NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 11/20/17
Here are Monday’s G League assignments and recalls from across the NBA:
3:25pm:
- The Bucks have recalled 2017 second-rounder Sterling Brown from the G League, the team announced today in a press release. Brown averaged 25.5 PPG in two games with the Wisconsin Herd during his assignment.
2:17pm:
- The Knicks have recalled rookie shooting guard Damyean Dotson from the G League, according to the team (via Twitter). Dotson, assigned to the Westchester Knicks for Sunday’s game, scored 23 points in the team’s victory over the Lakeland Magic.
- Magic rookies Khem Birch and Wesley Iwundu, who were on the other side of Sunday’s Lakeland/Westchester matchup, were recalled to the NBA today, the team announced (via Twitter). Birch and Iwundu both had double-doubles on Sunday, combining for 34 points and 23 rebounds for Orlando’s G League affiliate.
- The Raptors have sent Bruno Caboclo and Alfonzo McKinnie to the G League, per the team (Twitter link). Both players should be active for Monday’s Raptors 905 contest vs. the Greensboro Swarm.
- Big man Georgios Papagiannis has been recalled to the NBA by the Kings, tweets Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee. Papagiannis grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds for the Reno Bighorns on Sunday, chipping in 12 points in the club’s loss to the Long Island Nets.
Jared Sullinger Extends Contract In China
After signing a two-month contract with the Shenzhen Leopards in September, veteran big man Jared Sullinger has now extended his contract with the Chinese club, agreeing to a full-season deal, per international basketball reporter David Pick (Twitter link).
As Pick details, Sullinger’s new agreement with the Leopards includes bonuses that could increase the value of his deal to $1.4MM. The Chinese season ends before the NBA season does, so depending on how deep a playoff run his team makes, Sullinger could get clearance to return to the NBA in the spring.
As is the case with many players who make the leap from the NBA to the Chinese Basketball Association, Sullinger has been putting up huge numbers so far this season. In nine games for Shenzhen, the 25-year-old has averaged 34.0 PPG and a league-high 15.6 RPG. Sullinger, a former first-round pick who spent five NBA seasons with the Celtics and Raptors, has helped lead the Leopards to a 5-4 record so far.
Jusuf Nurkic Looking To Stay With Blazers Long-Term
The Trail Blazers and center Jusuf Nurkic didn’t reach an agreement on a rookie scale extension prior to October’s deadline, but the two sides have interest in a long-term deal and are expected to resume talks in the summer, agent Aylton Tesch tells Ben Golliver of SI.com.
“I feel like the Blazers are very happy with Jusuf and Jusuf is very happy there,” Tesch said. “We had some [extension] talks, but we decided to play it out this year and engage in talks again in July. He has already proven that he can help the team. There is a fit for Jusuf in Portland and he’s looking to stay there long-term.”
Nurkic, 23, looked great in Portland down the stretch last season, averaging 15.2 PPG, 10.4 RPG, and 1.9 BPG in 20 games for the club after being traded to the Blazers by the Nuggets. However, his season ended early due to a broken leg. Considering he spent most of the offseason recovering from that injury, and the Blazers only got a brief look at him in 2016/17, it made sense that the team wanted to see more before committing to a lucrative, long-term deal.
So far this season, Nurkic’s play has been a little up and down, but he’s averaging a solid 14.6 PPG and 7.2 RPG in 16 starts. The Bosnian big man is also happy playing in Portland after spending the first two and a half years of his NBA career in Denver, where the Nuggets often had an overcrowded frontcourt.
As Golliver details, Nurkic and his agent requested a trade multiple times during his stint in Denver, with the Nuggets fulfilling the trade request his camp made during the 2016/17 season. Nurkic, who felt like outsiders viewed him as a player with an attitude problem when he was a Nugget, was seeking an opportunity where he could be the full-time starting center, and was grateful that Denver was able to accommodate that wish.
“I needed a change of scenery. Both sides needed it,” Nurkic said. “I’m thankful Denver let me go where I wanted to go. If I was doing all the bad things that people said, the Nuggets wouldn’t have traded me where I wanted to go, and they probably would have gotten a way better deal than they got.”
Nurkic will be a restricted free agent in 2018, giving the Blazers the opportunity to match any offer sheet he may sign. While Portland would presumably like to retain the young center, the team already has more than $110MM in salary guarantees on its books for 2018/19, so a new deal for Nurkic figures to increase that total beyond the tax threshold, barring another salary dump.
Leandro Barbosa To Play In Brazil
Veteran guard Leandro Barbosa is continuing his playing career in his home country of Brazil, having joined Franca Basquete, the team recently announced (Instagram link). Barbosa’s agreement with the Brazilian club was first reported by Giancarlo Giampietro (Twitter link).
