Cavs Waive Larry Sanders, Sign Edy Tavares
APRIL 12, 3:05pm: The Cavaliers have officially signed Tavares, the team announced today in a press release. With the signing of Jones now official too, Cleveland’s roster is back up to the maximum 15 players.
APRIL 12, 8:39am: The Cavaliers have officially waived Sanders, according to a press release issued by the team. With 13 players now on their roster, the Cavs have cleared the way to sign Tavares and Jones, as noted below. Those deals figure to be made official later today.
APRIL 11, 9:06pm: The Cavaliers will waive Larry Sanders and sign Edy Tavares, according to Sham Charania of The Vertical. The scribe adds that Cleveland had no issues with Sanders during his time with the team and the two sides mutually decided to part ways since there were no plans to add him to the rotation.
Bobby Marks of The Vertical (Twitter links) notes that Cavs were able to waive Sanders because his contract was not expiring. Earlier this week, the Pistons were unable to complete the transaction of waiving Beno Udrih because every team would not have the opportunity to claim him on waivers. Sanders contract runs through the end of next season, though had it expired this season, the Cavs would not have been able to waive him.
Cleveland will have a busy day on Wednesday, signing both Tavares and Dahntay Jones. The team opted up a roster spot for Jones earlier this week when it waived DeAndre Liggins.
Tavares is a 7”3” center who played 12 games for the Hawks this season. He has been a key member of the Raptors 905, Toronto’s affiliate, during their D-League playoff run.
Cavaliers Sign Dahntay Jones
APRIL 12: The Cavaliers have officially signed Jones, the team announced today in a press release.
APRIL 9: The Cavaliers will sign Dahntay Jones with their newly-opened roster spot, tweets Chris Reichert of The Step Back. Jones, who last saw NBA action with Cleveland in 2015/16, was waived by the Cavs back in October and has been an NBA free agent since then.
Earlier today, the club waived defensive-minded shooting guard DeAndre Liggins. In place of Liggins, the Cavs will welcome Jones’ toughness and experience as the postseason approaches.
This move looks similar to one Cleveland made at the end of the 2015/16 season. The Cavs signed Jones on April 13 last year, just before the regular season ended. After playing 42 minutes and scoring 13 points in the Cavs’ final regular season game, the veteran swingman went on to appear in 15 playoff games for the team.
Jones hasn’t been a consistent part of a team’s rotation since the 2012/13 campaign, which he split with the Hawks and Mavs.
Suns GM Talks Offseason, Chandler, Bledsoe, Knight
Although the Suns’ 2016/17 season produced some memorable moments – most notably Devin Booker‘s 70-point game last month – it was a disappointing year on the whole for the club. With a 24-58 mark, Phoenix will finish with the worst record in the Western Conference.
Still, general manager Ryan McDonough remains optimistic about the team’s future. While he acknowledged that the Suns’ record this season was disappointing, he suggested this week that the club has been encouraged by the play of some of its young players since the All-Star break, which he believes bodes well for the future.
As Doug Haller of The Arizona Republic details, McDonough also spoke about the draft, some of his veteran players, and the team’s goals for 2017/18. The full piece is worth a look, especially for Suns fans, but here are a few highlights from the Phoenix GM…
On adding players in the draft and free agency this summer:
“We’ll have a high pick in the lottery. We’ll have two second-round draft picks as well. We have plenty of cap space, so we’ll have some options for this summer. We have a plan in our head right now in terms of continuing to add through the draft and build with youth, but we’ll also look at potential free-agent options. And then, the least predictable part of this, obviously, is the trades and what may swing our way. Those talks usually heat up closer to the draft.”
On how Tyson Chandler and Eric Bledsoe have handled being shut down for the season:
“Those guys have been great. Not just good, great. It was a difficult situation, but they reacted how we thought they would react. Especially Eric. He really wanted to play, and we get that. He’s a competitor. And those decisions aren’t easy to make. It’s not easy to be patient in the short term for something that will help long term.”
On Brandon Knight‘s future:
“He didn’t have the year that I think he would’ve hoped. He’s still 25 years old, I think a lot of people forget that. He’s a talented guy. Our main focus will be trying to figure out a way to put him in position to be more effective next season.”
On the Suns’ 2017/18 goals:
“We’re not as far away as it may appear given our record. We obviously made a difficult trade sending P.J. Tucker to Toronto and made some lineup adjustments that affected our win total in the short term. Hopefully, it will help our win total in the long term.
“The West is brutal, it’s hard to crack that (playoff) group. That’s kind of the way it has been in the Western Conference, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. We’re going to try and win as many games as we can and be as competitive as we can. We’ll see how the dust settles, but we’ll probably set making the playoffs as our goal again next year.”
Dillon Brooks Enters 2017 NBA Draft
Oregon forward Dillon Brooks will enter the 2017 NBA draft, he announced today in a video posted to YouTube. Brooks will sign with an agent, forgoing his remaining NCAA eligibility, per Jon Rothstein of FanRag Sports (Twitter link).
