G League play, in the hopes of signing with an NBA team at some point this season.
Okafor last played in the NBA during the 2012/13 campaign, making 77 starts at center for the Wizards that season. However, injury issues – including a herniated disc in his neck – derailed Okafor’s career. The 35-year-old center indicated earlier this summer that he had been medically cleared and hoped to make it back to the NBA, but he wasn’t able to break camp with the 76ers.
Because Okafor has never played in the G League before, the Sixers have the opportunity to make him one of their affiliate players. Teams can assign up to four players they’ve waived to their G League affiliate, assuming those players sign G League contracts. Okafor figures to be joined in Delaware by James Blackmon, Andrew Andrews, and Marc Loving.
Jazz Waive Naz Mitrou-Long
The Jazz continue to inch toward the regular season roster limit, announcing today in a press release that they’ve waived another camp invitee, Naz Mitrou-Long. Mitrou-Long signed with Utah as an undrafted rookie out of Iowa State, and appears likely to play for the Salt Lake City Stars in the G League.
Following the release of Mitrou-Long, the Jazz are now carrying 18 players. Two of those players are on two-way contracts, so the club needs to make just one more cut – or trade – to get its NBA roster down to the 15-man limit. However, it’s not clear which player will be on the chopping block.
The Jazz have 15 players on guaranteed salaries, but Raul Neto and his non-guaranteed contract should start the regular season with the club. That means parting ways with a player on a guaranteed deal — a Friday report indicated that Utah’s decision figures to come down to Joel Bolomboy vs. Royce O’Neale.
The Jazz may not make a final decision on Bolomboy and O’Neale until Monday. Since both players have fully guaranteed contracts, there’s no rush to waive either of them today. Mitrou-Long’s non-guaranteed salary, on the other hand, would have started to count against Utah’s cap if he had remained under contract beyond today.
Timberwolves Waive Three Players
The Timberwolves have waived three players from their roster, the team announced today in a press release. Amile Jefferson, Melo Trimble, and Shawne Williams were the players cut, and they’ll become free agents on Monday, assuming they clear waivers.
The three cuts appear to signal that the Wolves have finalized their roster for the regular season. The team is now carrying 15 players in total, including 13 on guaranteed salaries, one (Marcus Georges-Hunt) on a non-guaranteed deal, and one on a two-way contract. Minnesota figures to head into the season with 14 players on its NBA roster, though the club may add a second two-way player.
As for Jefferson, Trimble, and Williams, they’ll likely end up playing for the Iowa Wolves, Minnesota’s new G League affiliate.
Wizards Waive Donald Sloan, Retain Carrick Felix
The Wizards have waived veteran point guard Donald Sloan, according to Candace Buckner of The Washington Post. Washington has confirmed the move in a press release.
This move paves the way for Carrick Felix to enter the regular season holding Washington’s final roster spot, Bucker notes. Washington’s roster now appears set at the 17-player maximum, with 15 on the NBA roster and two under two-way contracts.
Sloan, 29, did not play in the Wizards’ preseason finale on Friday, a 110-103 win over the Knicks. Sloan has made appearances in five different uniforms, suiting up for the Hawks, Hornets, Pacers, Cavaliers, and Nets.
As for Felix, 27, the former Cavaliers second-round pick (33rd overall) is looking to complete a full comeback from a series of knee injuries. He has not appeared in a regular season NBA contest since his rookie campaign when he averaged 2.7 PPG in seven games.
“Things like that, the injury I suffered, it happens to one percent of the world,” Felix said to reporters, including Bucker, earlier this week. “A lot of people break their knee cap and it kind of stays together [but] mine had a really big displacement, so I just had to take the time and really rest and let my body heal at once.”
Felix played in 66 minutes during the preseason, posting 32 points, seven rebounds, and four blocks in four games. Felix figures to replace Sheldon Mac on the depth chart after the young shooting guard suffered a potentially season-ending left Achilles’ tendon tear last week.
Jazz Sign, Waive Kendall Pollard
OCTOBER 14: Less than 24 hours after signing him, the Jazz have waived Pollard, the team announced in a press release. Utah is now in position to make Pollard an affiliate player for the Salt Lake City Stars, the club’s G League squad.
OCTOBER 13: The Jazz have signed forward Kendall Pollard, Matt Sanchez of the team’s official site writes. The 22-year-old Dayton product went undrafted in the 2017 NBA Draft.
