John Jenkins To Miss Rest Of Season
Hawks second-year shooting guard John Jenkins will be out for the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on his lower back today, the team announced. Jenkins hasn’t played since December 20th. The team had since listed him as out indefinitely while he underwent therapy on his back.
The loss of Jenkins, the 23rd overall pick in 2012, probably doesn’t change Atlanta’s plans much. The Hawks already possess a $5.15MM disabled player exception to compensate for the loss of Al Horford. They also have a pro-rated amount of their room exception, worth $2.26MM, and nearly $1.8MM in cap space.
The news is a tougher blow for Jenkins, who played in just 13 games this season, and saw his minutes reduced to 12.2 per game from 14.8 per contest in his rookie year. He’ll remain under his rookie scale contract for next season, but there appears to be a strong chance that the Hawks will decline his $2.228MM option for 2015/16.
Hawks Sign Cartier Martin To 10-Day Contract
5:11pm: The Hawks have officially announced the signing, via Twitter.
9:51am: After letting go of James Nunnally at the end of his second 10-day contract, the Hawks are now adding small forward Cartier Martin on a short-term deal, according Shams Charania of RealGM. Martin recently played out consecutive 10-day contracts with the Bulls, who declined to extend him for the rest of the year.
Martin was released by the Hawks earlier this season, then performed well in his limited time with the Bulls, shooting over 60% from both the three and the floor overall. In his six seasons, the Andrew Vye client has career averages of 5.4 points and 2.0 rebounds on 14.4 minutes per game.
Hawks Won’t Retain James Nunnally
The Hawks won’t keep James Nunnally, whose second 10-day contract expired yesterday, per a tweet from Shams Charania of RealGM. Teams are only able to sign a player to two 10-day contracts, after that the player can only be retained through a contract that lasts at least the rest of the season.
In four games with the Hawks (his only time in the NBA), Nunnally was averaging 4.5 points on .333 shooting, and 2 rebounds per game in 13.5 minutes. Before the Hawks gave him this look, the Cavs, Bulls, and Thunder all showed some interest in the 23-year-old. Nunnally spent time in the Suns’ training camp before being waived, and has played in the D-Leauge this year as a member of the Bakersfield Jam, averaging 11.3 points a contest there.
Hawks, Bucks Receive Disabled Player Exception
While no one wishes for season ending injuries, they have allowed the Hawks and Bucks to apply for the salary cap exception designed to help teams recover from their unplanned losses. In response to their applications, the NBA has granted both teams a disabled player exception reports Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Under the disabled player exception, a team can acquire a player for the lesser of 50% of the salary of the player they lost or the standard mid-level exception. We were aware Atlanta would likely be without Al Horford for the remainder of this season but it now appears the Bucks are giving up hope for Carlos Delfino to return this season from his foot injury.
Horford’s $12MM salary caused the league to grant the Hawks a disabled player exception worth the mid-level exception of $5.15MM. However, Delfino’s $3.25MM salary only allowed the Bucks to receive a disabled player exception worth $1.63MM.
The disabled player exception must be applied for before January 15th so it appears only the Hawks and Bucks will join the Nets as teams granted this exception this season. The Nets were granted an exception worth $5.15MM after losing Brook Lopez to a foot injury.
This also indicates the Bulls were not granted or did not apply for a disabled player exception due to the injury to Derrick Rose. The Bulls may not have applied for this exception due to the fact they have spent all season trying to avoid the luxury tax and signing a player under this exception would contradict those efforts.
Each of these teams has until March 10th to use its respective exception to sign one free agent for the rest of the season. Alternatively, each team may take until February 20th to trade for a player on an expiring contract that’s worth no more than the exception plus $100K.
Charles Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes (via Twitter) the Bucks roster is at the league maximum 15 players. If Milwaukee plans to use this exception their roster size will limit them to either trading for someone or cutting a player already on their roster. The Hawks are also at the league maximum but have to make a decision next Saturday whether they will sign James Nunnally for the rest of the season or reduce their roster to 14 players.