Brooks, 21, is coming off a solid junior year at Oregon in which he averaged 16.1 PPG, 3.2 RPG, and 2.7 APG in just 25.3 minutes per contest. He also improved his three-point shot — after making just 33.8% of his attempts in his first two years, the 6’6″ forward connected on 40.1% in 2016/17.
Ranked 42nd on Jonathan Givony’s big board at DraftExpress.com and 54th on Chad Ford’s ESPN board, Brooks projects as a potential second-round pick this June. As Ford outlines, the Oregon junior is an excellent scorer whose defensive struggles “continue to hurt him a bit” with scouts at the NBA level.
Check out the full list of early entrants for this year’s draft right here.
Joakim Noah Expected To Miss 4-6 Months With Torn Rotator Cuff
12:11pm: The Knicks have confirmed that Noah has a rotator cuff injury, clarifying that the injury is to his right shoulder. While team doctors have recommended surgery, a final decision has yet to be made and an official recovery timeline hasn’t been determined, according to the team (Twitter link).
8:35am: Joakim Noah‘s nightmare first year in New York has taken another unfortunate turn, with Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reporting that the veteran center will require surgery for a torn left rotator cuff. The injury is expected to keep Noah sidelined for the next four to six months, which could jeopardize his training camp availability in the fall.
Noah, 32, signed a four-year, $72MM+ contract with the Knicks last summer and struggled to produce for his new team this season, averaging 5.0 PPG and 8.7 RPG in 46 games (all starts). As NBA.com’s advanced stats show, the Knicks had a -6.0 net rating with Noah on the court, compared to -3.5 when he was on the bench.
In addition to his underwhelming play on the court, Noah has suffered a handful of other setbacks in the last two months. He underwent a left knee arthroscopy in February and then received a 20-game suspension in March for violating the NBA’s anti-drug program. The Knicks center served eight games of that suspension this season, meaning he’ll have to serve the remaining 12 next season, once he’s ruled healthy enough to play following his shoulder surgery.
Noah’s contract, which has $55MM+ left on it for the next three years, looks like an albatross, but it would be a little surprising to see the Knicks make any drastic moves with it this summer.
If the team were to waive Noah and stretch his deal, that leftover salary could be spread out over seven years, with an annual cap charge of just under $8MM. That would create about $10MM of extra cap space for the next three years, but would add four extra years of cap hits for Noah, impacting the Knicks’ long-term flexibility. New York may prefer to wait and see if Noah can bounce back somewhat in 2017/18.
Wizards’ Ian Mahinmi To Miss Start Of Playoffs
The Wizards will be without a key bench piece when their first-round series against the Hawks gets underway this weekend, reports Candace Buckner of The Washington Post. According to Buckner, veteran center Ian Mahinmi is dealing with a strained left calf, and will miss the team’s regular season finale, in addition to the start of the postseason.
Mahinmi, who sustained the injury on Monday, underwent an MRI that revealed some swelling. While Washington’s playoff schedule hasn’t yet been announced, the team intends to re-evaluate Mahinmi in seven to 10 days, so even if he’s ready to get back on the court at that point, he’d likely miss the first two or three games of the first round.
It’s a disappointing setback for Mahinmi, whose first season with the Wizards after signing a four-year, $64MM deal last summer has been marred by injuries. Although knee problems kept the 30-year-old out of action for most of the first half of the season, he had played well off the bench for Washington over the last couple months, averaging 5.6 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and 1.1 SPG in 31 regular season contests (17.9 MPG).
“We’ll definitely miss Ian because he was actually playing his best basketball, defensively he was giving us a very good rim protector and pick-and-roll player,” Wizards head coach Scott Brooks said. “I’m still confident in the group. We’ll still play hard and play well.”
With Mahinmi out, the Wizards may lean more heavily on starting center Marcin Gortat, with players like Markieff Morris and Jason Smith spelling him as needed.
Send Your Best Blog Posts Our Way
Hoops Rumors will be expanding how we engage with the basketball blogosphere and ramping up our current Hoops Links offerings. We love what the blog community means to the sports world and want to make sure that we shine a light on the best original content pumped out by journalists and fans alike.
Typically, we’ve posted our weekly round-up of the blogosphere’s best content on Sundays. That will change going forward so that we can publish our weekly celebration of the internet’s top material during the middle of the week when readers are chained to their cubicles desperate for distraction material.
Help us help you be that distraction material.
My name is Austin Kent and I’ll be the primary point of contact for this venture heading forward, you can get at me on Twitter at @AustinKent. With or without content submissions, I’ll be constantly scouring the web for the best blog content, the funniest material, and the most thought provoking analysis printed on this here contraption we call the internet.
If you’ve put your blood, sweat and tears into an original long-form feature for your own independent blog, send it my way. If you know of a particularly entertaining post from a major networked blog, yeah, we want that too. At the end of the day, we want the highest quality content churned out by the fan community, regardless of the publication’s pedigree, and we want it all.
