Bucks Pick Up 2016/17 Options On Four
The Bucks have exercised their rookie scale options for 2016/17 on Tyler Ennis, Jabari Parker, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Michael Carter-Williams, the team announced, assuring them of their salaries for that season. The moves add more than $13.287MM to Milwaukee’s books, giving the Bucks close to $62MM in guaranteed salary against a projected $89MM cap for 2016/17.
Ennis has a salary of $1,733,880 for next season, while Parker will get $5,374,320. Antetokounmpo will receive $2,995,421, while Carter-Williams’ option will cost the Bucks $3,183,526. Milwaukee is already on the hook for three contracts above $12MM next season, as the salaries of Greg Monroe, Khris Middleton and John Henson add up to approximately $44.6MM.
It was a foregone conclusion the Bucks would pick up the options on three starters with only the Ennis move counting as somewhat of a surprise. The 21-year-old point guard appeared in 33 games last season as a rookie — eight with the Suns and 25 with the Bucks after he was acquired in the Brandon Knight deal. He had shoulder surgery during the offseason and isn’t expected back until sometime next month.
Spurs Pick Up 2016/17 Option On Kyle Anderson
The Spurs have exercised their 2016/17 team option on small forward Kyle Anderson‘s rookie scale contract, the team announced via press release. That locks in a guaranteed salary of $1,192,080 for the 2014 No. 30 overall pick. The move appeared generally likely, though his option pickup wasn’t quite the certainty that others were.
Anderson, nicknamed Slow Mo for his lack of quickness, found his place in the NBA thanks to his canny on-court moves and and 6’8″ size. He saw limited playing time on a Spurs team that was trying to repeat as champions last season, averaging 2.2 points and 2.2 rebounds in 10.8 minutes per game across 33 appearances, though he did make eight starts. San Antonio assigned Anderson to the D-League seven times last season, and he played in 26 D-League games.
The option doesn’t do much to affect the math for San Antonio next summer. The Spurs now have about $70.4MM in guaranteed salary against a projected $89MM cap for 2016/17, though that doesn’t count any salary for Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili or David West, all of whom have player options. Anderson has one more team option left on his contract, for 2017/18.
Sixers Sign, Waive Jordan Railey
The Sixers signed and waived Jordan Railey, the team announced via press release. The move involving the undrafted Washington State center is designed to secure his D-League rights, the team says. Philadelphia will make Railey one of four camp cuts whose D-League rights it’s allowed to claim through the affiliate player rule, providing he clears waivers. The statement from the Sixers also confirmed that they’ve waived Jordan McRae, Furkan Aldemir, Scottie Wilbekin, Pierre Jackson, and J.P. Tokoto, as a series of five previous reports indicated.
Philadelphia first connected with Railey when he played for the Sixers summer league team in July, scoring three points in at least 15 minutes of action spread over three games. Railey had signed during the summer with BC Igokea of Bosnia, but either that contract included an NBA escape clause or the team decided to part ways with the 23-year-old 7-footer. He averaged 6.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.0 block in 16.4 minutes per game as a senior last season at Washington State, where he played his final two collegiate seasons after starting at Iowa State.
Grizzlies Waive Ryan Hollins
The Grizzlies have waived Ryan Hollins, the team announced via press release. Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal reported moments before the 4pm Central deadline for the move to take place that Hollins was about to hit waivers (Twitter link). He was presumably going head-to-head against JaMychal Green for a regular season roster spot, as the 14 other Grizzlies have full guarantees, though Jarnell Stokes, who possesses a fully guaranteed one-year veteran’s minimum salary, had reportedly fallen out of favor lately. Hollins’ deal is non-guaranteed, though the Grizzlies will have a small cap hit since they failed to waive him by Saturday’s deadline to remove non-guaranteed salary from the books, presuming he clears waivers. Green has a partial guarantee of $150K.
Hollins, 31, was trying to make an NBA regular season roster for the 10th consecutive season, even though he’s averaged only 11.8 minutes per game for his career. He saw about that same level of playing time in the preseason for Memphis, averaging 5.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 11.5 minutes per contests over seven appearances.
