Jazz Waive Bryce Cotton, Treveon Graham
The Jazz have waived Bryce Cotton and Treveon Graham, the team announced (Twitter link). The moves reduce Utah to 15 players, the regular season limit, ostensibly a sign that Jeff Withey, Chris Johnson and Elijah Millsap will stick around for opening night despite the lack of full guarantees on their respective contracts. Graham has a $75K partial guarantee on his salary, though it’s more surprising to see Utah release Cotton and his non-guaranteed deal, since the move leaves the Jazz with only two healthy point guards.
Cotton totaled 13 points but just one assist against three turnovers in more than 34 minutes of action combined over two preseason games. The 23-year-old was a holdover from last season, when he joined the Jazz on a pair of 10-day contracts and eventually a deal for the rest of the season that included non-guaranteed salaries for 2015/16 and 2016/17. Graham, a 21-year-old swingman, signed a three-year deal with the Jazz in August after going undrafted out of VCU in June. He scored one point in more than 18 minutes of preseason action. The length of their respective deals makes it unlikely a team claims them off waivers, since many teams can’t claim any deal that runs longer than two.
The Jazz have 12 fully guaranteed contracts, as our roster count shows, plus Withey on a $200K partial guarantee. Johnson and Millsap don’t have any guaranteed salary. Utah isn’t obligated to carry more than 13 players for opening night, though most teams keep 15. Still, Johnson and Millsap will be in tenuous position until the leaguewide guarantee date in January. That’s especially so if the Jazz decide they want more depth at the point. Shooting guard Alec Burks seems likely to see time handling the ball in the meantime.
Pistons, Andre Drummond Not Planning Extension
Andre Drummond wants to wait until next summer to talk contract with the Pistons instead of signing an extension before the November 2nd deadline, Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy told reporters today, including Keith Langlois of Pistons.com and Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press (Twitter links). The lack of an extension will give the Pistons more than $12MM in additional cap flexibility for next summer, Langlois notes (Twitter link). Regardless, Drummond has been likely to get a new max deal with the Pistons, whether through an extension this fall or a new contract in restricted free agency next summer, as Ellis recently explained to Hoops Rumors.
“Andre wants to be here long term,” Van Gundy said, according to Langlois (Twitter link). “He … wants us to have the flexibility to continue to add people to this team.”
Pistons owner Tom Gores referred to Drummond this past spring as a “max player,” so it’s clear how much the team values the Jeff Schwartz client. At issue is the size of his cap hold, which will remain at $8,180,228 until he signs a new deal. The projected maximum salary for a player with Drummond’s years of experience for next season is $20.4MM, and if Drummond were to sign an extension this fall, that number would count again the cap for the Pistons, limiting their flexibility. Keeping him unsigned allows the Pistons to sign others and then follow up and sign Drummond, or match any offer sheet he signs with another team, via Bird rights. The Spurs pursued a similar path with Kawhi Leonard this summer, allowing them to sign LaMarcus Aldridge. Leonard re-signed with the Spurs for five years at the max after Aldridge signed his contract with San Antonio.
Van Gundy cited $12.7MM as the amount of extra cap flexibility the Pistons will reap from delaying a deal with Drummond, Langlois notes (Twitter link). That’s perhaps an indication that either the Pistons, the league or both foresee a slightly higher than projected cap for 2016/17, since the difference between Drummond’s cap hold and the current projected max is only about $12.2MM.
In any case, the Pistons were willing to let Drummond decide whether to do an extension, as Ellis wrote this summer. Initially, it appeared that he wanted to go ahead with a deal this fall, and that seemed the likeliest outcome, as Dana Gauruder of Hoops Rumors wrote when he looked at Drummond’s extension candidacy. Vincent Goodwill of CSN Chicago, a former Pistons beat writer, hears that ex-agent Arn Tellem, who joined the Pistons organization as an executive this summer, worked to convince Drummond to delay his signing (Twitter link).
