Aaron Harrison Signs Rest-Of-Season Deal With Mavs
APRIL 2: The Mavs officially signed Harrison on Sunday, the team announced in a press release. The third-year guard actually received a rest-of-season contract rather than a 10-day deal.
Since the regular season is almost over, the agreement only keeps him under contract for 11 days this season, but Dallas will now have the option of making him a restricted free agent this summer.
MARCH 31: The Mavericks will sign Aaron Harrison to a second 10-day contract, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Harrison has appeared in four games under his current deal, averaging 4.5 points in about 20 minutes per night. He previously played five games for the Hornets last year and 21 in 2015/16. Before signing with Dallas, he was with the Reno Bighorns in the G League.
The Mavericks will have a full roster of 15 players once Harrison re-signs.
Whiteside Blasts Coaches Over Playing Time
5:57pm: The Heat have fined Hassan Whiteside for what they deem “comments detrimental to the team,” an ESPN report states.
9:00am: Frustrated all season by reduced playing time, Heat center Hassan Whiteside launched a tirade against the coaching staff after Saturday’s overtime loss to the Nets, relays Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.
Whiteside played just 20 minutes in the 53-minute game and didn’t get off the bench in the fourth quarter and overtime as the team was using a small-ball lineup to match up with Brooklyn.
“It’s annoying,” he said to reporters. “We shouldn’t. Why are we matching up? We’ve got one of the best centers in the league. Why are we matching up? A lot of teams don’t have a good center. They are going to use their strengths. … There are a lot of teams that can use a center.”
“I don’t know if it’s because I’m on a minutes restriction,” he said. “The minutes have been like that all year. It’s really frustrating. It’s been frustrating. It’s tough. I don’t know, man. It’s crazy. I don’t understand it.”
When asked if the reduced minutes made him doubt if he has a future in Miami, Whiteside responded, “I don’t know. Maybe,” before a Heat public relations official ended the interview.
Whiteside has one year left on his contract at $25.4MM, then can opt out of a $27MM salary next summer. Jackson notes that if he does opt out, the Heat would have to unload another significant salary to be competitive in a star-studded free agent market. He adds that Whiteside’s comments may make Miami’s front office more likely to consider trading him before that option year arrives.
Hawks Sign Jeremy Evans To 10-Day Deal
APRIL 1, 1:05pm: The signing is official, the Hawks announced via Twitter. No corresponding roster move was required because Atlanta was granted a hardship exception by the NBA, allowing the team to add a 16th player to its 15-man roster.
MARCH 31, 2:12pm: Former Slam Dunk Contest winner Jeremy Evans will sign a 10-day contract with the Hawks, tweets Ian Begley of ESPN.
Evans, 30, has spent this season with the Erie Bay Hawks, Atlanta’s G League affiliate, where he is averaging 15.3 points and 9.9 rebounds in 39 games. His last NBA appearance came in 2015/16, when he played 30 games for the Mavericks. He was a second-round pick by the Jazz in 2010 and spent five seasons with Utah.
The Hawks need a roster opening to add Evans, so Damion Lee may not be kept once his second 10-day deal with the team expires tomorrow. Lee has averaged 10.4 points in nine games with Atlanta, starting six of them.
Weekly Mailbag: 3/26/18 – 4/1/18
We have an opportunity for you to hit us up with your questions in this, our weekly mailbag feature. Have a question regarding player movement, the salary cap or the NBA draft? Drop us a line at HoopsRumorsMailbag@Gmail.com.
What kind of return could the Knicks get for Trey Burke? With a glut of younger point guards who need developing (Frank Ntilikina and Emmanuel Mudiay), the ability to draft another one (Trae Young? Collin Sexton?), the likelihood that they’ll go after Kyrie Irving in 2019, and Burke’s age (25 turning 26), Burke seems like he won’t be in their future plans despite his success with the team this year. — Alek Miletic
Sorting out the point guard situation will be among the Knicks’ many priorities this offseason. Burke has a nonguaranteed minimum deal for next season that could make him an attractive piece in any trade. However, counting on signing Irving a year from now is a risky strategy, so New York needs to determine which of its current guards has the brightest future or if they need to address the position in the draft. With Burke having a small contract, Ntilikina on a rookie deal and Mudiay (nearly $4.3MM next season) unlikely to be in demand, expect all three of them to be back for another season of sorting things out.
Whom do you think will the Cavaliers will take in the draft using Brooklyn’s pick? — Greg Dizon
The Nets have moved into a tie for seventh in our latest Reverse Standings, which might cost Cleveland a shot at one of the sure-fire big men at the top of the draft. There are too many variables to pick out one player for the Cavs because the direction of the franchise is going to depend on what LeBron James decides to do in July. Point guard could be a position of need with George Hill only one season away from his option year, but Cleveland will probably disregard position concerns and take the highest player on their board, just in case he’s the first step in rebuilding.