The Wizards, Kings, Clippers, Mavericks and Pelicans were all reportedly interested in Hollins at some point over the summer, suggesting that he stands a decent chance to surface on another team’s roster sometime soon. Teams can continue to sign players to non-guaranteed contracts until January, when 10-day deals begin.
Jazz Waive Phil Pressey, Eric Atkins
The Jazz have waived Phil Pressey and Eric Atkins, the team announced. The moves, which reduce the team’s roster to the 15-man regular season maximum, were expected, as Jody Genessy of the Deseret News reported (Twitter link). Neither had any guaranteed salary, though the Jazz will incur a small cap hit for both since they were on the roster past Saturday’s deadline to remove non-guaranteed salary.
Pressey spent the preseason with the Trail Blazers, losing a battle with Tim Frazier for the team’s third-string point guard job. Utah claimed Pressey off waivers Sunday after Portland released the two-year NBA veteran on Friday. It was the second time the 24-year-old was on waivers in the past few months, as the Celtics cut him loose in mid-July, a move that was tough for Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge, who said Pressey might have been “my favorite player I’ve ever been around in the NBA, as a player, a coach or as an executive.”
Atkins, a 23-year-old point guard who went undrafted out of Notre Dame in 2014, had just signed with Utah on Sunday. He spent last season playing in Greece.
The Jazz made both moves with the D-League in mind, according to Genessy. Utah can use the affiliate player rule to claim the D-League rights of as many as four of the players it waives.
Pacers Sign, Waive Terran Petteway
The Pacers signed Terran Petteway on Sunday night and waived him after practice today, tweets Wheat Hotchkiss of Pacers.com. The moves took place so that Indiana could grab his D-League rights, as Robin Washut of HuskersOnline.com reported that Petteway is joining the D-League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the affiliate of the Pacers (Twitter link). Teams are allowed to claim the D-League rights of up to four players they waive, but usually those players have to spend the majority of the preseason on the NBA roster. That’s not the case for Petteway, whom the Hawks waived last week, through a quirk in the affiliate player rule, one that Adam Johnson of D-League Digest recently pointed out. The Hawks don’t have a D-League team, so any NBA team with an affiliate could have snagged him and quickly released him to gain his D-League rights as the Pacers did.
Petteway, 23, went undrafted out of Nebraska this year but joined the Hawks on a partially guaranteed deal for camp. Lamar Patterson won the open spot on Atlanta’s regular season roster as Petteway saw little time on the floor during preseason games, scoring five points in only about 21 minutes total.
Indiana was one of the NBA teams that worked out Petteway prior to the draft this year. The 6’6″ swingman was an All-Big Ten Third Team selection as a junior last season after earning First Team honors as a sophomore.
He’ll join Indiana’s D-League roster instead of being subject to the D-League draft, assuming he clears NBA waivers. The Pacers trimmed their roster to 15 players today when they released Toney Douglas and his partial guarantee.
Mavs Waive Maurice Ndour
2:53pm: Mavs owner Mark Cuban confirmed the move to Charania, calling it “a really tough decision.” Charania indicates the decision came to down to keeping Ndour and Salah Mejri, who has a fully guaranteed rookie minimum salary but no guaranteed salary beyond that. A stress reaction that Ndour suffered in his left leg that has him out indefinitely weighed heavily in the team’s thinking, Charania writes.
2:10pm: The Mavericks are releasing Maurice Ndour, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). A league source told Charania the move has already taken place, though the Mavs have yet to make a formal announcement. The subtraction of Ndour leaves the Mavs with 15 players, the regular season roster limit. That includes Dwight Powell, who has a non-guaranteed salary, and JaVale McGee, who’s salary is partially guaranteed, so presumably this signals that both have made the opening night roster. Presuming that’s the case, Powell earns a full guarantee on his one-year veteran’s minimum salary of more than $845K, while McGee’s partial guarantee jumps from $500K to $750K.
Ndour’s salary of $525,094 for this season, $1 more than the rookie minimum, is fully guaranteed, and his deal also included a partial guarantee of $437K for 2016/17, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reported. All of that stays on the books for Dallas unless he clears waivers.
