Tony Mitchell To Play In Puerto Rico
Former Pistons and Suns power forward Tony Mitchell will play for Atleticos de San German in Puerto Rico, agent Christian Santaella tweets (hat tip to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). The Suns released Mitchell last month to accommodate their trade for Brandan Wright a little more than two weeks after acquiring him from the Pistons in a one-for-one swap for Anthony Tolliver. Mitchell, a 22-year-old who was the 37th overall pick in 2013 out of North Texas, is not to be confused with the undrafted small forward by the same name who signed a 10-day contract with the Bucks in April.
The Mitchell who’s headed to Puerto Rico didn’t appear in an NBA game this season with either Detroit or Phoenix in spite of a guaranteed minimum salary. He saw just 3.8 minutes per game as a rookie in the NBA last year, spread over 21 appearances. The Pistons assigned him to the D-League on four occasions this season, but he put up modest numbers with Detroit’s affiliate, averaging 8.2 points and 7.2 rebounds in 24.8 minutes per game.
It’s unclear if his arrangement to play in Puerto Rico would allow him to return to the NBA this season. Mitchell had been drawing offers from European teams shortly after his release from the Suns, as David Pick of Eurobasket.com reported last month.
Raptors Eye David West, Taj Gibson, Faried?
The Raptors are “sniffing around” for an upgrade at power forward, writes Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, who hears from league sources who mention David West, Taj Gibson and Kenneth Faried, among others, in connection with Toronto. However, the Raptors aren’t willing to part with much in return, though they’d like to part with expiring contracts if it would net a frontcourt upgrade, Kyler adds.
West makes $12MM this year, and Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird said this week that while the 34-year-old hadn’t given him any indication of whether he intended to exercise his $12.6MM player option for next season, he anticipated West would return to Indiana. Bird also said the Pacers are in “win-now mode,” which would suggest that he doesn’t have any interest in trading West for expiring deals.
Sean Deveney of The Sporting News on Wednesday loosely connected Gibson to the Raptors, as well as the Suns, Pistons and Blazers, though it’s unclear if Chicago has any willingness to part with the key reserve, even amid a crowded frontcourt for the Bulls this season. The 29-year-old is in year two of a four-year extension that’ll pay him $8MM this season with salaries that escalate to $8.95MM in 2016/17.
The Nuggets don’t want to part with Faried, as Chris Mannix of SI.com wrote last week, seemingly counter to an early-season report indicating that the Nuggets weren’t sold on Faried even after signing him in October to a four-year extension worth at least $50MM. The 25-year-old’s shot attempts and points per game are off this season compared to last year even after a breakout performance with Team USA this summer.
Incumbent Raptors starting power forward Amir Johnson is on an expiring contract that’s worth $7MM to him this season, while Landry Fields, Chuck Hayes, Louis Williams, Tyler Hansbrough and Greg Stiemsma are the other Raptors set for free agency this summer. Kyler suggests that the Raptors would be willing to give up any one of their players on expiring contracts aside from Williams. Toronto has more than $49MM in commitments against a projected $66.5MM salary cap for next season, so any deal that gives up a soon-to-be free agent for a player with guaranteed money for next season would cut into what figures to be fairly significant cap flexibility.
The Raptors are in second place in the Eastern Conference, and though they’ve lost their past two games, they won six in a row at the end of January. Still, the team has mismatched parts and will be in major trouble if GM Masai Ujiri doesn’t make a move, Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun opines (All Twitter links).
Southeast Notes: Pargo, Orton, Payton
Hassan Whiteside has proven a remarkable midseason pickup, scoring 24 points and grabbing 20 rebounds Wednesday to further cement that status, but the Heat haven’t reaped much benefit in the standings. They lost Wednesday’s game to the league-worst Timberwolves and have but a half-game lead on the Nets for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Here’s more from the Southeast Division:
- The Hornets aren’t ruling out a reunion with Jannero Pargo later this season once the back injury that led to his release has healed, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com hears (Twitter link). Charlotte waived Pargo on Wednesday to sign Elliot Williams to a 10-day contract.