D-League Notes: Ledo, Faverani, Celtics
In his latest piece for D-League Digest, Gino Pilato details the story of Curtis Stinson, a 30-year-old D-League veteran who’s never played in an NBA game. It’s an interesting read, and Pilato notes that a veteran presence like the one Stinson provides can be beneficial to the development of young D-League players. Here’s the latest news regarding the NBA’s official minor league affiliate:
- Mavericks rookie Ricky Ledo will see his third D-League assignment this season, the team announced today via press release. He’s averaging 14.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 2.7 assists in 29.8 minutes per game for the Texas Legends. He’s started nine of the 15 D-League contests he’s played in.
- The Celtics have assigned Vitor Faverani to the Maine Red Claws of the D-League, the team revealed today in a press release. The move might sound surprising since Faverani has played relatively well for Boston and averages about 13 minutes per game. However, comments by C’s boss Danny Ainge made it clear that it’s only a temporary assignment to help get Faverani some playing time: “This is just a quick assignment to get Vitor some more game action,” said Ainge, “He’ll be back with the Celtics for shootaround tomorrow morning.“
- More from Ainge on the move: “This is a great option for any Celtics player to get more in-game experience without missing any Celtics activities, and we expect there will be more of this type of assignment for Celtics players during the remainder of the season.” We saw Rajon Rondo see a similarly short assignment earlier this month.
- Earlier today, we passed along that the Hawks recalled Jared Cunningham from their D-League affiliate, the Bakersfield Jam.
Odds & Ends: Bledsoe, Cuban, Gortat
Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders runs down six things you need to know about the Suns, including their enviable cap position. While some might think that Phoenix would have a hard time landing big free agents, Eric Bledsoe is the kind of guy who other elite players will want to play with because he’s a fierce competitor and unselfish. It also helps that Jeff Hornacek is a player’s coach, being a former player himself.
- Can an NBA owner do a sufficient job while living on the other side of the world? No, says Mavs owner Mark Cuban, according to Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. “Absolutely not,” Cuban said. “Hypothetically speaking — and this only applies to individuals 6-foot-5 and under — you can’t,” Cuban said as an obvious shot at 6-foot-7 Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov. “That’s why I sit so close. It’s like trying to run a company and not being able to go to the sales meetings, not being able to go to the customer service meetings or the support meeting.”
- The Hawks announced that they have recalled guard Jared Cunningham from the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA Development League. Cunningham, who was re-assigned to Bakersfield on January 1st, has averaged 15.2 points, 4.2 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 29.8 minutes in 17 games (14 starts) over three stints with the Jam this season. He has appeared in three games with the Hawks this year and will be available tonight at Milwaukee. To keep up with all of this year’s D-League assignments and recalls, check out our running list.
- Wizards big man Marcin Gortat says he looks back on his time with the Suns fondly, writes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Gortat has also found a nice home for himself in Washington and the Wizards are very interested in locking him up long-term.
- Scott Rafferty of Ridiculous Upside has a breakdown of P.J. Hairston’s 40 point performance for the D-League’s Texas Legends. The former UNC standout figures to be a first-rounder in the 2014 draft and could vault himself up the board with more performances like that one.
Poll: Which Hawk Is Most Likely To Be Traded?
The Hawks currently sit at 22-19, good for the third seed in the East. That seeding could hold up, but they are far from secure as a playoff team. Al Horford is gone for the season with a torn pectoral muscle, and the Hawks are only five games away from the nearest non-playoff team at the moment.
The Hawks own the better pick between theirs and the Nets for this upcoming draft, with the worse of the two picks heading to the Celtics. The Nets have been turning things around of late, and that pick (obtained through the Joe Johnson trade) is looking less like a lock for the lottery with every Brooklyn win. The Hawks very well could stay afloat in the dreadful Eastern Conference and gain playoff experience for a fairly young roster, with a chance to advance against atypically weak playoff competition in the East. If they slip, though, it could become tempting to unload some talent to a contender in exchange for assets and a better shot at a premium pick for this year’s hyped draft.
Some players worth a look:
- Paul Millsap: Millsap is working on one of the most tradable contracts in the league, with a modest $9.5MM cap hit each season of a short two-year deal, for a highly productive 28-year-old big man.
- Jeff Teague: After expressing a desire to leave the Hawks after an extended restricted free agency, the Hawks wound up matching the Bucks’ offer sheet to secure the point guard for $32MM over four years. The Hawks are developing rookie point guard Dennis Schröder, and former Sixth Man of the Year, Louis Williams, is playing his way back from an ACL injury as a point/shooting guard combo.