Barbosa, who will turn 35 next Tuesday, began his basketball career in Brazil back in 1999 and has played there as recently as the 2013/14 season. However, he has spent the majority of the last 15 years playing for NBA teams, appearing in 969 total regular season and playoff games for the Suns, Warriors, Raptors, Celtics, and Pacers.
Most recently, the Brazilian guard played a part-time role for the Suns last season, rejoining the franchise with which he started his career. In 67 games (14.4 MPG), Barbosa averaged 6.3 PPG, 1.6 RPG, and 1.2 APG, with a shooting line of .439/.357/.889. Phoenix elected not to guarantee Barbosa’s full $4MM salary for 2017/18 though, waiving him in July to save $3.5MM.
The exact terms of Barbosa’s deal with Franca Basquete aren’t clear — it’s possible he’ll be free to explore NBA opportunities later in the season, if there’s any interest.
Poll: NBA’s Worst Team
We’re only about 20% of the way through the NBA’s regular season schedule for 2017/18, but the league’s standings are already starting to look like what we expected. In the West, the Warriors and Rockets lead the way, followed by the Spurs and Timberwolves. In the East, the Celtics, Raptors, Cavaliers, and Wizards all show up near the top of the standings, with one surprise interloper in the Pistons.
Similarly, at the other end of the spectrum, a handful of teams that we expected to vie for 2018’s first overall pick have sunk to the bottom of the league’s standings. As our 2017/18 Reverse Standings show, here are the NBA’s worst seven teams to open the season:
- Dallas Mavericks (3-14): Last season represented the first time this century that the Mavericks finished the season below .500. In 2016/17, Dallas lost 15 of its first 18 games before righting the ship somewhat and finishing with 33 wins. It remains to be seen whether the club can perform a similar turnaround this year.
- Atlanta Hawks (3-13): Projected by oddsmakers for 25.5 wins this season, the Hawks are currently on pace for just 15 victories. Injuries have played a part in their early-season struggles, but there simply aren’t many above-average players on the roster.
- Chicago Bulls (3-11): Like Atlanta, Chicago doesn’t have a ton of talent on its roster and was expected to finish at or near the bottom of the Eastern Conference heading into the season. Players like Nikola Mirotic, Cameron Payne, and Zach LaVine have been sidelined with injuries so far, so their respective returns could buoy the Bulls, but of those players, only LaVine figures to have a real impact.
- Sacramento Kings (4-12): By signing veterans like George Hill, Zach Randolph, and Vince Carter to complement their young core, the Kings didn’t look ready to bottom out this season. So far though, those vets have struggled, and many of their young players aren’t ready for major roles.
- Los Angeles Clippers (5-10): The most surprising inclusion in this list, the Clippers began the season 4-0, but are currently in the midst of an eight-game skid. The team’s schedule has been tough during that stretch, so I’d expect some course correction soon, but the Clips don’t look like a playoff team in the first year of the post-Chris Paul era.
- Brooklyn Nets (6-10): The Nets have played hard this season and should remain fairly competitive on most nights, but with Jeremy Lin out for the season and D’Angelo Russell battling health issues as well, the club will face an uphill battle in its quest to get to 30 or 35 wins.
- Phoenix Suns (7-11): Phoenix looked like the worst team in the league through three games, but a coaching change and an Eric Bledsoe trade have the club looking revitalized. The rebuilding Suns still aren’t a playoff contender, and they’ll go through their share of growing pains over the course of the season. However, they appear capable of staying out of the NBA cellar.
What do you think? Which one of these clubs will finish the 2017/18 season with the NBA’s worst record? Or is there another team outside of this group of seven that will slip down the standings and “surpass” all of these clubs? Vote below and jump into our comment section to share your thoughts!
Which team will have the worst record in 2017/18?
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Chicago Bulls 34% (500)
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Dallas Mavericks 23% (338)
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Atlanta Hawks 22% (330)
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Sacramento Kings 8% (115)
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Phoenix Suns 4% (54)
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Another team 4% (54)
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Brooklyn Nets 3% (42)
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Los Angeles Clippers 2% (36)
Total votes: 1,469
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
Hoops Rumors Glossary: Bird Rights
The Bird exception, named after Larry Bird, is a rule included in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement that allows teams to go over the salary cap to re-sign their own players, as most NBA fans know. A player who qualifies for the Bird exception, formally referred to as a Qualifying Veteran Free Agent, is said to have “Bird rights.”
The most basic way for a player to earn Bird rights is to play for the same team for at least three seasons, either on a multiyear deal or separate one-year contracts. Still, there are other criteria. A player retains his Bird rights in the following scenarios:
- He changes teams via trade. For instance, the Pelicans hold DeMarcus Cousins‘ Bird rights as he approaches 2018 free agency, despite just acquiring him in February. His Bird clock didn’t reset when he was traded from Sacramento to New Orleans.