- Magic rookie point guard Elfrid Payton has seen action in every game Orlando has played so far, but embattled coach Jacque Vaughn isn’t hesitant to sit him when he proves ineffective at the start, as Ken Hornack of Fox Sports Florida points out. In any case, Payton has shown flashes, but the transition from playing in the NCAA’s Sun Belt Conference last year to the NBA season this time around has proven a challenge, Hornack writes. The Magic gave up the rights to Dario Saric, a future first-rounder, and a second-round pick just to acquire Payton at the draft this past summer.
- Wizards camp invitee Daniel Orton is joining the Purefoods Star Hotshots of the Philippines, a team official told Richard Dy of Spin.ph. Orton confirmed to Snow Badua of Spin.ph that he’s set to play with the club as soon as a hand injury heals. The four-year NBA veteran had been with the Sichuan Blue Whales of China before their season ended this week.
Pelicans Sign Toney Douglas To 10-Day Deal
The Pelicans have signed Toney Douglas to a 10-day contract, the team announced. The five-year NBA veteran became a free agent this week with the conclusion of his deal with Jiangsu Nangang of China. New Orleans had two open roster spots after the expiration of Nate Wolters‘ second 10-day deal this week, so it didn’t need to make any corresponding move.
Douglas put up 24.7 points in 31.6 minutes per game with 39% three-point shooting during his 34 appearances in China, though he only started nine games for the club. He worked out this summer for the Lakers in what agent David Falk client deemed as an early tryout for a deal once he returned stateside, since he’d already committed to play in China. He’d also drawn interest from the Bulls after finishing last season on the Heat’s bench.
New Orleans is without Jrue Holiday for a few weeks as he deals with a stress reaction in his leg, and the trades of Austin Rivers and Russ Smith had left Tyreke Evans, who’s seen more action at the wing over the course of his NBA career, as the team’s only point guard. Douglas will fill that need, though he’s never averaged more than the 3.0 assists per game he logged during the 2010/11 season with the Knicks.
Atlantic Notes: Jackson, Nets, Stoudemire, Drew
Phil Jackson‘s hints to Harvey Araton of The New York Times that his stay as Knicks president might not be a lengthy one lead Baxter Holmes of ESPNLosAngeles.com to wonder if the door is ajar for a return of the Zen Master to the Lakers, where Jim Buss is on a three-year timetable to succeed. Still, Jackson told Brian Lewis of the New York Post within the past week that “I’ve kind of just divorced myself from them,” in reference to the Lakers, so it seems a purple-and-gold reunion is almost certainly not in the cards. Here’s more from Jackson’s current division:
- Trade rumors have swirled around Brook Lopez, and a recent report cast some doubt about the long-term job security of coach Lionel Hollins, but Lopez and Hollins have begun to forge a better working relationship, as Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News details. Hollins’ public criticism of Lopez and others had bothered Nets ownership, as sources recently told Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com.
- Amar’e Stoudemire said today that he doesn’t anticipate he’ll be traded this year, and that while he hasn’t had a conversation with the Knicks front office about a future with the team beyond this season, he expects one to take place soon, observes Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv.
- Larry Drew II‘s 10-day contract with the Sixers expires tonight, but coach Brett Brown made it plain Tuesday that he’s a fan of the point guard, notes Tom Moore of Calkins Media (Twitter link). Drew is on his second 10-day arrangement with Philadelphia, so any subsequent deal between the sides would have to cover the rest of the season.
- Sources tell Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia that former Knicks guard Chris Smith is headed to play for KB Peja in Kosovo. The Knicks signed Smith, the brother of J.R. Smith, to a minimum-salary contract with a fully guaranteed salary for last season, but they waived him a little more than two months into 2013/14.
Pistons Notes: Trades, Cap, Jerebko
It’s been a rollercoaster season for the Pistons, who’ve won consecutive games against would-be playoff teams after a four-game losing streak that followed the tear they went on when they waived Josh Smith. The trade deadline, just two weeks and a day away, provides another avenue for substantial change. There’s more on potential trades amid the latest from the Motor City:
- Pistons GM Jeff Bower came up empty as he sought a trade to offset the loss of Jennings, but Bower’s boss, Stan Van Gundy, isn’t ruling out a swap even after the team signed John Lucas III to a 10-day deal to fill the gap at point guard, as MLive’s Brendan Savage notes. “Right now, we’re happy with what we have but you’re always exploring trades,” Van Gundy said Monday. “That’s just being honest. Those guys know that and they know you’re not being honest if you said anything else. You’re always exploring what’s out there. You’ve got to see what’s possible. But with John coming in now, there’s nothing specifically that we have to get done. We’ve got our roster, we’re happy with it. If there’s something out there that makes us better, then we’ll do it.”
