NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 2/22/18
Here are Thursday’s G League assignments and recalls from around the NBA.
- The Cavaliers have recalled rookie center Ante Zizic from their Canton affiliate, the team announced on its website. In 15 games for the Charge, Zizic has averaged 15.7 PPG and 8.9 RPG.
- The Magic assigned forward Jonathan Isaac to their Lakeland affiliate, according to Orlando’s PR Twitter. Isaac will attend Lakeland’s practice but he is expected to be recalled back to Orlando before the team faces the Knicks on Thursday. Isaac, who has missed almost three months with an ankle injury, is expected to see his first game action tomorrow for the G League squad.
- The Heat have assigned guard Rodney McGruder to their G League affiliate, the Sioux City Skyforce, the team announced in a press release. McGruder has not appeared in a regular season game after undergoing surgery on a left tibia stress fracture in mid-October. He is expected to play two G League games on Saturday and Monday before making his NBA return, tweets Manny Navarro of the Miami Herald.
- The Lakers assigned rookie center Thomas Bryant to the South Bay Lakers for their upcoming two-game road trip, according to the G League team’s Twitter feed. Thomas has averaged 19.5 PPG, 7.0 RPG, and 1.6 BPG in 27 games with South Bay.
- The Timberwolves have assigned rookie center Justin Patton to the G League’s Iowa Wolves, according to the team (Twitter link). Patton has yet to make his NBA debut but has averaged 11.9 PPG for Iowa in 25 games.
Anthony Davis Talks Pelicans, Future, Free Agency
Anthony Davis is committed to the Pelicans for the remainder of his contract but is hesitant to guarantee he will remain with the team after 2021. In an interview with ESPN over the weekend, Davis raised some eyebrows as he said the Pelicans were a title contender with a healthy DeMarcus Cousins and that he is concerned about waiting too long to demand a trade to a contending team. With Cousins out for the rest of the season with a torn Achilles tendon, the organization’s future is uncertain moving forward.
Davis spoke to reporters, including Scott Kushner of The Advocate (links via Twitter), on Thursday at Pelicans practice to address his situation. Among his comments, Davis praised the effort of New Orleans’ front office to improve the team and his mindset entering each season.
While the Pelicans are missing Cousins’ production, Davis has been his usual stellar self, averaging 27.4 PPG and 10.7 RPG through 51 games. At 31-26, the Pelicans are currently a half-game up on the Clippers for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
On his future with the Pelicans:
“I’m here until 2021 and then I’ll make a decision from there. I don’t plan on leaving in the next couple of years or anything like that. I’ve always said I wanted to be here and that’s still true.”
On the Pelicans’ efforts to compete for the postseason:
“We have taken steps to be a winning franchise. We have just been hit with the injury bug every year since I’ve been here so we can’t see our full potential. We know where we could’ve been if we had those guys. But we don’t. We have to keep playing.”
On his thoughts entering each season:
“You have to take it year by year. I don’t go into any year saying I don’t want to be here or nothing like that. Of course at some point you want to win. I feel like we are trying to get the right pieces around here.”
On the Pelicans’ front office and their effort to compete:
“I think our front office is doing a better job. The best job they can do. I feel like we’re moving in the right direction. But you do have to take it year by year and see how it goes. That’s how I’m approaching it. Of course [Cousins] is a big factor, what he is going to do or not.”
Mavericks Notes: Investigation, Cuban, Noel
The Mavericks are in turmoil. Heading into the home stretch of the NBA season, the club has an 18-40 record and is on pace for its worst showing since going 20-62 in 1997/98. Off the court, Mark Cuban‘s public comments on tanking earned him a staggering $600K fine from the NBA. Both of those issues are on the back burner, however, as the club has moved to respond to a Sports Illustrated report that alleges widespread misconduct within the Mavs’ business offices.
The organization has hired outside counsel to conduct an independent investigation into the allegations in SI’s report and into the team’s workplace in general — that investigation is already underway, per Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News, who tweets that it could take about a month.
According to Jeff Zillgitt and Michael Singer of USA Today, the NBA will be privy to all findings in that independent report. Legal expert Michael McCann notes at SI.com that the league could also opt to proceed with its own investigation if it’s at all uncomfortable with the Mavs paying a firm for an “independent” investigation.
As McCann writes, the NBA’s constitution gives Adam Silver latitude to severely punish any team owner or employee guilty of “conduct prejudicial or detrimental” to the league, but it remains to be seen how hard Silver will come down on Cuban and the Mavs. While Cuban is unlikely to face the same fate as former Clippers owner Donald Sterling, a major suspension and/or fine seems possible.