- He finishes a third season with a team after having only signed for a partial season with the club in the first year. Sean Kilpatrick signed his current contract with the Nets in March of 2016. It’s only a two-year deal, so Kilpatrick won’t qualify for full Bird rights this season, but that 2015/16 season counts as the first year on his Bird clock, even though he was only under contract with the club for about a month.
- He signed for a full season in year one or two but the team waived him, he cleared waivers, and didn’t sign with another team before re-signing with the club and remaining under contract through a third season. For instance, the Sixers waived Gerald Henderson in June after he spent a single season in Philadelphia. If the club were to re-sign Henderson at some point this season, his Bird clock would move to a second year, rather than resetting.
A player sees the clock on his Bird rights reset to zero in the following scenarios:
- He changes teams via free agency.
- He is waived and is not claimed on waivers (except as in scenario No. 3 above).
- His rights are renounced by his team. However, his Bird rights are restored if he re-signs with that team without having signed with another NBA team. Shabazz Muhammad (Timberwolves) and Udonis Haslem (Heat) were among the free agents who were renounced by their respective teams this past offseason before re-signing with those clubs. They’ve retained their Bird rights.
- He is selected in an expansion draft.
If a player is waived and claimed off waivers, and he would have been in line for Bird rights at the end of the season, he would retain only Early Bird rights. Meanwhile, a player with Bird rights who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year contract (or a one-year deal with a second-year option) would lose his Bird rights if he’s traded. As such, he receives the ability to veto trades so he can avoid that scenario.
When a player earns Bird rights, he’s eligible to re-sign with his team on a maximum-salary contract for up to five years with 8% annual raises when he becomes a free agent, regardless of how much cap room the team has. The maximum salary will vary for each player depending on how long he has been in the league, but regardless of the amount, a team can exceed the salary cap to complete the deal.
A team with a Bird free agent is assigned a “free agent amount” or cap hold worth either 190% of his previous salary (for a player with a below-average salary) or 150% of his previous salary (for an above-average salary), up to the maximum salary amount. For players coming off rookie scale contracts, the amounts of those cap holds are 300% and 250%, respectively.
The Bulls, for instance, will have a cap hold worth about $9.6MM for Zach LaVine on their 2018/19 books — 300% of his $3.2MM salary for 2017/18. Chicago could renounce LaVine and clear an extra $9.6MM in cap space, but the Bulls would lose his Bird rights if they did that, which would force them to use either cap room or a different cap exception to re-sign him.
Instead, the Bulls will likely use LaVine’s Bird rights and his cap hold strategically, perhaps using their cap space on other free agents and/or trades while LaVine’s $9.6MM cap hold remains on the books. The Bulls could then circle back and use Bird rights to sign LaVine to a contract with a starting salary much higher than $9.6MM.
Ultimately, the Bird exception was designed to allow teams to keep their best players. The CBA ensures that teams are always able to re-sign them to contracts up to the maximum salary, assuming the player is interested in returning and his team is willing to go over the cap.
Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.
Earlier versions of this post were published in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 by Luke Adams and Chuck Myron.
Central Notes: Turner, Thomas, Calderon
It’s been eight games since Myles Turner returned to action for the Pacers after suffering a concussion in the team’s season opener. The big man, Clifton Brown of the Indianapolis Star writes, has been struggling to find his groove ever since.
The third-year center has failed to top the 13-point plateau in each of the past five games and he hasn’t cracked double-digits in rebounds either. Last season, in contrast, the 21-year-old averaged 14.5 points and 7.3 rebounds per game for the Pacers, setting the stage for a significant step forward in the first season without Paul George in the lineup.
“Sometimes when you miss games, it sets you back and you lose your rhythm,” Pacers coach Nate McMillan said. “He had some shots that he’s very capable of making. I told him, ‘Don’t get down on yourself. Keep shooting the ball. That rhythm will come for you.'”
There’s more from the Central Division:
- It’s coming, but the Cavaliers are still adapting to life without Kyrie Irving, Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer writes. There has been a noticeable hole in Cleveland’s attack at the point, although injuries to Isaiah Thomas and Derrick Rose have played a large part of that.
- The Cavaliers will turn to Jose Calderon to fill a gaping hole at the point guard position, Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com writes. The 36-year-old has only played 6.7 minutes per game for the Cavs this season.