- The 10-day contract with Lucas doesn’t cost the Pistons much, but it nonetheless exhausted the tiny amount of cap room the team had left, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders points out (Twitter link). The team still has the use of its room exception, worth a prorated amount of $2.732MM, and Detroit can of course continue to use the minimum-salary exception.
- Jonas Jerebko is set to become a free agent this summer, but he hinted Tuesday as he played his 300th game with the Pistons that he’d like to stick around, as David Mayo of MLive relays. “It’s a milestone for me. I want to play 300 more,” Jerebko said. “I’m definitely proud that I’ve been a Piston that many games. I want to keep going and raise that number.”
Wolves To Make Strong Push For Nemanja Bjelica
The Timberwolves plan to “push hard” to sign former 35th overall pick Nemanja Bjelica this summer, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities. The 26-year-old power forward is under contract through next season with Turkey’s Fenerbahce Ulker, as Mark Porcaro shows in the Hoops Rumors Draft Rights Held Players Database, but it appears there’s a way for him to escape the deal and come to the NBA. Bjelica signed with the Wasserman Media Group before this season, and the Timberwolves have a strong relationship with agent and Wasserman vice chairman Arn Tellem, as Wolfson tweeted in December.
Wolfson speculated then that for the Wolves to sign Bjelica, it would take a contract similar to the three-year deal worth more than $16.6MM that the Bulls handed out this past summer to Nikola Mirotic (Twitter link). Minnesota already has more than $50MM in salary commitments against a projected $66.5MM salary cap for next season, not counting Thaddeus Young‘s early termination option worth nearly $9.972MM and a $5MM player option for Chase Budinger. The Wolves are reportedly trying to trade Budinger and have apparently engaged in talks with the Nets about Young, though it appears unlikely Minnesota will make a deal. Regardless of whether the Wolves are able to clear cap room, Mirotic’s starting salary this year is equivalent to the value of the non-taxpayer’s mid-level exception, so that’s a path the Wolves could take with Bjelica.
The Wizards originally drafted the native of Serbia in 2010, shipping his rights to Minnesota the same night. The 6’10” Bjelica’s rebounding is up this season for Fenerbahce, Wolfson notes, and he’s scoring more this season, too. He’s averaging 12.6 points and 8.1 boards in 26.4 minutes per game as opposed to his 9.3 PPG and 5.7 RPG in 22.0 MPG last season. His three-point stroke is off a bit, down to 38.6% from 41.0%.
And-Ones: Duncan, Popovich, Collison, Grizzlies
The “prevailing thought” around the league has been that Tim Duncan will retire when his contract expires after the season, according to Sam Amick of USA Today, but Gregg Popovich isn’t so sure. The coach/executive acknowledges that Duncan is liable to walk away from the game at any time, regardless of contract status, but Popovich tells Amick that he doesn’t believe Duncan will do so just yet, given his still-proficient level of play. Nonetheless, Popovich isn’t making promises about his own longevity, and while he confirmed to Amick that the extension he signed this past summer was for five years, the 66-year-old thinks he’ll retire before that time is through. Here’s more from around the league:
- The push for Nick Collison‘s extension with the Thunder came from the team’s side, according to Royce Young of ESPN.com, writing for Daily Thunder. The length of the deal for the Mike Higgins client, which runs one season past the expiration of Kevin Durant‘s contract, makes it clear that the extension is in part an enticement for Durant, who likes Collison, to stay, Young believes. It’s also a signal that the club is on board with paying the luxury tax next season, as Young explains.
- Tyrus Thomas has returned to the D-League affiliate of the Grizzlies after the expiration of his 10-day contract with the franchise’s NBA club, the D-League team announced (on Twitter).