The signing brings Utah’s roster count up to 20 players, 15 of whom are already on guaranteed contracts. The franchise likely signed the free agent with the intention of waiving him to make him an affiliate player for their G League squad.
Cavaliers Cut Kendrick Perkins, Isaac Hamilton
The Cavaliers have waived veteran center Kendrick Perkins, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
Perkins, 32, showed up to training camp in great shape, appearing in three preseason games with Cleveland. He racked up 12 points, 11 rebounds and three assists in 25 total minutes played.
Perkins — who missed the 2016/17 season — tells Wojnarowski that he wants to continue playing but will consider coaching if he decides to retire (via Twitter). Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue told reporters, including Cleveland.com’s Joe Vardon, that the organization has discussed bringing Perkins to the coaching staff if he cannot find an on-court role.
“We’ve already talked about that,” Lue said. “I think Perk was great because he holds everybody accountable. He plays the right way, tries to do the right thing every single day.”
Perkins started his career in 2004 with the Celtics and proceeded to spend parts of the following eight seasons in Boston. The 6’10”, 270-pound Perkins was a key player on the Celtics’ 2008 NBA championship team. After he was traded from Boston, Perkins spent parts of five seasons with the Thunder and, in recent years, made cameos with the Cavaliers and Pelicans. For his career, Perkins boasts averages of 5.4 PPG and 5.8 RPG in 781 career games.
“I definitely want to coach when I hang them up,” Perkins said this week, per Cleveland.com. “Right now my mind is on trying to play. Not only can I be a voice in the locker room, but I feel I can go out and contribute 8-to-12 minutes a night.”
The Cavaliers also waived Isaac Hamilton, ensuring that the roster is ready to go for the regular season. Hamilton is a good bet to join the franchise’s G League affiliate, the Canton Charge.
Hawks Exercise Options On DeAndre’ Bembry, Taurean Prince
The Hawks have exercised third-year (2018/19) options on both DeAndre’ Bembry and Taurean Prince, the team announced in a press release. Atlanta faced an October 31 deadline for picking up their options beyond this coming season, and Bembry ($1,634,640) and Price ($2,526,840) will return at team-friendly prices.
Bembry, 23, averaged 2.7 PPG and 1.6 RPG in just under 10 minutes per game last season. The Hawks’ first-round pick (21st overall) was effective during the NBA Summer League where he posted 17.0 PPG, 4.5 RPG and 3.3 APG in 26.3 minutes per contest.
Prince, 23, a former 12th overall pick by the Jazz, was acquired by Atlanta from Utah in a three-team trade that sent Jeff Teague to the Pacers. In his rookie campaign, he posted in 5.7 PPG and 2.7 RPG in 16.6 minutes. Prince’s season concluded with six starts in Atlanta’s first-round playoff series against the Wizards. He averaged 11.2 PPG, 5.3 RPG and 1.3 APG during the postseason.
For all of this year’s decisions on 2018/19 rookie scale options, be sure to check out our tracker.
Sixers Sign Three Players, Retain Jacob Pullen On Two-Way Deal
11:10am: The Sixers have officially confirmed that they’ve converted Pullen’s NBA deal into a two-way contract. The team also announced in a press release that it has signed Andrew Andrews, James Webb III, and Loving. All three players will likely be waived soon and land with the Delaware 87ers in the G League.
9:47am: The Sixers will sign former Ohio State forward Marc Loving, according to Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). With the regular season around the corner, Loving seems unlikely to spend much time on Philadelphia’s roster — he’ll likely be waived and then join the Sixers’ G League team as an affiliate player.
Loving, a 6’7″ forward, averaged 12.3 PPG and 4.7 RPG for the Buckeyes last season, adding 1.8 three-pointers per game at a 38.2% success rate.
In a separate roster move, the Sixers intend to convert Jacob Pullen‘s NBA contract into a two-way deal, a source tells Derek Bodner of The Athletic (Twitter link). According to Bodner, the guard’s original contract with Philadelphia included an Exhibit 10 clause, allowing the team to turn it into a two-way contract before the regular season begins.
Pullen will join former Warriors forward James McAdoo as the two-way players under contract with the Sixers.
Assuming the Sixers waive Loving shortly after signing him and formally convert Pullen’s contract to a two-way deal, the team should be set for the regular season, having reportedly waived three other players as well.