After rounding up a few Mavs notes on Wednesday night, we’ve got more to pass along today. Let’s dive in…
- As Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News relays, Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle and longtime star Dirk Nowitzki addressed the Sports Illustrated report for the first time on Wednesday. Nowitzki called the allegations “disgusting” and “heartbreaking,” while Carlisle said that “no steps will be skipped” in the investigation. On a separate note, Carlisle also said that Mark Cuban has “apologized profusely” for his tanking comments.
- As the investigation gets underway, there are still many unanswered questions surrounding the Mavericks and Cuban, Sefko writes in another article for The Dallas Morning News.
- While it seems somewhat inconsequential compared to the off-court issues facing the Mavs, the team still has some burning questions to answer on the court during the final two months of the season. According to Sefko, one of those questions will be whether Nerlens Noel will have a regular role the rest of the way, and whether he has any long-term future in Dallas. Carlisle said today that Noel is on track to return from his hand injury as early as Friday (Twitter link via Sefko).da
Bulls Notes: Lineup Changes, Payne, Forman
With 25 games left in their season, the Bulls are focusing on the future, as VP John Paxson explained to reporters on Tuesday (link via Sam Smith of Bulls.com). That means that Cristiano Felicio will move into the starting lineup on Thursday in place of veteran center Robin Lopez, while David Nwaba will supplant Justin Holiday.
“The hard part from our standpoint is you can’t play 12 guys. Nine or 10 is the most,” Paxson said. “We’re going to start looking at blocks of games where we’ll be having a few guys who haven’t been playing much or at all have a significant role. The whole goal in our position is to evaluate what we have on this roster.
“The hard thing when you do things like this is you’re asking certain people to sacrifice roles and minutes,” Paxson continued. “It’s veteran guys. That’s never an easy thing. As I told them, I, along with [GM] Gar [Forman], we’re entrusted with the future of the organization. So these last 25 games, we’re going to evaluate what we have on this roster by playing more the guys we haven’t seen much this year.”
Let’s round up a few more Bulls notes…
- Cameron Payne, who has missed the entire season with a foot injury, is set to make his 2017/18 debut on Thursday, writes Madeline Kenney of The Chicago Sun-Times. Payne figures to cut into Jerian Grant‘s playing time.
- With John Paxson once again addressing reporters on Tuesday, Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times explores where Gar Forman has been “hiding” this season. According to Cowley, Paxson comes across as more “honest and transparent” than Forman, which is why the VP has handled most of the team’s media responsibilities this season. However, Forman is still very much involved in basketball operations and is by no means being pushed out of the organization.
- Justin Holiday is trying to take his reduced role in stride, per K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune. “I have to deal with it, be professional about it,” Holiday said. “Regardless of the situation or the reason, I have to carry myself a certain way because that’s how I do things. How I react and carry myself in this will be a good leadership situation for the young guys to see and follow the example if it does happen to them.”
- The $600K fine Mark Cuban received for publicly discussing the benefits of losing is exactly why Paxson and other members of the Bulls organization will dance around the subject of tanking, says Mark Strotman of NBC Sports Chicago.
Cap Hits, Salaries For 10-Day Contracts
No NBA games have been played so far this week, but the league’s transactions wire has been active. Since Sunday’s All-Star Game, the Hawks, Cavaliers, Trail Blazers, Pelicans, Suns, Pacers, Knicks, and Magic have all signed players to their rosters — and all of those deals have been 10-day contracts.
This is a prime time of the season for teams to take advantage of 10-day contracts. For rebuilding teams, they’re a great tool for getting a brief look at multiple prospects and identifying which one(s) could be capable of sticking with the club through the offseason. For contenders, 10-day deals can represent an opportunity to get a look at potential playoff contributors without committing to them for the rest of the season.
Of course, since they only last 10 days, these deals are also cheaper than rest-of-season contracts. How much cheaper? We break that down in the chart below.
While 10-day contracts don’t have to be worth the minimum salary, they nearly always are. Listed below are the actual salaries a player earns on a minimum-salary 10-day contract, along with the cap hit a team would assume for that same deal.
These figures are based on a player’s years of NBA experience coming into the 2017/18 season. So a player like Antonius Cleveland, who signed a 10-day contract with the Hawks, would be counted as having zero years of NBA experience, despite playing for the Mavericks earlier this season, since he hadn’t played in the NBA before ’17/18.
Here are the cap hits and salaries for standard 10-day contracts:
| Years in NBA |
Cap Hit |
Salary |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | $46,080 | $46,080 |
| 1 | $74,159 | $74,159 |
| 2 | $83,129 | $83,129 |
| 3 | $83,129 | $86,119 |
| 4 | $83,129 | $89,109 |
| 5 | $83,129 | $96,584 |
| 6 | $83,129 | $104,059 |
| 7 | $83,129 | $111,534 |
| 8 | $83,129 | $119,010 |
| 9 | $83,129 | $119,602 |
| 10+ | $83,129 | $131,562 |
A few additional notes on those 10-day contract figures:
- As is the case for one-year minimum salary contracts, the NBA reimburses teams for a portion of a player’s salary if the player has more than two years of NBA experience. That rule is designed to prevent teams from avoiding older players because they’d be more expensive. It’s also why most of the cap charges listed above are the same.
