Pelicans Waive Mirza Begić
The Pelicans have released center Mirza Begić just two days after signing him, the team announced. The 30-year-old practiced with the team, but New Orleans didn’t play any preseason games during his brief tenure. The move reduces the Pelicans roster to 19 players, 13 of whom have full guarantees, and it opens a spot beneath the 20-man preseason roster limit for New Orleans to formalize a deal with Nate Robinson, with whom the team reportedly has an agreement.
Begić, a native of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been with some of Europe’s most prominent teams, including Laboral Kuxta and Real Madrid of Spain and Olympiakos of Greece, but he’d never played with an NBA team before. He went undrafted when he was eligible in 2007.
New Orleans has made more roster moves than any other team in the past week as they deal with injuries to Omer Asik, Alexis Ajinca, Norris Cole and now Luke Babbitt, who’s out indefinitely with a left hamstring strain, as the team announced Thursday. The Pelicans signed Greg Smith and voided the contract after he failed a physical, signed Jerome Jordan, waived Corey Webster and signed Bo McCalebb in addition to their moves with Begić and Robinson.
Latest On Sixers, Joel Embiid
Joel Embiid put off foot surgery this summer to party and play basketball in Las Vegas this summer, and the Sixers have been frustrated with his attitude and insubordination, sources detailed to Brian Geltzeiler of SI.com’s The Cauldron. Sixers majority owner Josh Harris didn’t want Embiid to accompany the Sixers to the Las Vegas Summer League in July, preferring that Embiid undergo the surgery doctors prescribed for his slow-healing right foot, and Harris instructed GM Sam Hinkie and Brett Brown to ensure he didn’t attend. Neither kept the former No. 3 overall pick from traveling to Las Vegas, multiple sources tell Geltzeiler. Embiid didn’t appear in games, but he shot jumpers and dunked on the side and refused to wear a medically prescribed walking boot, Geltzeiler hears. Surgery didn’t take place until August.
Hinkie has expressed a desire for Embiid to be more focused in his rehab, but he said around the time of Embiid’s surgery that the center had adhered to the recovery plan laid out for him. Embiid’s diet and conditioning have nonetheless worried the Sixers, multiple sources tell Geltzeiler, who also hears that Embiid physically threatened a Sixers strength coach last season.
Sixers majority owner Josh Harris remains firmly in Hinkie’s corner in spite of the issues regarding Embiid and other concerns around the team, but sources suggested to Geltzeiler that others within the ownership structure are losing patience. Last season’s Michael Carter-Williams trade riled and surprised Brown, multiple league sources tell Geltzeiler, though Sean Deveney of The Sporting News reported in the spring that while Brown didn’t fully support the move, the tension between him and Hinkie was minimal.
Geltzeiler’s sources also say Scott O’Neil, who sits atop the team’s business operations as its CEO, was angry and caught off guard by the trade, as he’d planned to market around Carter-Williams and Nerlens Noel. However, Sixers spokesperson Michael Preston denied any discord surrounding the move, calling it “unsubstantiated rumor” and “a gross mischaracterization of the events” in an email response to Geltzeiler’s inquiry. O’Neil said in a recent interview with Jake Fischer of SI Now that the team’s business department has come to terms with the trade and is excited about the club’s assets for the long term, which include a future first-round pick from the Lakers that came in that same Carter-Williams deal (Twitter link).
Dario Saric, another of Philadelphia’s prospects for the future, remains under contract with Turkey’s Anadolu Efes, and his father is pushing the Sixers away, a source tells Geltzeiler. Saric has denied that his father is exerting undue influence. Saric and the Sixers both reportedly wanted him to join Philadelphia in time for this season, but the first escape clause in his deal isn’t until next summer.
Warriors Cut Juwan Staten
Golden State waived point guard Juwan Staten at the end of their preseason win over the Rockets late Thursday, the Warriors announced. The undrafted rookie from West Virginia was in camp on a non-guaranteed deal and made his preseason debut in that game against the Rockets, scoring two points in 10 minutes of action. The move drops the Warriors roster to 17 players, 13 of whom have fully guaranteed pacts.
Staten, 23, was one of many in Warriors camp with strong outside shooting capability, as he made three-pointers with 37% accuracy over the final two years of his college career. That covered a fairly small sample size of only 73 attempts, however. Many of his numbers fell from his junior season to his senior year. He put up 12.1 points, 5.8 assists and 2.1 turnovers in 37.3 minutes per game as a junior and 14.2 PPG, 4.6 APG and 2.0 TOPG in 31.3 MPG this past season.
The Warriors still have a few more decisions to make before opening night. They’re a taxpaying team and under no obligation to carry more than 13 players to start the season, though every team started last season with at least 14 players last year. Coach Steve Kerr likes James Michael McAdoo, who has a $100K partial guarantee, so he seems in strong position to stick. Ian Clark, Chris Babb and Jarell Eddie are the Warriors with non-guaranteed contracts.
Who do you think will get the last spot on the Warriors regular season roster, assuming they start the season with 15 players? Leave a comment to tell us.
Hornets Sign Damien Wilkins
OCTOBER 16TH, 8:24am: The deal is finally official, the team announced. That brings Charlotte’s roster to 19 players.
OCTOBER 6TH, 8:42am: The contract will be non-guaranteed, Wilkins says on his personal blog (hat tip to Kurt Helin of ProBasketballTalk). The blog entry recounts the events leading up to the Hornets deal for Wilkins, who very nearly left on a plane to join his Venezuelan team, and Wilkins notes that he had already signed a contract with the Venezuelan club, which evidently allowed him to break the pact.
1:43pm: Charlotte does plan to sign Wilkins, as Bonnell makes clear in a full story.
9:49am: The Hornets are indeed bringing in Wilkins for a “preseason look,” tweets Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. That presumably confirms that the team intends to sign him.
OCTOBER 5TH, 8:22am: Nine-year NBA veteran Damien Wilkins is headed to Charlotte for a chance to return to the league, as indicated by quotes attributed to him on the Twitter feed of the Venezuelan team Guaros de Lara (hat tip to Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com). Wilkins said he wouldn’t be joining Guaros de Lara as planned after receiving word of an opportunity with Charlotte (All five Twitter links here, in Spanish). Other tweets from the Venezuelan team indicate the same, so it would appear that the Hornets are either going to work him out, sign him, or both. It seems part of an effort to offset the loss of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who has a dislocated right shoulder. The Hornets have yet to release any timetable, but it’s an injury that typically costs players three to 12 weeks, according to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer.
Wilkins, 35, was last on an NBA contract two years ago, when the Hawks brought him to camp and waived him before the start of the regular season. He’d spent 2012/13 season with the Sixers, for whom he put up 6.4 points in 18.0 minutes per game with 33.3% shooting in 61 appearances, numbers close to his NBA career averages. Wilkins has played overseas and in the D-League since, notching 20.2 PPG and 5.7 RPG in 37.8 MPG with 33.1% three-point shooting across 50 contests with the D-League affiliate of the Grizzlies this past season.
Kidd-Gilchrist and Wilkins are both perimeter players, lending credence to the idea that Kidd-Gilchrist’s injury precipitated Wilkins’ trip to Charlotte. The Hornets have been carrying 18 players, as our roster count shows. Coach Steve Clifford has opposed the idea of adding more, but that’s a stance that’s likely changed with the injury. Charlotte has its entire $5.464MM mid-level exception at its disposal, though few players receive more than the minimum this time of year. A more significant question likely involves how much, if any, guaranteed money Wilkins would receive. Charlotte already has 14 full guarantees.
Do you think Wilkins can help the Hornets? Leave a comment to tell us.
Lakers Pick Up 2016/17 Option On Julius Randle
The Lakers have exercised their team option for the 2016/17 season on Julius Randle‘s rookie scale contract, the team announced (Twitter link). The move is largely procedural, as Randle was in no real danger of seeing the option declined. It locks in a $3,267,120 salary for what will be the third year of Randle’s deal.
The power forward is the team’s third leading scorer so far in the preseason with 12.8 points in 24.5 minutes per game. GM Mitch Kupchak sees Randle as a long-term starter, and the team has made an effort to surround him with veteran mentors, signing Brandon Bass and Metta World Peace in part because of what they can teach the former Kentucky Wildcat who doesn’t turn 21 until next month. Randle missed almost all of last season after breaking his right leg in the opening game.
He was the only member of the Lakers with a decision pending on a rookie scale team option before leaguewide deadline of November 2nd this year. The team is still poised to enter next summer with loads of flexibility beneath a projected $89MM cap, with only about $23MM in guaranteed salary on the books for 2016/17.
Pacific Notes: Thompson, Cauley-Stein, Nance
- By contrast, Kings rookie Willie Cauley-Stein knows his role and is comfortable with being the team’s “junk man,” as he said to Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee. Just how the career of this year’s No. 6 overall pick will turn out depends largely on whether he can rebound consistently, Voisin believes.
- Larry Nance Jr. thinks the Lakers used this year’s No. 27 overall pick on him because of his jumping ability and his 6’9″, 230-pound frame, according to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. “I think I’m just something different. I’m someone that’s long, lanky, lean,” Nance said. “I want to run the floor and be as athletic as I can and really change the pace of the game when I come in. When you put me on the court, don’t worry about me, I’ll find my own stuff on offense.”
- Lakers coach Byron Scott likes the poise he’s seen from Nance so far, but the power forward told Bresnahan for the same story that he still feels he’s only about 85-90% recovered from the torn right ACL he suffered in March 2014, even though he’s been medically cleared for almost a year.
Henry Walker Signs With Amerileague
Five-year NBA veteran Henry Walker has signed with the Amerileague, the league announced (hat tip to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders). It’s a milestone of sorts for the six-team startup minor league, as Walker is the first of its signees who saw regular season action in the NBA last season. Walker, Josh Selby, Terrence Williams, Dajuan Wagner, Royce White, David Harrison and Antoine Wright are among those with NBA experience in the more distant past to join the Amerileague, Kennedy notes (Twitter link). Walker, who turned 28 last week, started 13 times in his 24-game stint with the Heat last season.
Walker joined Miami on a pair of 10-day contracts that led to a deal for the rest of the season with a non-guaranteed 2015/16 included. It was his first time back in the NBA since 2011/12, and the Mike Naiditch client made the most of it, as his 26.2 minutes per game for the Heat were a career high. Miami nonetheless released him in July, but Sam Amico reported soon after for Hoops Rumors that the Blazers had interest in the swingman.
The Amerileague is reportedly handing out salaries worth up to as much as $50K per month, about twice what the most well-compensated D-League players make. It’s not immediately clear if Walker will see that sort of money, but those salaries make the Amerileague more competitive with European teams. That helps explain why veterans like Walker are joining. The D-League has instead largely been the purview of younger, less-experienced players willing to sacrifice money for a chance to play with NBA-affiliated organizations.
Do you think the Amerileague will last for the long term as a legitimate minor league? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Nuggets Waive Matt Janning
12:27pm: The Nuggets have released Janning, the team announced via press release.
12:11pm: Janning has signed with Hapoel Jerusalem, the Israeli Winner League says via Twitter (hat tip to Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi). It’s a one-year deal with an option for a second, Pick tweets. The Nuggets haven’t announced anything about releasing Janning yet, and he’d have to clear waivers before any overseas deal could become official.
8:34am: The Nuggets will waive Matt Janning and his non-guaranteed deal, and the 27-year-old swingman is already in talks with Israel’s Hapoel Jerusalem, reports international journalist David Pick (Twitter link). Janning scored two points in about nine minutes of preseason action spread over a pair of games this month. The move will bring the Nuggets down to 18 players, including 15 with fully guaranteed pacts, as our roster count shows.
Janning’s contract with Denver is his first formal NBA deal since the 2010/11 season, when he was briefly on the Suns roster but didn’t manage to make it into a regular season game. He’s nonetheless been a frequent summer league participant, appearing on squads for the Suns, Celtics, Grizzlies, Pacers, Bulls, Nets and Timberwolves, though he didn’t play in an NBA summer league this year. Much of his career has taken place overseas, and he played for Anadolu Efes of Turkey last season.
He was a long shot to stick with the Nuggets for opening night, given the presence of those 15 guaranteed deals plus Erick Green, a holdover from last season who has a $100K partial guarantee. Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post opined recently that Green, and not Nick Johnson, who has a fully guaranteed one-year veteran’s minimum salary, is in the lead for the final regular season roster spot. Oleksiy Pecherov is also in Nuggets camp on a non-guaranteed contract as he attempts an NBA comeback, and Denver has summer-leaguer Devin Sweetney on a non-guaranteed deal, too.
Who do you think will end up on the Nuggets regular season roster? Leave a comment to give your thoughts.
Pelicans Sign Bo McCalebb
The Pelicans have signed Bo McCalebb, the team announced. Andrew Lopez of The Times Picayune reported Wednesday that the sides were having serious discussions. The New Orleans native and former University of New Orleans point guard goes into the roster spot vacated when the team waived Corey Webster just minutes ago, so the Pelicans are again at the 20-man preseason roster limit. The deal includes a partial guarantee, according to John Reid of The Times Picayune (Twitter link).
McCalebb, 30, has played overseas since going undrafted in 2008, save for a summer league stint with the Kings in July of that year. He was the top scorer in the Euroleague in 2011/12, notching 16.9 points per game for Siena of Italy. His assists were up last season with FC Bayern Muenchen of Germany, when he averaged 4.8 per game to go along with 12.4 PPG in 25.7 MPG. That will be key for a Pelicans team without Norris Cole for six weeks, especially with Jrue Holiday still on a minutes limit. Tyreke Evans is the team’s only other logical option at the point.
Injuries to Cole, Omer Asik and Alexis Ajinca have thrown the Pelicans into flux. The team has 13 full guarantees plus partial guarantees to McCalebb and Bryce Dejean-Jones, but if they keep all of them for opening night on October 27th, the Pelicans will have only Kendrick Perkins and Anthony Davis to play center unless Asik and Ajinca are healthy again by that time. Centers Jerome Jordan and Mirza Begić are in camp with the Pelicans, as is power forward Jeff Adrien.
Where do the Pelicans go from here? Who do you think they’ll keep for the regular season? Let us know with a comment.
Pelicans Waive Corey Webster
The Pelicans have waived Corey Webster, the team announced. The shooting guard from New Zealand was in camp on a non-guaranteed deal. The team is reportedly close to a deal with former University of New Orleans point guard Bo McCalebb, and the release of Webster drops the Pelicans roster to 19 players, giving them an open spot beneath the 20-man preseason roster maximum.
Webster, who turns 27 next month, scored four points in close to 22 total minutes of action across three preseason games for the Pelicans. He dished out six assists and committed just two turnovers, but it appears the Pelicans are focused on other options to handle their ball-distribution duties. Starting point guard Jrue Holiday remains on a minutes limit until January and backup Norris Cole is out six weeks with a high ankle sprain, as Andrew Lopez of The Times Picayune noted in his report about the team’s interest in McCalebb.
New Orleans has had a tough go of it with injuries so far, and already the team has made a series of moves to offset the loss of its top two centers, Omer Asik and Alexis Ajinca. The Pelicans have 13 full guarantees and a partial guarantee for rookie Bryce Dejean-Jones, as our roster count shows.