Warriors’ Patrick McCaw Leaves Game On Stretcher
12:08pm: The MRI showed that McCaw is “structurally sound” and he may be released from the hospital today, tweets Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. No timetable has been set for him to return to the court.
9:59am: An MRI is scheduled for today on Warriors guard Patrick McCaw after a dangerous fall in Saturday’s game with the Kings, according to Chris Haynes of ESPN.
McCaw crashed to the court after colliding with Vince Carter on a drive to the basket. He remained on the floor for about 10 minutes as paramedics stabilized his neck and loaded him onto a stretcher. He was taken to a nearby medical center, where a chest X-ray and CT scan both came back clear.
“It was really scary,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. “He was in a lot of pain, laying on his back. … It’s scary stuff.”
Kerr lashed out at Carter immediately after the incident, but changed his mind as he saw that Carter was disturbed by McCaw’s injury and walked onto the court to console him. David West, Shaun Livingston and JaVale McGee spent time in the locker room to compose themselves, and both teams gathered in prayer as McCaw was taken off the court.
“I just hope he’s OK,” said Carter, who was given a flagrant foul on the play. “I play this game because I love it and enjoy it, not to see young guys get hurt. He has a bright future. I just hate to see it.”
Warriors players believe it was an accident and aren’t blaming Carter for what happened.
“I know Vince’s spirit and his heart. I don’t believe it was intentional at all,” Kevin Durant said. “It looked like he was just caught in the middle of the play and wanted to move out of the way, but Pat was coming so fast. It was just an unfortunate play. Nobody in our locker room thinks Vince did that on purpose.”
And-Ones: Simmons, Rose, Hickson, Draft
Sixers rookie Ben Simmons used the start of the Final Four to take another swipe at the NCAA, relays Alysha Tsuji of USA Today.
“All this money being made and they get a swag bag at the end of it,” tweeted Simmons, who has clashed before with the NCAA over the lack of compensation for players. He spent one season at LSU before leaving for the NBA.
Simmons was included in a 2016 Showtime documentary called “One and Done” where he made a similar appeal for athletes to be paid. “Everybody’s making money except the players,” he said. “We’re the ones waking up early as hell to be the best teams and do everything they want us to do and then the players get nothing. They say education, but if I’m there for a year, I can’t get much education.”
There’s more news from around the basketball world:
- Former NBA player Malik Rose has been selected as G League Basketball Executive of the Year, the Hawks announced on their website. Rose serves as GM of the Erie BayHawks, Atlanta’s G League affiliate, who put together a 28-22 season and a third-place finish in the Eastern Conference. Rose, who played 13 NBA seasons, is also basketball operations manager for the Hawks.
- J.J. Hickson has signed to play in Lebanon, according to Nicola Lupo of Sportando. Hickson spent eight seasons in the NBA, with his last experience coming in 2015/16 when he split time with the Nuggets and Wizards. The 29-year-old has been playing in China since then.
- USC center Chimezie Metu, who declared for the draft this week, will hire CAA sports as his representative, tweets international basketball writer David Pick. Meto is projected to be taken between the 25th and 35th pick. Potential top-five selection Michael Porter Jr. of Missouri is nearing an agreement with Mark Bartelstein and Priority Sports, according to Pick (Twitter link).
Knicks Notes: Van Gundy, Hernangomez, Thomas, Burke
Jeff Van Gundy has been mentioned as a possible candidate if the Knicks make a coaching change, but his brother wonders how serious their interest is, relays Al Iannazzone of Newsday.
After his Pistons defeated New York Saturday, head coach Stan Van Gundy noted that the organization has only recently begun to acknowledge Jeff on the jumbotron when he comes to town to broadcast its games. He coached the Knicks for nearly seven seasons and took them to the NBA Finals in 1999. Stan compares Jeff’s situation to Patrick Ewing‘s.
“I used to walk in here and Patrick would be sitting next to me on the bench [as an assistant in Orlando] and they would put him up on the jumbotron and everyone would clap and then he could never get an interview for any freakin’ job they had,” Stan said. “That’s sort of fake appreciation in my opinion. I don’t know what it is in Jeff’s case. If it’s genuine appreciation then that’s great. If it’s just a way for them to appease their fans, a little bit different.”
There’s more today out of New York:
- The Knicks will regret trading young center Willy Hernangomez for a pair of second-round picks, Iannazzone writes in a separate story. Hernangomez got a measure of revenge this week with 12 points and five rebounds in 17 minutes against his former team. “He’s been so much better,” Hornets coach Steve Clifford said. “What I’ve talked to him about is the team part. Everybody views player development as the shot, the post move, the one-on-one ‘iso’ play. None of that matters if the team can’t function when you’re out there.”