The undrafted power forward out of Ohio University impressed while with the Knicks for summer league, and while the Knicks reportedly tried to get him to back out of his deal with the Mavericks, but that effort was to no avail. Ndour, 22, averaged 4.8 points in 22.8 minutes per game across four preseason appearances with Dallas.
Pacers Release Toney Douglas
2:32pm: The move is official, the team announced.
1:22pm: The Pacers are waiving Toney Douglas, a league source tells Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Charania indicates the move has already taken place, though the team has yet to make an official announcement. Indiana had 15 other players with fully guaranteed salaries, but Douglas had a sizable partial guarantee of $600K. The move will leave the Pacers with 15 players, the regular season limit.
Douglas, 29, averaged 6.6 points in 11.6 minutes per game over five preseason appearances with Indiana. It appeared he had an uphill battle to stick for opening night despite his partial guarantee, which was the second largest in the NBA this preseason. The former 29th overall pick was briefly with the Pelicans last season after beginning 2014/15 with Jiangsu Nangang of China.
Today’s move is ostensibly a boon for Shayne Whittington, the Pacer with by far the least amount of guaranteed money on his contract aside from Douglas. He’s assured of only the one-year veteran’s minimum of $845,059, though the Pacers just re-signed him in late July, a couple of weeks before their deal with Douglas.
Did Douglas deserve to stick with the Pacers? Leave a comment to let us know.
Sixers Releasing Jordan McRae
The Sixers are waiving Jordan McRae, a source told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The team hasn’t made an announcement, but the source indicated to Spears that the move has already taken place. That, plus reports that the team is also waiving Furkan Aldemir, Scottie Wilbekin, Pierre Jackson and J.P. Tokoto, will reduce the team’s roster to the 15-man regular season limit. T.J. McConnell has made the opening night roster on his partially guaranteed contract, Spears adds (on Twitter), while Yahoo Sports colleague Shams Charania reported that Christian Wood will stick, too. Robert Covington, Hollis Thompson and JaKarr Sampson are the other Sixers without full guarantees, but they also appear safe for opening night.
McRae signed the required tender of a one-year, non-guaranteed, minimum-salary deal that Philadelphia had to offer to retain his draft rights. The Spurs picked him 58th overall out of Tennessee in 2014, trading his rights the same night to the Sixers. The 24-year-old shooting guard averaged 7.1 points in 19.9 minutes per game across seven preseason appearances this month.
His release means the Sixers are giving up his NBA rights, though they can still retain his D-League rights. McRae played for Philadelphia’s D-League affiliate late last season after spending the first part of 2014/15 playing in Australia.
Nets Waive Dahntay Jones, Justin Harper
The Nets have waived Justin Harper and Dahntay Jones, the team announced via press release. The moves take Brooklyn to the 15-man regular season roster maximum. Neither had any guaranteed money. Their subtractions appear to indicate that Donald Sloan and Willie Reed have made the opening night roster on their partially guaranteed salaries. The other 13 Nets have full guarantees.
Jones, 34, was attempting to make the Nets after averaging less than a point in 3.7 minutes per game for the Clippers last season. That’s the only regular season NBA action the former 20th overall pick has seen since 2012/13. He performed relatively well for the Nets during the preseason this month, notching 7.5 points in 24.5 minutes per game over four appearances, but it wasn’t enough to secure his place on the roster.
Harper joined the Nets after having been out of the NBA since 2012. The 26-year-old former 32nd overall pick averaged 9.0 points and 4.7 rebounds in 19.1 minutes per game over six preseason contests, including one start.
Sloan’s place on the roster has appeared safe since the Nets waived Ryan Boatright last week, leaving them with only two other point guards aside from Sloan. Reed is likely out until at least the start of December with a right thumb injury, but it appears his $500K partial guarantee played a key role in helping him stick on the roster. The team is out two days’ worth of salary to Jones and Harper, though much of that is offset by their training camp compensation, as former Nets executive Bobby Marks explained (All Twitter links).