The danger, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe points out, is that Drummond signs a short-term offer sheet that would allow him to hit free agency sooner than the Pistons would like (Twitter link). Still, Van Gundy cited Drummond’s trust in Gores, Langlois notes (on Twitter). The team has consulted Drummond on almost every major move, and Gores and Drummond see themselves as partners, Ellis tweets.
The Pistons already have about $42MM in salary commitments for 2016/17, and that number will rise to more than $48MM if they pick up their team options on Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Bullock. The salary cap is projected to rise to $89MM next season.
Do you think waiting until next summer to do a deal is a wise choice for both sides? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
And-Ones: Cavs, Davis, Aldridge, Kobe, Teodosic
The Cavaliers are the pick to win it all and LeBron James is the favorite for MVP in the league’s annual GM survey, as John Schuhmann of NBA.com presents. More than half the executives who responded favor the Cavs, while the Warriors garnered only 17.9% of the vote, the third-lowest percentage for a defending champ in the 13-year history of the GM survey. Still, neither of last year’s Finals teams has Anthony Davis, whom a whopping 86.2% of respondents selected as the player they’d most want to build their teams around.
LaMarcus Aldridge drew 79.3% of the vote for the offseason acquisition who’ll make the greatest impact, and the Spurs garnered the same percentage for the team that had the best offseason, unsurprisingly. See more on Aldridge’s decision amid the latest from around the NBA:
- Aldridge thought he would re-sign with the Trail Blazers when he put off thumb surgery last season, and he thinks the Blazers did all they could to keep him, but the lure of playing closer to his home in Texas proved too great when the time came for a decision, as he told Chris Mannix of SI.com. Aldridge said to Mannix that the idea that he left Portland because he couldn’t get along with Damian Lillard was overblown, and that while he and Lillard mutually acknowledged that they could have communicated better with each other, they don’t have a poor relationship. “But I never had an issue playing with him or anything like that or with him being the face or them promoting him or anything like that,” Aldridge said in part. “If I had an issue like that then why go to the Spurs? They don’t promote anybody.”
- Kobe Bryant‘s presence was one of the best parts of meeting with the Lakers this summer, Aldridge insisted to Mannix for the same piece, striking back at the notion that he didn’t want to play with the Lakers star.
- The GM poll also shows 28-year-old shooting guard Milos Teodosic, who plays for CSKA Moscow but whose NBA rights aren’t tied to any team, as the second-best international player outside the NBA aside from Sixers draft-and-stash prospect Dario Saric. Plus, more GMs want to see revamped lottery odds than any other rules change.
Central Notes: Robinson, LeBron, Dudley, Noah
Pacers coach Frank Vogel said at the start of training camp that Glenn Robinson III would probably spend time on assignment to the D-League this season, but his play in preseason has challenged that idea, writes Mark Montieth of Pacers.com. It’s clear the team is high on him, having been impressed with his performance during informal scrimmages before camp.
“What he showed in September is that he’s real,” coach Frank Vogel said. “He’s not a couple-years-away guy. We have guys ahead of him probably, but there were days in September when he was the best player on the court. That was very, very impressive to me. He’s got a great attitude, and he’s got all the physical tools with the speed and athleticism. He has the tools to be a steal.”
Robinson signed with Indiana this summer on a three-year, $3.241MM deal that includes a fully guaranteed salary for this season. See more from the Central Division:
- LeBron James turns 31 in December, but he’s still capable of bearing a heavy load for the Cavaliers, coach David Blatt contends, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com. “I would hesitate to put Bron in the category of an advanced-age player,” Blatt said. “He’s not. He is in terms of the number of games he’s played or given the fact that he’s constantly deep into the playoffs and his greatness helps his team achieve those levels.”
- Jared Dudley complimented the Bucks owners and said that he was on board with the trade that sent him to the Wizards this summer, one that he said he and his agent had spoken about ahead of time, as Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel details.
