6:14pm: The Bucks have officially signed Matthews and requested waivers on Kalaitzakis, the team announced. Matthews’ contract is non-guaranteed, a source tells Eric Nehm of The Athletic (Twitter link).
4:07pm: The Bucks are signing veteran wing Wesley Matthews and waiving rookie forward Georgios Kalaitzakis in order to create a roster spot, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links).
It’s another win-now move for the defending champions, who signed center DeMarcus Cousins on Tuesday. The Bucks will be on the hook for the guaranteed portion of Kalaitzakis’ salary — he has a partial guarantee of $462,629. However, he’s already earned a good chunk of that amount by this point in the season, which makes it a very understandable move from both a basketball and financial perspective.
Matthews, 35, is entering his 13th season in the NBA. This will be a reunion for both player and team, as he spent the 2019/20 season with the Bucks, starting all 67 games he appeared in with averages of 7.4 PPG and 2.5 RPG on .396/.364/.765 shooting (24.4 MPG). He played for the Lakers last season, appearing in 58 contests (19.5 MPG) while averaging 4.8 PPG and 1.6 RPG on .353/.335/.854 shooting.
Matthews was a top-tier 3-and-D player in the early part of his career prior to tearing his Achilles tendon in 2015. He’s never put up the same type of efficient offensive numbers since suffering the injury, but he’s still regarded as a good defensive player and is a highly respected veteran. In 849 career games (739 starts), he holds career averages of 12.6 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 2.1 APG, and 1.0 SPG on .421/.379/.824 shooting.
Kalaitzakis, the 60th pick in the 2021 draft, was signed to a partially guaranteed, three-year deal ahead of his rookie season. The Greece native appeared in nine games for the Bucks for a total of 48 minutes, putting up modest stats of 1.8 PPG and 0.9 RPG in 5.3 MPG. Evidently Milwaukee did not see enough from the 22-year-0ld to justify keeping him on a standard contract.
It’s very unlikely that he gets signed by a team with an open roster spot, as that list is comprised of either contending teams or teams right against the luxury tax, or both. Perhaps a two-way spot could be possible, but all 60 of those spots are taken right now, so that would require a team to waive a current two-way player. Kalaitzakis’ most realistic path back to the NBA is probably through the G League, but returning to Europe could be a viable possibility, too.
He seemed to fit in last time he was here, guessing it won’t be much different. Bucks bench is looking much better!
I know it makes me a bad person, but I laugh just a little that he left Milwaukee to get that guaranteed ring with the LeLakers, and MKE won it without him.
pretty sure he still gets a ring even if he didnt finish the season with the bucks
He didn’t start with them either. He played their the year before, then signed with the Lakers prior to the start of the ’20-21 season.
Bucks making big moves
They’ve definitely improved their depth from about 10 deep to 12ish, depending on how you view Thanasis and Ojeleye.
With Lopez out, Cousins can come in and help fill the role he left open, and now Matthews can come in and help spell their wings. Depth is always extremely important, especially in such a long season, and this should allow the Bucks to hopefully keep their guys relatively fresh for a long post-season run..
Definitely, these guys aren’t starters or close but for a long season it’ll allow the big names to rest. It also gives an opportunity to the other guys and if they preform well they get rewarded. Look at Grayson Allen and Bobby Portis doing great and getting rewarded with more minutes.
Bucks are easily 12 deep with Giannis Middleton Holiday Lopez Allen Portis Hill Connaughton DiVancenzo Nwora Mathews and Cousins. Plus you have Oleyeje, Hood and Thanasis rounding out your top 15
DiVo hasn’t played all season, Lopez 1 game and is out indefinitely, Ojeley is out I believe 3 weeks and Thanasis is a walking foul.
Depth implies they actually get on the court and contribute..something other than fouls.
DiVo will come back as will Lopez.
You kinda of missed the obvious.
Mathews and Cousins are full ins for these two but will likely stay on even after they return which is why everyone is saying this is a good move.
Not to mention they fact they are actually decent players
Let’s keep it rolling. Marc Gasol? Sidney Moncrief?
If they don’t add Brad Lohaus and Paul Mokeski I’m boycotting the rest of the season!
Skip Gasol. Paul Mokeski!
Solid move. Didn’t even know he was available. Considering his success with Bucks. Very nice. I agree bench gets better. Now with Brook going down. Cousins has big opportunity.
Gives them that added wing depth…would have been nice for some other teams to be willing to add a piece like that, but they’re too busy adding a bunch of bigs/guards they dont need, or being scared of the luxury tax
Haha cool man, haven’t played all season because…
Kalaitzakis should go back to Europe, at least there he will get paid for playing, unlike the G-League!