- Another 50-loss season is taking its toll on Lance Thomas, notes Marc Berman of The New York Post. Thomas, who was acquired in a January 2015 trade, has been with the Knicks longer than anyone on the current roster. He’s also a native New Yorker who grew up in Brooklyn. “I hate losing,’’ he said after Saturday’s game. “Anyone who has God-given ability to make it to this level hates losing. Myself being the long-tenured Knick here, I’ve been part of some losing teams and it doesn’t sit well with me. I want to find a way to turn it around. I lose sleep when we lose.”
- Trey Burke‘s connections with Knicks GM Scott Perry helped him earn another shot at the NBA, writes Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press. Perry is a Detroit native and former assistant coach at the University of Michigan, where Burke played two seasons. They bonded over their Michigan connections while Burke was preparing for the 2013 draft and Perry was an executive in Orlando, so Burke reached out to him earlier this season when he was looking for a G League contract. “I knew that he would give me a fair shot, fair opportunity to reinvent myself,” Burke said, “to come in and go through a process where I would have an opportunity to play consistent minutes at the highest level.”
Bucks Sign Brandon Jennings To Multi-Year Deal
APRIL 1, 9:41am: Jennings signed a multi-year contract, the Bucks announced on their website.
MARCH 31, 2:26pm: With his second 10-day contract expiring last night, Brandon Jennings will sign with the Bucks for the remainder of the season, tweets Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports.
Jennings has developed into a useful reserve since coming to Milwaukee earlier this month. The 28-year-old has appeared in 10 games, averaging 5.5 points and 3.3 assists per night.
The contract will cap off a successful return to the organization for Jennings, who was a first-round pick by the Bucks in 2009 and spent his first four NBA seasons there. He signed a G League deal with the Wisconsin Herd, Milwaukee’s affiliate, in February and played five games before receiving the first 10-day deal.
“I’m excited about going to the postseason with a Bucks jersey on,” Jennings told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “With this young great talent we will be very scary in the postseason.”
The Bucks will have a full 15-man roster once the signing of Jennings is complete.
Community Shootaround: Best New Hall Of Famer
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced its Class of 2018 today with 13 new inductees from across the basketball spectrum. Most prominent for NBA fans are five perimeter players who established themselves as among the best ever at their positions: Grant Hill, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Ray Allen and Maurice Cheeks.
All five posted strong Hall of Fame credentials, but part of the fun of sports is arguing about who was the best:
- Before an injury derailed his career in the late 1990s, Hill was putting up MVP-type numbers each year, finishing third in the voting in 1997. A seven-time All-Star, he popularized the concept of a “point forward” and averaged 7.3 assists per game during the 1996/97 season. A bad ankle limited him to a total of 47 games in what should have been four of his prime seasons, but he recovered and was able to stay in the league until age 40.
- Kidd was a triple-double machine who led the Nets to the finals twice, then won a title late in his career with the Mavericks. A 10-time All-Star, he led the NBA in assists five times in a six-year period and finished second in the 2002 MVP voting. Kidd is second in career assists and steals and ranks ninth in made 3-pointers.
- Nash won back-to-back MVP awards in 2005 and 2006 and finished second in the voting in 2007. An eight-time All-Star, he is best known as the creative force behind the high-scoring Suns team from last decade. One of the game’s most accurate shooters, Nash posted four seasons in the 50/40/90 club.
- Allen holds the record for most 3-pointers with 2,973 and was a 40% career shooter from long distance. He was a huge scorer for Milwaukee and Seattle, and later became a 3-point threat for championship teams in Boston and Miami. A 10-time All-Star, Allen was one of the most feared shooters in the league for 18 seasons.
- Cheeks was a talented two-way point guard for Sixers teams that were among the league’s best throughout the 1980s. Though he was often overshadowed by more famous teammates, Cheeks was an important contributor, making four All-Star teams and four All-Defensive first teams. He ranks fifth in career steals and 11th in assists.
We want your opinion on these new Hall of Famers. If you could take one of them in his prime to build a team around, which one would you choose? Jump into the comments section below and give us your pick.
NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 3/31/18
Here are Saturday’s G League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
- The Thunder assigned rookie center Dakari Johnson to their Oklahoma City Blue affiliate for today’s playoff game, the team announced in an email. Johnson put up 15 points and five rebounds in a loss to South Bay.
- The Hawks assigned rookie forward Andrew White to their affiliate in Erie, also for a playoff game today, tweets Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal Constitution. White had 15 points and seven rebounds in a win over Lakeland.