- A decent chance exists that Joakim Noah will begin this season, the last one on his contract, coming off the bench, observes K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. Noah continues to display a team-first attitude for the Bulls, but removal from the starting lineup with free agency looming would challenge that demeanor, Johnson posits. “Coach is going to have a lot of decisions to make in terms of matchups and things like that,” Noah said recently. “Whatever Coach does, I’m cool with it.”
Warriors Sign Chris Udofia
MONDAY, 6:02pm: The club has announced the signing of Udofia via press release, which also indicates the team has inked Xavier Henry.
FRIDAY, 10:13am: The Warriors are in the midst of signing small forward Chris Udofia, a source tells Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops (Twitter link). The 23-year-old went undrafted out of the University of Denver in 2014 and played for the Rockets in the 2014 summer league. The move will take Golden State, which waived point guard Juwan Staten late Thursday, back to 18 players, with 13 fully guaranteed salaries.
Udofia’s school played in three different NCAA Division I conferences during his time there, and he won Defensive Player of the Year honors in two of them. Still, his shot attempts per game and scoring average declined in both of his last two college seasons. He posted 12.3 points and 5.4 rebounds in 34.4 minutes per game as a senior in 2013/14.
He’ll ostensibly join Ian Clark, Chris Babb and Jarell Eddie in a competition for a regular season roster spot that I explained earlier today, though it’s not a given that any of them will make it to opening night, since the Warriors are a taxpaying team and don’t have to carry more than 13 players. The Warriors can claim the D-League rights to as many as four of the players they waive, so that will be an option with Udofia if Golden State doesn’t keep him on the NBA roster.
Heat Sign Briante Weber, Waive Corey Hawkins
The Heat have signed Briante Weber and waived Corey Hawkins, the team announced. Weber, an undrafted combo guard from VCU, struck a deal to join the Heat in September but was unable to pass a physical as he continued to recover from tears in the ACL, MCL and meniscus in his right knee suffered January 31st, scuttling the agreement. Hawkins was with the Heat on a non-guaranteed deal. The moves keep the Heat at a full 20-man roster. Miami has been carrying 13 fully guaranteed salaries, as our roster count shows.
Weber, 22, reportedly met with the Pacers this summer amid interest from half the league, but it appeared when his initial deal with Miami fell apart that he preferred to play with the Heat organization, whether it was in the D-League or as part of the NBA roster. Miami wouldn’t have been able to keep him out of the October 31st D-League draft unless it signed him to an NBA contract first, so it’s possible that the Heat are making today’s move primarily with the D-League in mind.
Indeed, it’s expected that Weber and Hawkins will both end up with the Heat’s D-League team, writes Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. Hawkins, a 24-year-old shooting guard who went undrafted out of UC Davis this summer, scored six points in 14 total minutes of action across two preseason appearances.
Earlier today I examined the decisions facing the Heat as they fill out the end of their regular season roster. Weber joins Keith Benson, James Ennis, Tyler Johnson, Tre Kelley, John Lucas III and Greg Whittington among those ostensibly in the mix for as many as two spots for opening night.
Who do you think the Heat will keep for the start of the regular season? Leave a comment to let us know.
Top Bloggers: David Zavac On The Cavaliers
Anyone can have a blog about an NBA team, but some set themselves apart from the rest with the dedication and valuable insight they bring to their craft. We’ll be sharing some knowledge from these dialed-in writers on Hoops Rumors in a new feature called Top Bloggers. As with The Beat, our ongoing series of interviews with NBA beat writers, it’s part of an effort to bring Hoops Rumors readers ever closer to the pulse of the teams they follow. Last time, we spoke with Jason Patt, Managing Editor of TodaysFastbreak.com and a contributor at SB Nation’s Blog a Bull. Click here to see the entire Top Bloggers series.
Next up is David Zavac, who is the Managing Editor of SB Nation’s Fear the Sword. You can follow David on Twitter at @DavidZavac and click here to check out his stories.