- For tax purposes, all minimum salary 10-day contracts are considered to be worth $83,129. So for a team looking to keep its tax bill in check, there’s no added benefit to signing a rookie.
- For a limited number of 10-day contracts that ran through the All-Star break, these figures will look slightly different. A 10-day contract must cover at least three NBA games, so a deal like Emeka Okafor‘s with the Pelicans is actually worth $157,875 with a cap hit of $99,755, since it’s technically a 12-day pact.
Southeast Notes: Hornets, Walker, Magic, Wall
Speaking to Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer, Hornets vice chairman Curtis Polk said he doesn’t expect to discuss the team’s coaching staff until a new general manager is hired. However, asked if he expects Steve Clifford to return for the 2018/19 season, Polk replied, “I would today.”
Polk also addressed a few other topics in his conversation with Bonnell, including the Hornets’ salary cap situation. With approximately $118MM in guaranteed salary on the books already for 2018/19, it will be very difficult for Charlotte to upgrade its roster this offseason. However, Polk told Bonnell that the team’s next GM will be tasked with keeping team salary below the tax line while improving the roster’s depth.
Here’s more from around the Southeast division:
- Whoever becomes the next Hornets general manager may have a ticking time bomb on their hands in the form of Kemba Walker‘s 2019 free agency, says Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. As Bonnell observes, it will be virtually impossible for Charlotte to extend Walker before his contract expires, so the standout point guard willcha almost certainly reach the open market.
- The Magic will get a pair of key players back in their lineup tonight, with Nikola Vucevic and Aaron Gordon set to return from hand and hip injuries, respectively. John Denton has the details at the club’s official website.
- Wizards point guard John Wall is still only 27 years old, so he has a long basketball career ahead of him and doesn’t yet known what he’ll do when his playing career is done. However, he intends to enter that stage of his life armed with a business degree. As Candace Buckner of The Washington Post writes, Wall will return to the University of Kentucky this summer to work toward that degree.
Hawks Sign Antonius Cleveland To 10-Day Deal
12:15pm: Cleveland’s deal with the Hawks is now official, tweets Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
8:25am: The Hawks will fill one of their two open roster spots this week by signing shooting guard Antonius Cleveland to a 10-day contract, sources tell Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).
Cleveland, 24, went undrafted out of Southeast Missouri State, but played for the Blazers in Summer League and then signed a training camp deal with the Warriors last summer. While he didn’t earn a spot on Golden State’s regular season roster, he later caught on with the Mavericks, signing a two-way contract with Dallas and appearing in 13 games for the club. He was waived by the Mavs in December.
Cleveland averaged just 6.2 minutes per contest in his 13 NBA games, but the rookie saw more consistent playing time in seven G League games with the Santa Cruz Warriors and Texas Legends. In that small sample, he averaged 13.6 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 2.1 APG, and 1.7 SPG with a .538/.500/.826 shooting line.
Atlanta is one of four teams that needed to make a roster move this week in order to get back up to 14 players after slipping to 13 at the trade deadline. The Trail Blazers have already signed Brandon Rush, while the Cavaliers are signing Marcus Thornton, leaving the Wizards as the only club that still needs to add a player.
NBA Discussing Postseason Play-In Tournament
There has been some “behind-the-scenes momentum” within the NBA for introducing a postseason play-in tournament to determine the bottom two playoff seeds in each conference, league sources tell Zach Lowe of ESPN.
While Lowe cautions that the idea falls behind addressing one-and-done for college players – and possibly reseeding the playoffs – on the NBA’s list of priorities, he reports that two specific proposals are circulating “at the highest levels” within teams and the league office.
As Lowe details, the proposal that has generated the most discussion would see the 7-10 seeds in each conference involved in a play-in tournament at season’s end for the seventh and eighth playoff spots. The tournament would look like this:
- No. 7 team hosts No. 8 team. Winner gets No. 7 seed.
- No. 9 team hosts No. 10 team. Loser eliminated.
- Loser of first game hosts winner of second game. Winner gets No. 8 seed.
According to Lowe, an earlier proposal would have seen the 8-11 seeds battling in a tournament for the No. 8 spot, but opponents of that plan argued that a team seeded as low as No. 11 in its conference shouldn’t have a shot to make the playoffs. Those in favor of the 7-10 plan outlined above point out that it rewards the higher seeds by giving them two opportunities – including at least one at home – to earn one of the final two playoff spots.
The other proposal being discussed, which has been endorsed by at least one “prominent” general manager, would be a single-elimination tournament that pits No. 7 vs. No. 10 and No. 8 vs. No. 9 for the final two playoff spots in each conference. However, that plan is probably too radical to gain widespread approval, says Lowe.