- Free agent Greg Oden reached a plea deal with prosecutors stemming from an August incident, as court documents show, according to Michael Anthony Adams of USA Today. The former No. 1 overall pick pleaded guilty to a felony battery charge and three other charges were dismissed as part of the deal, Adams writes. Oden avoided jail time in sentencing, as Adams’ report also indicates.
Clippers Re-Sign Dahntay Jones For Season
5:02pm: The signing is official, the team has announced.
TUESDAY, 3:20pm: The Clippers have officially signed Jones for the remainder of the season, according to Dan Woike of the Orange County Register (on Twitter).
MONDAY, 5:29pm: The Clippers will re-sign Dahntay Jones for the rest of the season after his second 10-day contract expires tonight, coach/executive Doc Rivers told reporters, including Dan Woike of The Orange County Register (Twitter link). Jones first joined the Clippers back on January 14th.
The Jazz brought the 10-year veteran Jones to training camp this past fall, but they released him before the start of the regular season. The 34-year-old went without a deal last season, save for a preseason stint with the Bulls, and, prior to this stint in L.A., he last appeared in an NBA regular season game with the Hawks in 2012/13. He averaged 14.4 points in 29.3 minutes per game with 38.5% three-point shooting for the D-League Mad Ants this year.
Over the last few weeks, Jones has logged 29 minutes across eight games for the Clippers, scoring four points and pulling down one rebound.
Zach Links contributed to this post.
Thunder Sign Nick Collison To Extension
12:07pm: Collison’s extension is worth $7.5MM over two seasons, and all of the salary is guaranteed, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
11:10am: The Thunder have signed Nick Collison to a multiyear veteran extension, the team announced via press release. The power forward’s contract was to have expired at season’s end. It’s a two-year deal worth close to $8MM, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. Normally, veteran extensions are limited to starting salaries worth no more than 7.5% of what they’re currently making. However, since Collison has been with the Thunder/SuperSonics franchise for more than a decade, and his more than $2.242MM salary this season is less than he made last year, he can sign for more. His starting salary can be up to 107.5% of the average salary in his existing deal, so he could make up to roughly $5.225MM next season, though it appears he’ll still make less than that amount.
“We are excited that Nick Collison will continue his tenure with the Thunder. Since our arrival in 2008, Nick has helped us establish the standards on and off the floor that we work by on a day-to-day basis,” Thunder GM Sam Presti said in the team’s statement. “He has accepted various roles, demonstrated professionalism in all aspects of his craft, and shown a commitment to an organizational philosophy that is rare in sports today. Nick is the type of player that will always be valued in Oklahoma City, and we are thrilled he will continue to be a foundational member of the Thunder moving forward.”
The 34-year-old, who last struck a deal with the Thunder when he signed an extension in November of 2010, was one of the few players around the league eligible to sign another veteran extension. He’s just the seventh player to sign a veteran extension, which is different from a rookie scale extension, since the implementation of the existing collective bargaining agreement in late 2011.
“I’m excited to continue my career with the Thunder, playing here in Oklahoma City. I feel fortunate to be a part of a great organization and to play with a great group of teammates,” Collison said, according to the team’s statement. “Playing in Oklahoma City is unique, it’s a rare combination of a lot of things; great people in the organization starting with ownership, the most loyal fans, the opportunity to win at a high level and a true community impact. It’s been a great professional experience for me since the day I arrived. I’m proud of what we have built together and am grateful to be able to stay with the club and continue our work together.”
The Thunder already had more than $68.7MM in commitments for next season against a protected $66.5MM salary cap, so Oklahoma City wasn’t in position to open cap space even before the extension. However, the move may compromise the Thunder’s flexibility to some degree, since the team would be barred from trading him for six months from today if his extension contains a raise of greater than 4.5%.
Collison, the 12th overall pick in the 2003 draft, has spent his entire career with the Thunder/SuperSonics organization, though he’s seeing fewer minutes per game than he ever has during his pro career. He’s averaging 3.8 points and 3.4 rebounds per night with 41.6% shooting, all career lows, making the extension quite a surprise, even given the track record of loyalty Collison and the team.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.