Hoops Rumors: How surprised are you that the qualifying offer deadline came and went and Tristan Thompson still hasn’t signed?
David Zavac: Very surprised. The Cavs and Thompson’s agent Rich Paul have a great relationship. Many credit Paul for keeping lines of communication open between owner Dan Gilbert and LeBron James after the latter took his talents to South Beach. There’s relatively obvious middle ground for a five year deal around $82-85MM. With the threat of a qualifying offer gone, I understand why the Cavs might not feel the need to budge anymore. It doesn’t look like they will, unless …
Hoops Rumors: Do the Cavs have the kind of depth necessary to withstand the absence of Thompson and all the injuries they’re dealing with, or do they need to add someone?
David Zavac: … Unless the Cavs’ frontcourt really struggles early on. Kevin Love is working back from shoulder surgery, and Timo Mozgov is working back from knee surgery. Anderson Varejao is working back from a torn Achilles, and Sasha Kaun has never played in the NBA. That’s the frontcourt. Varejao wasn’t effective next to Love last season before his injury, so it’s hard to expect much. If the Cavs are hovering around .500, maybe they cave on Thompson. I wouldn’t count on it, though.
Hoops Rumors: Jared Cunningham has been a pleasant surprise so far in the preseason. Can you envision him sticking for the regular season and seeing meaningful minutes this year?
David Zavac: I could see him making the team, but I doubt he becomes a big part of the rotation long term. Iman Shumpert and Kyrie Irving will be out early on, so maybe he would get an opportunity. Hard to see him cracking a nine-man rotation when the team is healthy, though.
Hoops Rumors: Love signed a five-year, maximum-salary deal this summer despite his off year last season. What has to happen on the floor for him to bounce back and justify that contract?
David Zavac: I’ll go against the grain and say that he can do exactly what he did last season and be worth the money. He’s a perfect floor spacer for Kyrie Irving and LeBron James. Those guys can run the pick-and-roll with either Mozgov or Thompson and there’s nothing but space and dunks. Love knocking down the shots on kick outs and being the multifaceted threat that he is allows for hyper-efficiency from James and Irving, and the Cavs score at a historic rate when the Big 3 play together. Thompson and Mozgov both fit very, very well with Love and the rest of the Big 3. If Love gets more opportunities to facilitate or steps up his defense a bit, that’s great. If not, that’s great too. He’s still providing ridiculous value.
Hoops Rumors: The Cavs traded the draft rights to Tyus Jones and Rakeem Christmas and went the draft-and-stash route with Cedi Osman and Sir’Dominic Pointer. The Cavs are clearly in win-now mode, but are they sacrificing too much of the future for the sake of the present?
David Zavac: Probably not. Irving, Thompson, Shumpert, and Kevin Love are still pretty young and are either locked in long term or figure to be locked in long term pretty soon. That’s a nice young core with a couple of superstars. It’s not fun to see your team punt on draft picks and what not, but no one knows like Cavs fans just how little most rookies and young players can contribute early on.
Hoops Rumors: The Eastern Conference doesn’t pose much of a threat, but how do the Cavs stack up against the Western Conference heavies?
David Zavac: Assuming the Cavs are at full strength, they should have a great shot against nearly everyone. Without Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving they were within two games of winning last season. The talk of Kevin Love being sat in fourth quarters and not fitting was overblown. The Cavs were 33-3 when they were healthy to close out the season. The Warriors, Rockets, and Spurs all figure to be very good. I’d be optimistic if I were writing about them as well. Hopefully whoever comes out of the conference finals will be healthy and we can get a good look.
Battle For Roster Spots: Southeast Division
Hoops Rumors is taking a team-by-team look at the battles for regular season roster spots going on around the NBA this month, the last before rosters shrink from the offseason limit of 20 to the 15-man regular season maximum. We’ve already checked out the Northwest, Pacific, Southwest, Central and Atlantic division franchises, and now we’ll finish up the series with a look at the Atlantic Division:
HAWKS
13 full guarantees (Smallest full guarantee: Tim Hardaway Jr. — $1,304,520; Edy Tavares and Justin Holiday have smaller full guarantees for this season, but their salaries for next season are guaranteed, too.)
Non-guaranteed players
- Earl Barron
- DeQuan Jones
- Mike Muscala — $473,638 partial guarantee
- Lamar Patterson — $75K partial guarantee
- Terran Petteway — $75K partial guarantee
Analysis: Muscala has long been a “lock” for the regular season roster, as Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has said, so realistically this is a matter of four players competing for one opening night spot. Patterson has seen far more playing time in the preseason than the other three, as Vivlamore pointed out before this weekend’s game against the Heat (Twitter link), and that still holds true. Patterson, who signed as a draft-and-stash prospect this summer after having been the 48th overall pick in 2014, is averaging 4.0 points in 14.3 minutes per game. Petteway is only logging about half as many minutes per contest, and Barron and Jones have seen fewer than five minutes a night.
HEAT
13 full guarantees (Smallest full guarantee: Josh Richardson — $525,093)
Non-guaranteed players
- Keith Benson
- James Ennis
- Corey Hawkins
- Tyler Johnson — $422,530 partial guarantee
- Tre Kelley
- John Lucas III
- Greg Whittington
Analysis: Johnson seems like a strong bet for opening night, since half his salary is already guaranteed and he is first in line to become the third-string point guard, a key position given the uncertainty surrounding Mario Chalmers. That ostensibly leaves one open spot, though the Heat, in line to pay repeat-offender tax penalties if they wind up over the $84.74MM tax threshold at the end of the regular season, could save money and keep a spot free beneath the 15-man roster maximum on opening night. Ennis is leading the six Heat players with non-guaranteed salary in minutes per game so far in the preseason, with 17.0 MPG, but Greg Whittington is not far behind, at 16.1 MPG. Making it tricky is that Ennis’ salary of $845,059 would become fully guaranteed on opening night, though in the long run, he’d be cheaper than the other non-guaranteed players, whose full-season salaries would count as $947,276 for tax purposes if they were to stick for all of 2015/16. At least two other teams are interested in Ennis, scouts tell Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel, as we noted earlier, so the Heat might not get the chance to re-sign Ennis later this season if they let him go.
HORNETS
14 full guarantees (Smallest full guarantee: Troy Daniels, Tyler Hansbrough, tie — $947,276)
Non-guaranteed players
- Aaron Harrison — $75K partial guarantee
- Sam Thompson
- Jason Washburn
- Damien Wilkins
- Elliot Williams — $80K partial guarantee
Analysis: The season-ending injury to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist begat the Wilkins signing, seemingly dampening the chances that any of the other four camp invitees will stick around for the regular season. Wilkins saw nearly 24 minutes of action in his preseason debut, his only appearance with the Hornets so far, taking only three shots and scoring five points. Still, through just one game, he’s managed to total more minutes than any other camp invitee on Charlotte’s roster except for Harrison, who’s averaging 3.8 points in 12.5 minutes per contest across four appearances so far. Harrison has a financial edge thanks to his partial guarantee, though $75K isn’t much to deter the Hornets if they’d prefer Wilkins. Harrison and Wilkins are the same height, but Wilkins has a longer wingspan that would allow him to defend better against small forwards, duties that Kidd-Gilchrist normally assumes.