There’s some debate over how much interest a play-in tournament would generate, since the top six teams in each conference wouldn’t be involved. Still, the NBA believes the idea has some appeal since it would create another anti-tanking incentives — the teams in the 11-13 range in each conference wouldn’t be as inclined to race to the bottom, while clubs in the 5-6 range would avoid selective end-of-season tanking for seeding purposes (to gain a more favorable postseason matchup).
One complication for such a tournament would be how it would affect the draft lottery, Lowe notes. If a team finished the regular season 10th in its conference but earned a playoff spot in the play-in tournament, would that club remain in the lottery or would it be replaced by the higher seed it knocked out? According to Lowe, some officials would be in favor of also including the seventh and eighth seeds in the lottery to address that issue.
While nothing is imminent on this front, it’s interesting that the NBA is willing to seriously discuss major changes to its playoff format. We’ll see if these discussions intensify in the coming years.
Cavaliers Sign Marcus Thornton To 10-Day Contract
FEBRUARY 22: The Cavs have officially announced their 10-day deal with Thornton. However, it sounds like Thornton’s role with his G League squad won’t change much, as the Cavs’ announcement indicates he’ll be assigned to the Canton Charge before Friday’s game.
Meanwhile, Damion Lee of the Santa Cruz Warriors will replace Thornton on USA Basketball’s roster for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers, tweets Marc Stein of The New York Times.
FEBRUARY 21: The Cavaliers will fill one of their open roster spots by signing G League guard Marcus Thornton to a 10-day contract, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Cleveland had been carrying a 13-man roster since making three deals at the February 8 trade deadline. NBA rules require teams to have at least 14 players, but they are permitted to go below that number as long as they get back to 14 within two weeks.
Thornton was a second-round pick by the Celtics in 2015 and has played in Australia, Italy and the G League. The Celtics renounced their rights to Thornton over the summer and he signed with the Canton Charge, Cleveland’s G League affiliate, in November. The 25-year-old averaged 18.8 points in 37 games with Canton.
Thornton will receive $46,080 for the 10 days, but his salary will count $83,129 toward the luxury tax, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). The signing will cost the Cavs about $353K in luxury taxes, raising their overall bill to $50.3MM.
Once Thornton’s contract expires, Cleveland can sign him to another 10-day deal, keep him for the rest of the season or release him and make another move to stay at the 14-player limit.
Thornton’s signing also affects Team USA in its quest to qualify for the FIBA World Cup, notes Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link). Coach Jeff Van Gundy will have to find a replacement for Thornton before upcoming games on Friday and Monday.
Raptors Notes: Roster, Buyout Targets, Carter
With the NBA schedule set to resume following the All-Star break, the Raptors currently hold the No. 1 spot in the East and this year’s squad looks capable of setting a new franchise record for wins in a regular season. As head coach Dwane Casey tells Shaun Powell of NBA.com, the Raptors have built their roster without luring any big names to Toronto.
“It’s not like we’ve gone outside and got a superstar free agent,” Casey said. “We’ve done it organically by growing our young players and the rewarding part was people questioning what we were trying to do. We’re not there yet. We haven’t arrived. But we’ve done it the traditional way. A lot of guys around the league are partnering up, adding superstars, superstars and superstars. We’ve developed players, starting with DeMar [DeRozan].”
During the past couple postseasons, the Raptors’ lack of starpower has been an issue, with LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and the Cavaliers ending the club’s season in back-to-back years. While we wait to see if the Raps can get over the hump this spring, let’s round up a few more notes out of Toronto…
- Within a piece on the Raptors storylines to watch down the stretch, Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca discusses possible buyout targets for the club, noting that Toronto didn’t have interest in Joe Johnson or Brandan Wright, who landed with the Rockets.
- The Raps are keeping an eye out for veteran wing insurance, since C.J. Miles and OG Anunoby have both battled minor injuries, according to Lewenberg, who noted earlier this week that Arron Afflalo may be a target for Toronto. Lewenberg adds that stretch fours like Channing Frye and Ersan Ilyasova may also be nice fits, but they probably won’t receive buyouts, and would be long shots to choose Toronto even if they do reach free agency.
- After an early-February report indicated that the Raptors had interest in Vince Carter, Lewenberg recently suggested that idea is on hold for now. He goes into more detail in his latest article, writing that the club has decided “this is not the right time” for a Carter reunion. The organization doesn’t want the media coverage of such a signing to overshadow the accomplishments of this year’s squad, Lewenberg explains. The Raps haven’t ruled out the idea of an eventual reunion, but it’s “on the back burner for now,” tweets Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca.
- Earlier this week, we asked whether the Raptors will hold onto the No. 1 seed in the East.