- Kyle Korver: Korver’s contract also stretches over four years, but the cap hit shrinks incrementally from $6.8MM this year to, eventually, $5.2 in the final year. Korver is a historically good three-point shooter, and there are usually contenders in the hunt for a scoring rotation piece as the season progresses.
- Al Horford: Horford has three years and $36MM left on his contract, and is sitting out this year due to the aforementioned pectoral injury. The Hawks had also turned away all trade proposals for the center at last report.
What do you think? Will the Hawks make any significant moves before the trade deadline, or hang on to their current foundation?
Ivan Johnson Becomes Free Agent
4:01pm: The Clippers might have interest in Johnson, according to Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link).
10:13am: The Zhejiang Golden Bulls have waived Ivan Johnson, the team announced, allowing the power forward to become a free agent and pursue reported NBA interest from several teams, including the Hawks (translation via Shaopeng Shen on Twitter; hat tip to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). The team also announced the signing of small forward Mike Harris, whom the Jazz waived earlier this month, in a corresponding move.
Johnson was averaging 26.0 points and 9.9 rebounds in China, so it’s unclear why the team released him other than as a favor. Perhaps Johnson and the team agreed to a buyout, though that’s just my speculation. He’d become a mainstay in Atlanta’s rotation the past two seasons before signing with the Chinese team in late August. The Knicks seemed to be the most engaged among the NBA clubs that eyed the Jeremiah Haylett client this past summer.
Any NBA team that signs Johnson will have to arrange for FIBA clearance before the move can become official, but that shouldn’t be too much of a hurdle. He could be in the market for a 10-day contract, though I wouldn’t be surprised if he commanded a deal for the rest of the season right away.
Harris made the Jazz out of camp, and while he averaged 4.2 points in 11.3 minutes per game for Utah, the team decided to waive the fourth-year NBA veteran before his contract became guaranteed. Unless he signed a multiyear deal, which ex-NBA players rarely do with Chinese teams, he could return to the NBA in another month or two, once Zhejiang’s season is complete.
Hawks Re-Sign James Nunnally
WEDNESDAY, 9:06am: The deal is now official, the team announced.
TUESDAY, 9:30am: The Hawks will sign James Nunnally to a second 10-day contract on Wednesday, reports Shams Charania of RealGM.com. His first deal with the team expired last night, when it appeared Atlanta was still debating whether to keep the 23-year-old forward, according to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link). The Hawks will have to decide whether to keep Nunnally for the rest of the season when his second 10-day contract ends.
Nunnally hasn’t had a chance to make much of an impression during his time with the Hawks, who’ve put him on the court for a single eight-minute appearance so far. He’s done most of his work this season with the Bakersfield Jam of the D-League, averaging 18.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game. The Suns had him in training camp this fall, and he averaged 3.0 PPG in 10.5 minutes per game during the preseason.
Atlanta has 14 guaranteed contracts, so keeping Nunnally around for the rest of the season would make that 15, limiting the team’s flexibility. Even if the Hawks decide against keeping him, it sounds like he has plenty of other opportunities for NBA work. He was one of the most sought-after camp invitees, and he met with the Cavs, Bulls and Thunder before signing his first 10-day deal with the Hawks.
Hawks, Others Interested In Ivan Johnson
Over the summer, Ivan Johnson waited and waited to find an NBA deal to his liking. When he couldn’t get anything more than the veteran’s minimum, he opened things up to international offers and wound up signing in China. With the end of the CBA season in sight, however, several teams, including the Hawks, are showing interest in welcoming him back to the states, according to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter).
In two NBA seasons with Atlanta, Johnson averaged 6.5 PPG and 3.9 RPG to go along with a 15.1 PER in 125 contests. The former Hawk drew interest from the Knicks over the summer and reportedly had preliminary talks with at least six NBA teams in total. It would stand to reason that several of those clubs will circle back around for him once he is available.
At the age of 29, the Oregon product is well-traveled at this point, having spent time with teams in South Korea and Puerto Rico, as well as playing in China in 2011 before coming to the NBA.