Au’Diese Toney

Nuggets Sign Bryce Wills, Waive Three Players

The Nuggets confirmed a series of roster moves today in a press release, announcing that they’ve signed guard Bryce Wills and requested waivers on Amida Brimah, Au’Diese Toney, and Jamorko Pickett.

Wills, who was a member of Denver’s Summer League team in Las Vegas in July, went undrafted out of Stanford in 2021 and has played in the G League for the last two years, spending time with the Capital City Go-Go as well as the Nuggets’ affiliate, the Grand Rapids Gold.

In 44 games last season for Grand Rapids, Wills averaged 5.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in 22.3 minutes per contest, with a shooting line of .463/.340/.485. He’s known for more his defense than his offensive ability, having been named to the Pac-12’s All-Defensive team in 2020.

Brimah, Toney, and Pickett signed Exhibit 10 contracts with Denver last Friday. It looks like the plan is for all three of those players – as well as Wills, who figures to be waived in the coming days – to report to the Gold for the 2023/24 season. Their Exhibit 10 deals will make them eligible for bonuses worth up to $75K if they spend at least 60 days with the Nuggets’ NBAGL team.

Denver now has 19 players under contract.

Nuggets Sign Brimah, Pickett, Toney; Waive Boum, Franklin, Funk

The Nuggets have waived Souley Boum, Armaan Franklin and Andrew Funk in order to create the roster space to sign Amida Brimah, Jamorko Pickett and Au’Diese Toney, per a team press release.

The terms of the contracts for Brimah, Pickett and Toney were not disclosed. However, Boum, Franklin and Funk were all on Exhibit 10 deals — considering the Nuggets have 15 players on guaranteed standard contracts (with all three two-way slots full), the new additions are likely on Exhibit 10 contracts as well.

If Brimah, Pickett and Toney are on Exhibit 10 deals and are waived before the season starts, they’d each be eligible for a bonus worth up to $75K if they spend at least 60 days with the Grand Rapids Gold, Denver’s NBAGL affiliate.

Brimah, a 6’10” center from Ghana, played five games (5.8 MPG) with the Pacers back in 2020/21 while on a two-way deal. He went undrafted out of UConn in 2017 and has multiple seasons of G League experience. The 29-year-old played in France and Belgium the past two seasons.

Pickett, who played college ball at Georgetown, went undrafted in 2021. He signed a two-way deal with the Pistons as a rookie in ’21/22, playing 13 games (13.5 MPG) with Detroit. The 25-year-old forward spent last season with the G League’s Cleveland Charge after signing an Exhibit 10 deal with — and then being waived by — the Cavs.

A 6’6″ wing, Toney played three college seasons at Pitt before transferring to Arkansas in 2021/22. He played for the Lakeland Magic (now the Osceola Magic) in ’22/23, his first professional season. In 28 regular season games (15 starts, 20.9 MPG) with Lakeland, he averaged 8.5 PPG and 4.6 RPG on .558/.380/.786 shooting.

Denver’s preseason roster remains full, with 21 players under contract.

Southeast Draft Notes: Wizards, Magic, Hawks, Hornets

The Wizards have six draft prospects visiting on Tuesday, Josh Robbins of The Athletic tweets. They’ll evaluate Jules Bernard (UCLA), Theo John (Duke), Davion Mintz (Kentucky), Alex O’Connell (Creighton), Nate Roberts (Washington) and Au’Diese Toney (Arkansas).

We have more draft-related news involving Southeast Division clubs:

Southeast Draft Notes: Beauchamp, Agbaji, Daniels, Washington, Devoe, Toney

Projected first round prospects MarJon Beauchamp (G League Ignite) and Ochai Agbaji (Kansas) are among the players visiting the Wizards on Friday, Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington tweets. Beauchamp is ranked No. 23 on ESPN’s Best Available list, while Agbaji sits at No. 16. Washington holds the No. 10 selection. Ryan Allen (Delaware), Michael Devoe (Georgia Tech), Brady Manek (North Carolina) and Cole Swider (Syracuse) will also work out.

We have more draft-related notes for the Southeast Division:

Jazz Notes: Quinn, Griffin, Young, Gobert, Can, More

The Jazz have requested permission to interview three more assistant coaches from around the NBA as they seek a replacement for Quin Snyder, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter links). According to Wojnarowski, the team is also planning to meet with Heat assistant Chris Quinn, Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin, and Suns assistant Kevin Young.

Griffin and Young were previously identified by The Athletic as head coaching candidates on Utah’s preliminary list, but this is the first time we’ve heard Quinn linked to the club. Quinn, Griffin, and Young will join eight other candidates who are reportedly expected to interview with the Jazz, bringing the total count to 11 — and that number could continue to grow.

The full list of Utah’s reported candidates can be found at our head coaching search tracker.

Here’s more on the Jazz:

  • Based on his conversations with people around the NBA, Ian Begley of SNY.tv (video link) gets the sense that Snyder’s exit from Utah will impact Rudy Gobert‘s future with the Jazz more than Donovan Mitchell‘s, making it more likely that Gobert is moved. Multiple recent reports have suggested that the Jazz are open to discussing Gobert, but have shut down trade inquiries on Mitchell.
  • In a story for SNY.tv, Begley stresses that the support for Knicks assistant Johnnie Bryant within the Jazz organization goes beyond Mitchell. Bryant, a candidate for Utah’s head coaching job, is known to be close with Mitchell, but built plenty of other strong relationships during his time as a Jazz assistant from 2014-20.
  • Jazz assistant Erdem Can has reached an agreement to join Turkish club Türk Telekom, according to a report from Ugur Ozan Sulak of Socrates (Twitter link). Can was an assistant with Fenerbahçe from 2012-21 before joining Snyder’s staff for the ’21/22 season. He reportedly received a two-year deal from Türk Telekom, with an NBA out after year one.
  • Koby McEwen (Weber State), Noah Kirkwood (Harvard), Au’Diese Toney (Arkansas), and Amadou Sow (UC-Santa Barbara) are among the prospects who participated in a pre-draft workout with the Jazz on Tuesday, tweets Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune. As previously reported, Illinois’ Kofi Cockburn and BYU’s Alex Barcello also took part in that session.

Two Arkansas Players Among Draft’s Recent Early Entrants

Arkansas sophomore forward/center Jaylin Williams announced this week that he’ll test the NBA draft waters this spring, entering the 2022 draft pool while maintaining his college eligibility, as Curtis Wilkerson of HawgSports.com details.

A reserve for most of his freshman year, Williams entered the starting lineup for the Razorbacks in 2021/22, filling up the box score with 10.9 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 2.6 APG, 1.3 SPG, and 1.1 BPG in 37 games (31.6 MPG). While he only made 46.1% of his shots from the field, including 23.9% from the floor, Williams made the All-SEC First Team and SEC All-Defensive team. He’s currently the No. 45 prospect on ESPN’s big board.

Williams’ teammate, Arkansas senior shooting guard Au’Diese Toney, is also entering the 2022 NBA draft, he announced on Instagram. Toney’s announcement doesn’t say anything about maintaining his final year of NCAA eligibility, so it sounds like he intends to go pro after averaging 10.5 PPG and 5.2 RPG in 36 games (32.4 MPG) for Arkansas following three seasons at Pitt.

Here are a few more players who recently declared for the draft or announced they intend to:

Expected to remain in draft and forgo remaining NCAA eligibility:

Testing draft waters: