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Author: Chuck Myron

Suns Sign Seth Curry To 10-Day Contract

By | at March 11, 2015 1:45 pm

WEDNESDAY, 1:45pm: The deal is official, the team announced.

TUESDAY, 2:32pm: The Suns and shooting guard Seth Curry have reached agreement on a 10-day contract, league sources tell Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). Phoenix has been carrying 14 players, including Earl Barron on a 10-day contract of his own, so the team has plenty of flexibility to add Curry, the younger brother of Warriors star Stephen Curry. The Curry who’s apparently heading to the Suns has been playing for the Magic’s D-League affiliate.

Seth Curry has gained a toehold in the league on previous occasions, joining his brother on the Warriors for camp in 2013, spending a brief tenure with the Grizzlies over the holidays that year, and signing a 10-day contract with the Cavs nearly a year ago. His first tie to the Suns came when he joined the team for summer league action this past July. Curry inked a training camp deal with the Magic that had him on Orlando’s NBA roster with a $100K partial guarantee this past fall. He didn’t make it to opening night, but the Magic’s D-League affiliate traded for his D-League rights before the season, and Curry has spent the season with the Orlando-controlled Erie BayHawks, averaging 23.5 points in 37.0 minutes per game with impressive 48.2% three-point shooting.

Phoenix’s second 10-day contract with Barron expires after Thursday night, so it’s unclear if the Suns intend to replace him with Curry or re-sign Barron for the season and start carrying 15 players. Barron’s a center, so it would seem the addition of Curry wouldn’t be directly related to his status, though that’s just my speculation.

1 comment Phoenix Suns Transactions

Team Facebook/Twitter/RSS

By | at March 11, 2015 1:26 pm

If you want to keep tabs on all the stories and updates at Hoops Rumors, you can follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or subscribe to our feed through your RSS reader of choice. If you prefer to receive only news about your favorite NBA team, we still have you covered. You can even get updates only when teams make a move with our Transactions-only Twitter and RSS feed. Below are links to our Facebook, Twitter, and RSS pages and feeds for all 30 teams.

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Transactions only: Twitter / RSS

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And-Ones: Kobe, Draft, Hard Cap, Datome

By | at March 11, 2015 11:59 am

Kobe Bryant thought for a moment after he found out he’d torn his rotator cuff that he might be done with the game, but he insisted he’s never seriously considered not playing next season, as he told reporters Tuesday, including Baxter Holmes of ESPNLosAngeles.com. Bryant left open the possibility that he’ll play beyond 2015/16, the last year of his contract with the Lakers, and he added that he probably won’t decide whether to play in 2016/17 until next season is through, as Holmes notes. Here’s more from around the league:

  • Prominent agent Arn Tellem, in a piece for Grantland, argues that teams have begun to regard the back end of the draft’s second round as less about finding the best available player and more about acquiring the rights to prospects willing to play overseas. Among Tellem’s proposals is to move to a system of draft-eligibility similar to baseball’s in which all players would be automatically eligible at age 18. Tellem would also like to see a rule that would require teams to tender guaranteed minimum-salary offers to retain the rights to second-round picks, though that salary would be cut in half if the draftee instead spends the season playing in the D-League. His ideas likely have an influential audience, since Tellem’s Wasserman agency has close ties to Adam Silver and D-League president Malcolm Turner, notes Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today (Twitter links).
  • Silver, meanwhile, tells Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune that he continues to support a harder salary cap in the wake of the league’s proposal for one in the last round of collective bargaining in 2011, arguing that it would create more parity.
  • The Celtics appear lukewarm about soon-to-be free agent Gigi Datome, and while he told Italian media that he’d like to receive more offers from NBA teams than he does from overseas, clubs from Spain, Russia and Turkey are ready with proposals, sources tell Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia.
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Atlantic Notes: Nets Sale, Wiggins, Embiid

By | at March 11, 2015 10:58 am

Amar’e Stoudemire‘s $2.5MM buyout from the Knicks only represented a net loss of $2,014,330 for him, since it was offset by his prorated minimum salary deal with the Mavs, but it was a savings of $6.25MM for the Knicks, as Marc Berman of the New York Post points out. The $2.5MM that Stoudemire gave up, an amount that Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders first reported, as we noted last month, would have entailed an extra $3.75MM in luxury taxes had the big man remained under contract. Still, Stoudemire collected a total of more than $97.2MM in salary from the Knicks over the course of his five-year contract, and New York is in line to pay at least some tax for a third straight year, meaning the team will incur repeat-offender penalties if it goes over the tax next season. Here’s more from the Atlantic:

  • Sources told Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders that they suspected the sale of the Nets was to have been based off a $1 billion price for the Hawks, but those same sources believe the Atlanta franchise will go for around $900MM instead, as Kyler relays (Twitter links). Multiple sports bankers had believed the Nets would sell for as much as $2 billion, as they told Josh Kosman and Claire Atkinson of the New York Post earlier this month, but that price point never materialized, Kyler hears (Twitter link). Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov appears to be backing away from the idea of a sale.
  • There are whispers that Andrew Wiggins would love to play for the Raptors, but he’s under contract through 2018 and would have to take discount salaries if he wants to play in his native Canada anytime this decade, writes Eric Koreen of the National Post. In any case, the talent pool in Canada has grown enough such that GM Masai Ujiri need not dig deep to fulfill his promise of bringing a domestic talent onto the Raptors, making the GM’s pledge “harmless,” Koreen believes. Still, a majority of Hoops Rumors readers believe that Ujiri shouldn’t concern himself with a player’s nationality.
  • The “minor setback” that Joel Embiid has suffered as he continues to recover from a broken right foot bears watching, but it’s not worth an overreaction, Sixers coach Brett Brown told reporters, including Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The franchise still believes that Embiid is capable of becoming its cornerstone if he can get healthy, Pompey writes.
0 comments Atlanta Hawks Brooklyn Nets New York Knicks Philadelphia 76ers Toronto Raptors

NBA, NCAA Seek Later Draft Withdrawal Deadline

By | at March 11, 2015 10:00 am

A joint proposal from the NBA, NCAA and the National Association of Basketball Coaches would restore the ability for underclassmen to “test the waters” and retain their college eligibility after declaring for early entry to the NBA draft, reports Andy Katz of ESPN.com. The deadline for underclassmen who enter the draft to withdraw and maintain their NCAA eligibility, which was April 15th last year, would move to late May as part of the measure, according to Katz. The NBA would alter the schedule and format for its annual June combine so early entry candidates could take part before the deadline, as Katz explains.

A change that took place for 2011 made it difficult, if not impossible, for underclassmen to accurately evaluate where they were likely to be drafted, or if they were in line to be drafted at all. The proposal would give players more time to assess their stock and a chance to take part in the combine. A lack of an invitation to the combine, which would encompass fewer than 100 players, would provide a signal to a player that he’s not likely to find work in the NBA, as Kentucky coach John Calipari suggests to Katz.

Dan Gavitt, the NCAA men’s basketball championship vice president, said to Katz that there’s a strong chance the proposal will come to a formal vote in January if its formally entered to an NCAA subcommittee in September. UCLA athletics director Dan Guerrero, who heads the NCAA Division I council, said it could take effect in time for the 2016 draft.

The measure wouldn’t change the timing of the draft process for international players and others without NCAA ties, who can withdraw anytime up to 10 days before the draft.

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All Disabled Player Exceptions Expire

By | at March 11, 2015 8:50 am

Tuesday was the final day that teams could use disabled player exceptions, meaning a combined total of nearly $14.307MM in salary cap flexibility has gone by the wayside. The NBA granted the relief to the Pacers, Lakers, Heat and Cavaliers this season, but only the Cavs put their disabled player exception to use. The Lakers forfeited the most flexibility Tuesday, watching two exceptions worth a total of more than $6.349MM disappear.

Coincidentally, the Lakers used another injury-related provision Tuesday, signing Jabari Brown to a 10-day contract via hardship, which allowed the team to add Brown to the roster without dropping another player even though L.A. was already carrying 15 players. The hardship provision only gives teams an extra roster spot, however. It doesn’t allow them any grace as it relates to the salary cap. That’s what disabled player exceptions are for. They allow teams that are already above the salary cap a means to add players for more than the minimum, up to the value of the exception. That same amount can be used to claim a player off waivers, and teams may trade for a player who makes the value of the exception plus $100K.

But, there are a couple of stipulations that help explain why so many disabled player exceptions went unused. They can’t go toward any player whose contract runs beyond this season. So, teams with disabled player exceptions can’t sign anyone to a multiyear deal or claim or trade for a player who isn’t on an expiring contract. Also, the exception doesn’t absolve a team of any luxury tax burden it might incur if using the exception would take it over the tax threshold. That’s probably why the Heat and the Pacers, both of whom would cross the tax line if they used the full amounts of their exceptions, decided to stand pat.

Unlike other exceptions, the disabled player exception may only be used on one player. So, even though the Cavs used only a partial amount of their $4,852,273 exception to trade for Iman Shumpert‘s $2,616,975 salary, they weren’t allowed to spend the rest on another player, meaning the exception disappeared as soon as Cleveland put it to use.

For more detail on disabled player exceptions, including information on how their values are determined, check out our Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Here’s a look at this season’s exceptions and the ones that expired at the end of Tuesday.

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NBA Teams With 16 Players In 2014/15

By | at March 10, 2015 3:58 pm

The NBA’s hardship rule was little-known and little used when the season began, but the ability for teams to exceed the 15-man roster limit during the regular season has come into play more frequently in 2014/15. Multiple teams have also used the league’s suspended list to add a 16th player to their rosters. The Lakers became the sixth team to carry 16 players during the 2014/15 regular season when they signed Jabari Brown to a 10-day contract today. Here’s a look back at the five other instances in which teams carried 16 men this season:

  • Indiana signed A.J. Price on November 6th into the 16th roster spot created through the league’s injury hardship provision. The team’s initial plan was reportedly to sign Gal Mekel instead, but visa issues tripped up that would-be deal. Mekel’s visa might have been ready by the 7th, but teams only have two days to use the hardship provision once the NBA grants it, so Indiana wasn’t in position to wait. The Pacers waived Price to get back down to 15 players on November 28th, and the Cavs claimed him off waivers. Cleveland ultimately let go of Price on January 7th.
  • The Thunder used the injury hardship provision to sign Ish Smith on November 7th. They kept Smith as a 16th man until November 26th, when they elected to waive Sebastian Telfair and hang on to Smith even as they cut back down to 15 players. Oklahoma City finally parted ways with Smith at the trade deadline, sending him to the Pelicans, who promptly waived him. The Sixers claimed him off waivers and still have him on the roster, so a contract that was supposed to be a temporary arrangement persists.
  • The Grizzlies were an odd candidate to go up to 16 players on November 19th, since they were carrying only 14 players. However, a stomach virus befell several Memphis players, leaving the team shorthanded. The injury hardship exception would have required that the team have four players who’d already missed multiple games, but that wasn’t the case for the Grizzlies. Instead, they used the league’s 20-game suspension of Nick Calathes to place him on the suspended list and sign both Kalin Lucas and Hassan Whiteside to boost their roster to 16 players. They waived Lucas and Whiteside the next day to return to 14 players, though they probably would have been better served keeping Whiteside as a 15th man, since he went on to sign with the Heat and enjoy a breakout campaign.
  • Jeff Adrien became the 16th member of the Timberwolves when he signed with the team on November 29th thanks to the injury hardship provision. Minnesota reduced its roster to 15 players when it completed the unbalanced Corey Brewer trade on December 19th. Adrien stayed on as one of 15 players until the Wolves released him on January 7th.
  • The Sixers traded for Andrei Kirilenko on December 11th, but he never reported to the team. Philadelphia quietly exercised its right to suspend him for failing to do so, a move that wasn’t discovered until the team traded for Jared Cunningham on January 7th without giving up a player in the move. The Sixers quickly released Cunningham, but they had 15 players on the roster before he arrived, so they took advantage of the ability to place Kirilenko on the suspended list to squeeze Cunningham onto the team as a 16th player, even if only temporarily. They went back up to 16 players thanks to Kirilenko’s suspension when they signed Larry Drew II to a pair of 10-day contracts in late January and once more when they added Tim Frazier on the first of his pair of 10-day deals after Drew’s second 10-day pact expired. They stayed at 16 players through the trade deadline before waiving Kirilenko to return to 15 players on February 21st. They released Frazier from his 10-day deal early to claim Thomas Robinson off waivers on February 24th.
  • A suspension for Larry Sanders allowed the Bucks to add Jorge Gutierrez as a 16th man when they signed him to a 10-day contract in January. The NBA stipulated that the Sanders suspension would last at least 10 games, but they left the maximum length open-ended, leaving some uncertainty about whether the team would be able to re-sign Gutierrez when his contract came to an end. The 10th game of Sanders’ suspension coincided with the final day of Gutierrez’s deal. However, the Bucks evidently received the clarity they were seeking, and they re-signed Gutierrez to another 10-day contract shortly thereafter. Sanders’ suspension ended after 12 games, and Milwaukee didn’t sign Gutierrez to a deal for the rest of the season, bringing a close to the 16-man roster dynamic before the Bucks ultimately released Sanders in a buyout deal.
0 comments Hoops Rumors Originals Los Angeles Lakers

Celtics, Sixers Made Most Trades In 2014/15

By | at March 10, 2015 3:02 pm

It’s tough to draw too many conclusions from a wild season of trades until more time has passed, but already there’s been at least a slight correlation between success on the court and willingness to trade. The sub-.500 Celtics and Sixers make the case that losing teams were more apt to trade this season, as each team has made a league-high 11 trades since the official start of the 2014/15 season in July. However, the surging Cavs are right behind them, having pulled off nine swaps. The Spurs and Warriors are two of only three teams not to have taken part in a trade this season, but the other is the Pacers, who’ve fallen on hard times without Paul George.

Still, it’s easier to see the link between winning and stability in the scope of last year’s on-court performance as well as this year’s. Only two of the top eight most active teams on the trade market made the playoffs last season, and none of the top four. All three teams that didn’t make a move are coming off playoff berths from last season, while only two of the nine teams that made fewer than two trades this year missed the playoffs in 2013/14.

Regardless, there was plenty of movement, with nearly half the teams in the league having been a part of at least four trades. Even teams that weren’t prolific traders had an impact, with the Heat acquiring Goran Dragic, who was probably the best player dealt at last month’s deadline, in their lone deal of 2014/15.

The number of trades in the 2014/15 season will no doubt swell at draft time, when teams usually execute a flurry of pick swaps, but from now until the end of the regular season, this is where it will stand. We’ve ranked every team by the number of trades they made. You can find details on all of the trades since the start of the regular season here, and details on trades during the 2014 offseason here. Note that the 2014 offseason trades include swaps that took place before July that are technically part of the 2013/14 season. Those deals aren’t reflected in the totals below.

  1. Celtics: 11
  2. Sixers: 11
  3. Cavaliers: 9
  4. Suns: 7
  5. Pelicans: 6
  6. Rockets: 6
  7. Thunder: 5
  8. Timberwolves: 5
  9. Kings: 4
  10. Knicks 4
  11. Nets: 4
  12. Nuggets: 4
  13. Pistons: 4
  14. Wizards: 4
  15. Clippers: 3
  16. Hornets: 3
  17. Jazz: 3
  18. Mavericks: 3
  19. Bucks: 2
  20. Bulls: 2
  21. Hawks: 2
  22. Grizzlies: 1
  23. Heat: 1
  24. Lakers: 1
  25. Magic: 1
  26. Raptors: 1
  27. Trail Blazers: 1
  28. Pacers: None
  29. Spurs: None
  30. Warriors: None
0 comments Boston Celtics Hoops Rumors Originals Philadelphia 76ers

Lakers Sign Jabari Brown To 10-Day Deal

By | at March 10, 2015 1:55 pm

1:55pm: The deal is official, the Lakers announced. The team also confirmed that it used a hardship exception to add Brown without dropping anyone, so the Lakers now have 16 players.

1:19pm: The Lakers have a 10-day deal “in the works” with shooting guard Jabari Brown, as coach Byron Scott told reporters, including Bill Oram of the Orange County Register (Twitter link). Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports first reported that the Lakers planned a 10-day contract with Brown (Twitter link). It appears the Lakers are using the hardship exception they had intended to apply for so that they can add a player to their 15-man roster without dropping someone, though that’s not immediately clear. Brown has been playing for L.A’s D-League affiliate, as Wojnarowski notes.

Brown, who went undrafted out of Missouri this past June, was on the Lakers’ NBA roster during the preseason after signing a non-guaranteed training camp deal, but he played only nine minutes total during the preseason and failed to make it to opening night. The Lakers retained his D-League rights, and the first-year pro has impressed, averaging 24.4 in 34.9 minutes per game with a 39.2% three-point percentage for the L.A. D-Fenders.

The ability to add a 16th player is triggered when a team has four players who are expected to miss significant time, and when Ronnie Price joined Steve Nash, Julius Randle and Kobe Bryant among the long-term wounded for the Lakers, an opportunity sprang forth. Nick Young has also been dealing with swelling in his knee, and Scott indicated that was part of the catalyst for bringing Brown aboard, too, notes Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Twitter link).

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Pacific Notes: Rivers, Granger, Divac

By | at March 10, 2015 12:00 pm

Doc Rivers and Flip Saunders hold the dual titles of coach and president of basketball operations for the Clippers and Timberwolves, respectively, but they’ve encountered vastly different jobs, as Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune explores.

“It’s not been hard, Flip’s had to do a lot more,” Rivers said. “They have a lot more work, far more assets than they have to try to get in and out. He has a ton of [financial] flexibility. When I came here, I looked at our roster and flexibility and there was not a lot we could do. We were more in the minimum contract and mid-level [exception] stuff. You’ve got to have assets and we do, but none that we want to trade. He has had a lot more work to do than I have. He’s trying to rebuild an entire team.”

Rivers signed a new deal worth more than $50MM over five years with the Clippers this past summer. Here’s more from the Pacific Division:

  • Danny Granger says he considered retirement after undergoing knee surgery when he was with the Pacers in 2013, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. He’s never been the same since missing all but five games of the 2012/13 season, but the Suns trainers have told him “it can be fixed,” as Coro details. The 31-year-old with a player option of more than $2.17MM for next season explored options to buy his way off the Suns and join a contender shortly after the deadline-day trade that sent him from Miami to Phoenix, but he decided against it, Coro writes.
  • Granger added that he wants to get “extremely healthy” before playing again, and while Suns coach Jeff Hornacek wouldn’t rule out his return before season’s end, as Coro relays in the same piece, the chances don’t appear overwhelmingly strong. “As we go on, if we’re still in the race, yeah, why not get a veteran guy like that in there?” Hornacek said. “If somehow we’re out of it, then maybe it makes more sense to play the young guys. Our thoughts right now are we’re still in the playoff hunt and we’re still going to go after it. If he can give us something toward the end there, maybe that happens.”
  • Vlade Divac turned down other opportunities to work in NBA front offices before he joined the Kings as vice president of basketball and franchise operations last week, as he tells USA Today’s Sam Amick.
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