MAGIC
13 full guarantees (Smallest full guarantee: Dewayne Dedmon — $947,276)
Non-guaranteed players
- Nnanna Egwu
- Melvin Ejim — $150K partial guarantee
- Devyn Marble
- Greg Stiemsma
Analysis: Marble, the 56th overall pick of the 2014 draft who missed much of his rookie season with an eye injury, is averaging 8.8 points in 19.7 minutes, and both numbers are better than any of the other Magic camp invitees so far. None of the others is seeing double-figure minutes, and while Stiemsma comes closest, this weekend’s exhibition against Flamengo of Brazil was his first appearance of the preseason thanks to an Achilles tendon strain that had kept him from playing in the team’s first five preseason games. Ejim has looked sharp in close to 32 total minutes of play across four games, scoring 14 points and grabbing nine rebounds, helping justify his status as the only remaining Orlando camp invitee with partially guaranteed money. However, partial guarantees of $100K apiece didn’t preserve the jobs of Keith Appling and Jordan Sibert, whom the Magic waived this afternoon.
WIZARDS
15 full guarantees (Smallest full guarantee: Garrett Temple — $1,100,602)
Non-guaranteed players
- Josh Harrellson
- Jaron Johnson
- Toure’ Murry
- Jaleel Roberts — $10K partial guarantee
- Ish Smith
Analysis: The opening night roster for the Wizards appears to have been settled for a while, or at least since trade rumors connecting Temple to the Jazz died down. The Wizards seem to be fond of Temple, who’s leading the team in preseason minutes per game, and they’d have to either trade or eat at least $2MM in salary if they were to get rid of anyone else among their 15 fully guaranteed players. Temple is posting an impressive 7.0 assists in 24.1 minutes per game so far in the preseason, though Smith is dishing dimes at an even more efficient rate, with 4.2 APG in 12.4 MPG.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Magic Waive Keith Appling, Jordan Sibert
The Magic have waived Keith Appling and Jordan Sibert, the team announced via press release. Both will join the team’s D-League affiliate assuming they clear waivers, the Magic also said. Appling and Sibert have matching $100K partial guarantees, so Orlando would be on the hook for those if they indeed clear waivers. The move leaves the team with 17 players, 13 of whom have full guarantees.
Appling, a point guard from Michigan State, scored six points in about 43 total minutes of play in five appearances in the preseason, while Sibert, a shooting guard from Dayton, totaled three points in approximately 30 minutes of play across five preseason games. Both are 23, though Sibert went undrafted this summer while Appling is in his second season as a pro, having spent last season with the D-League affiliates of the Lakers and Magic after a short time on the Lakers NBA roster prior to opening night last fall.
Teams can keep the D-League rights to as many as four players they waive, providing they clear waivers and agree to join the D-League, though the Magic already had Appling’s rights from his time with their affiliate last season. Centers Nnanna Egwu and Greg Stiemsma, small forward Melvin Ejim and shooting guard Devyn Marble are the remaining Magic players without fully guaranteed salaries. Ejim is the only one with a partial guarantee. He’s assured of $150K, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
Who do you think will get the final two regular season roster spots on the Magic, assuming they carry 15 players? Leave a comment to let us know.
Al Horford Changes Agents As Free Agency Looms
Al Horford has hired BDA Sports founder Bill Duffy as his agent with free agency looming next summer, dropping the Wasserman Media Group, reports Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal (Twitter link). Horford had been with Arn Tellem at Wasserman before Tellem left for an executive position within the Pistons organization, and the Hawks big man had more recently been with Wasserman agents B.J. Armstrong and Jason Glushon. Horford’s contract is up at the end of the season, and he sits at No. 6 on the latest Hoops Rumors 2016 Free Agent Power Rankings.
Duffy represents Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Danny Green and Rajon Rondo, among NBA other clients. Green scored a new four-year, $40MM deal with the Spurs this summer. Duffy also signed Jahlil Okafor, this year’s No. 3 overall draft pick.
The defection of Horford is another loss for Wasserman, which saw LaMarcus Aldridge leave this summer, though he’d already signed for the max with the Spurs by the time he changed agents. Joe Johnson, a former teammate of Horford’s who’s also poised to hit free agency next summer, left Wasserman, too. Aldridge and Johnson signed with Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management.
Do you think Horford will sign a max deal next summer? Leave a comment to tell us.