- The rehabilitation process inherent with Isaiah Thomas‘ hip injury has helped the player build a unique sense of respect with the Cavaliers franchise. “I’m protecting myself, so, even if they wanted me to hurry back, I’m not going to hurry back, just because I’ve got a long career ahead of me and an important summer as well,” Thomas, a pending free agent, told Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. “So, I’ve got to make sure I’m 100 percent healthy before I step out on the floor. But these guys have not rushed me one bit. They’ve taken their time with me and I appreciate that. Because most teams, they want you out there, especially if things aren’t going well.“
Atlantic Notes: Covington, Siakam, Porzingis
While the common reaction may be to tout Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons as prime examples of The Process paying off, Keith Pompey of The Inquirer writes that Robert Covington may be a better example.
Covington, now a coveted (and well-paid) three-and-D specialist, was an unpolished, lanky three-point shooter when the Sixers picked him up during the 2014/15 season. It was head coach Brett Brown who challenged him to round out his game.
The Process, Pompey writes, was about developing young players amid all the years of tanking so a completed project like Covington – who now averages 16.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, not to mention 3.7 threes per contest at a .491 clip – is as fine an embodiment as any of the Sixers’ transition.
There’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- With D’Angelo Russell and Jeremy Lin in street clothes, now is Isaiah Whitehead‘s time to earn playing time at the point guard position, Greg Joyce of the New York Post writes. “I think I’ve matured a lot since last year,” Whitehead says of the fluctuations in his role with the Nets. “I don’t think I would have been able to handle that last year. But I’ve matured a lot, knowing it’s for the better. … I think I reacted well to it.“
- Second-year forward Pascal Siakam has made an impact on Raptors games with his relentless energy level, Michael Grange of Sportsnet writes. “He don’t get tired,” teammate DeMar DeRozan says. “I don’t understand it. Y’all should see him before practice. He’s out there doing all types of drills, already sweating and everything. It’s crazy to see.“
- An eclectic offseason training regime can be credited, at least in part, with Kristaps Porzingis‘ emergence as a superstar this season, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. The Knicks big man trained with a professional boxer and went on a safari in South Africa.
NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 11/19/17
Here are Sunday’s G League assignment and recalls from around the NBA:
8:30pm:
- The Cavaliers assigned center Ante Zizic to their G League affiliate, Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com writes. The big man has seen limited action for the big league club this season.
5:02pm:
- The Lakers have recalled Ivica Zubac and Josh Hart from South Bay Lakers, Mike Bresnahan of Spectrum Sportsnet tweets. In his latest two-game stint with Los Angeles’ G-League affiliate, Zubac averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds per contest.
- The Knicks have assigned Damyean Dotson to their G-League affiliate, the Westchester Knicks, per the team’s Twitter feed.
- The Heat have recalled Derrick Walton Jr. from their G-League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, the team announces via press release. Walton will continue to shuffle back and forth between the two clubs, as he’s on a newly established two-way deal.
- The Hawks have recalled Nicolas Brussino, Tyler Dorsey, and Miles Plumlee, from the team’s G League affiliate, the Erie BayHawks, according to a team press release.
Pacific Notes: Ball, Looney, Cauley-Stein
When Lonzo Ball ignored an on-court scuffle between some of his Lakers teammates and members of the Suns on Friday, the rookie took heat for not stepping into the fray to defend them. As Jordan Greer of the Sporting News writes, however, head coach Luke Walton doesn’t have any issues with how the first-year guard handled the situation.
“I don’t really care about how that looks because our guys love Zo,” Walton said. “I think [the rest of the Lakers] all know what that looked like isn’t what Zo is about and isn’t symbolizing what his feelings are on that type of situation. I know the general public and the internet world likes to do what they do.”
Fellow Lakers rookie Kyle Kuzma went so far as to call out a double standard between Ball and other players in the NBA. “He’s my teammate and he’s very misunderstood as a person,” Kuzma said. “There’s a lot of media out there and people that expect him to be something that he’s not right now and that’s okay because he’s a rookie.”
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Despite the fact that his team option for next season was declined, Kevon Looney has impressed with the Warriors so far this season, Connor Letourneau of the San Francisco Chronicle writes. “Obviously, it’s a tough situation to not get your option picked up. But it’s on you to do something about it, and he’s doing something about it. … The success that he’s having, I’m looking forward to him keeping it up. He’s been helping us win games,” teammate Draymond Green said.
- In addition to learning the NBA game after years of international ball, Kings rookie Bogdan Bogdanovic is learning three positions. Combined, it’s led to a bit of learning curve, Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee writes. “The basketball is really different here. A lot of athletes, the size is different as well. Those are all things that come by time, that’s part of the adjustment,” Bogdanovic said.
- The Kings have experimented with new lineups over the course of the season, one of the latest being to move Willie Cauley-Stein to the bench and giving him an expanded role on offense. Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee writes that even though Cauley-Stein seemed to enjoy the new challenge, the club will likely continue to experiment with different personnel combinations.