This is a green light to promote your favorite blogs, even if that blog is your own. Just be aware that we receive a significant volume of submissions and will only be able to share the best of the best with our readers.
What are you waiting for? It’s time to start generating content.
Twitter: @AustinKent
Email: HoopsRumorsTips@sports.ws
Draft Updates: Bryant, Humphries, Blakeney
Four members of the Indiana Hoosiers announced on Tuesday that they’ll be entering their names in the 2017 NBA draft, and at least one – OG Anunoby – will hire an agent, forgoing his remaining NCAA eligibility. Anunoby’s decision was previously reported, as was James Blackmon Jr.‘s decision to test the draft waters.
Of the two other Indiana prospects entering the draft, sophomore center Thomas Bryant is the more intriguing prospect. He ranks 43rd on Jonathan Givony’s big board at DraftExpress.com and 50th on Chad Ford’s list at ESPN.com, with Ford suggesting that Bryant would likely come off the board in the 25-50 range despite a somewhat disappointing sophomore season. The other Hoosier testing the draft waters is junior guard Robert Johnson, ranked 47th among NCAA juniors by DraftExpress.
Here are a few more of the latest early entrant decisions:
- Kentucky sophomore center Isaac Humphries has decided to turn pro and will sign with an agent, the school announced today in a press release. Humphries is definitely no lock to be drafted, but Kentucky’s announcement notes that he may explore international opportunities, with Evan Daniels of Scout.com tweeting that Europe and Australia are possibilities for the young big man.
- LSU sophomore Antonio Blakeney will enter the draft, Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports relays (Twitter link). A source tells Rothstein that the shooting guard has not yet decided whether he will hire an agent.
- USC junior guard Elijah Stewart will test the draft waters without hiring an agent, according to Jonathan Givony (Twitter link). DraftExpress ranks Stewart 16th among juniors, but he’s not currently on the site’s top-100 list.
NBA Nixed Idea Of Tony Romo Signing Contract
Longtime Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo was a Maverick for a day on Tuesday, but only ceremonially. According to Todd Archer of ESPN.com, Mavs owner Mark Cuban initially intended to formally sign Romo to a contract and perhaps even get him into last night’s game, suggesting he was willing to accept a fine from the NBA to do so. However, commissioner Adam Silver nixed that idea, telling Cuban that such a contract wouldn’t be honored, per Archer.
“Signing him and stuff like that, would have been too much for a lot of reasons,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle acknowledged after the game. “No. 1, he’s a football athlete that’s not ready to play in an NBA game. That’s very risky. No. 2, to sign a guy with all of our requirements from a physical standpoint with the hours and hours of screening and all that kinds of other stuff, it just wasn’t worth going there. And that’s not really what this is about.”
Carlisle didn’t get into it, but formally signing and playing Romo may have also been viewed as a sign of disrespect toward players more deserving of a spot on an NBA roster, particularly those who have been playing well for the Mavericks’ D-League affiliate all season long.
Even though the Mavs didn’t officially sign Romo, he participated in the team’s Tuesday shootaround and was in uniform for the game, with the franchise honoring him for his 14 years with the Cowboys and his support of the Mavs over the years. The move was panned by some observers, but Cuban dismissed those criticisms, as Archer details.
“Anybody who thinks a layup line is disrespectful hasn’t watched an NBA game,” Cuban said. “We’ve got people shooting half-court shots at every break, we’ve got kids for ball boys … We’re entertainment. And if they’re so self-important they can’t recognize that, it’s on them. Not me.”
Ultimately, rather than signing Romo with the open roster spot on their 15-man squad, the Mavs used the slot to claim DeAndre Liggins off waivers from the Cavaliers. Liggins’ contract includes a team option for 2017/18, so he could stick with Dallas through the summer.
Jarrett Allen To Enter 2017 NBA Draft
APRIL 12: Allen has decided to keep his name in the draft and will sign with an agent, a source tells Jon Rothstein of FanRag Sports (Twitter link).
MARCH 21: Texas freshman Jarrett Allen will enter the 2017 NBA draft, but won’t immediately hire an agent, reports Jon Rothstein of FanRag Sports. By not hiring an agent, Allen will retain the ability to test the draft waters and withdraw his name at a later date, retaining his NCAA eligibility.
Assuming he does keep his name in the draft, Allen is projected as a probable first-round pick. Both Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress and Chad Ford of ESPN.com view the 6’11” center as a top-20 prospect for 2017, with Givony placing him 12th and Ford ranking him 16th.
In his first – and possibly only – season as a Longhorn, Allen averaged 13.4 PPG, 8.4 RPG, and 1.5 BPG for the club, shooting 56.6% from the field. According to Ford, some scouts have questions about Allen’s toughness, but love his athleticism and his 7’6″ wingspan.
Our full list of early entrants for the 2017 NBA draft can be found right here.