Lakers Waive Keith Appling
4:54pm: Appling suffered a shoulder subluxation while in camp with the Lakers and remains injured, so he’ll receive $6K from the Lakers under the stipulations of his Exhibit 9 contract, Pincus reports (Twitter links). He’d have drawn paychecks based on his entire minimum salary as long as he was hurt if the Lakers had signed him to a conventional contract.
4:48pm: The move is official, the team announced.
4:35pm: The Lakers are cutting Keith Appling, reports Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). Pincus indicates that the team has already placed the point guard on waivers, though the team has yet to make an announcement. The 22-year-old’s contract is non-guaranteed, so it won’t cost the Lakers any dead money to part ways with him.
Appling went undrafted out of Michigan State this year and spent summer league with the Blazers before joining the purple-and-gold. He’s appeared in two preseason games for the Lakers but has totaled only two points and two assists in nearly 20 minutes. The 2010 McDonald’s All-American didn’t put up flashy numbers with the Spartans, either, but he was a mainstay of coach Tom Izzo‘s teams for four years.
The move would take the Lakers down to 17 players, 13 of whom have full guarantees. Ronnie Price appears a strong bet to make it to opening night on his non-guaranteed deal, leaving Jabari Brown, Wayne Ellington and Roscoe Smith to fight it out for the last spot, if the Lakers elect to carry the maximum 15 players to start the regular season.
Timberwolves Release Kyrylo Fesenko
The Wolves have waived center Kyrylo Fesenko, the team announced via press release. The five-year veteran was on a non-guaranteed contract, so Minnesota won’t be on the hook for what would have been a minimum salary. That leaves Brady Heslip as the only player with a non-guaranteed pact among the 17 players remaining on the team.
Fesenko was attempting to see his first regular season NBA action since the 2011/12 season, and he parlayed a summer league stint with the Wolves this year into a training camp invitation. Still, he faced long odds from the beginning of making it to opening night with Minnesota, which has 15 fully guaranteed deals, and the 27-year-old appeared in only one preseason game this month.
Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders still must deal with a roster logjam if he wants to keep Glenn Robinson III, who’s with the team on a partially guaranteed arrangement. Saunders has denied rumors that the team is shopping Chase Budinger and insists there’s still a role on the team for J.J. Barea, another apparent trade candidate.
And-Ones: Kobe, Lottery, Bosh, Hawks
Henry Abbott of ESPN The Magazine hears from agents and team sources who say Kobe Bryant‘s rough-edged personality is driving free agents away from the Lakers. The Buss family receives more income from the team’s local TV deal if ratings are better, and that helped persuade the team to sign Bryant to his lucrative two-year extension 12 months ago and to eschew an aggressive rebuilding project, Abbott hears. Bryant’s popularity with powerful front-row celebrities also played a role, and co-owner Jim Buss is just “waiting for [Bryant] to leave,” a source tells Abbott, fearful of engaging in a public spat with the superstar. Steve Nash nearly decided against approving his sign-and-trade to the Lakers and Paul George signed his extension with the Pacers in part because of Bryant, sources tell Abbott. Chris Bosh was one of the Lakers’ missed free agent targets this summer, and there’s more on him amid the latest from around the league:
- The Thunder will join the Sixers in voting against the changes to the lottery, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, but Wojnarowski seconds Lowe’s report (below) that the measure still has enough support to pass.
Earlier updates:
- Bosh spoke of a desire to be paid at his full market rate as he explained his decision to turn down a four-year max deal from the Rockets for five years at the max from the Heat to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. “It’s always business,” Bosh said. “Nothing is ever personal. I think 100% of those dudes would have taken the deal I took.”
- Another NBA team has joined the Sixers in opposition to the league’s lottery reform proposal as the Board of Governors meet today, but the measure is still expected to receive approval, Grantland’s Zach Lowe reports (Twitter links).
- Players union secretary-treasurer James Jones is an opponent of shortening games and believes, as teammate LeBron James does, that players would instead like to see fewer games on the schedule, as Jones tells Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group.
- Former Hawks All-Star Dikembe Mutombo has met with a group of investors about joining their effort to buy the team, reports Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Southwest Notes: Carter, Udrih, Fredette, Conley
Vince Carter still thinks fondly of the Mavs, and he had expected he’d re-sign with the team this summer, as he told reporters today, including Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News. That was until he signed with the Grizzlies, who gave him a take-it-or-leave-it offer while Dallas was still waiting to see if the Rockets would match the offer sheet that Chandler Parsons signed, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com.
“They offered that young man a lot of money,” Carter said of Parsons. “I kind of understood how it goes from there. It’s a business. I get it, so there’s no hard feelings or anything like that. I understand how it goes. It was a great situation, a great offer from Memphis. It was kind of like, ‘If I pass on this now, what would be left here [in Dallas] for me?’ Obviously not much. Had to move on.”
There’s more on Carter’s new team amid the latest from around the Southwest Division:
- Beno Udrih felt maligned while with the Knicks, where he was former coach Mike Woodson‘s whipping boy, but the Grizzlies rejuvenated him after claiming him off waivers last February, as Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal details in a subscription-only piece. Udrih re-signed with Memphis this summer. “I always believed in myself,” Udrih said. “When my number is called upon I’ll do my best. When your number is not called you can’t compete. I was in a situation [in New York] where people didn’t really care about what I could do. So all I could do is hope to get in the right situation. In Memphis, I’m definitely in the right situation.”
- Jimmer Fredette‘s defensive shortcomings have limited his effectiveness in the NBA, but Pelicans coach Monty Williams believes that the former 10th overall pick can mirror the defensive competency of shooting specialists Marco Belinelli and Anthony Morrow. Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune has the details. Fredette signed for the minimum with New Orleans this summer, like Morrow did last year before parlaying his time with the Pelicans into a three-year, $10.032MM deal with the Thunder.
- Mike Conley admits he had some uneasiness this summer amid the turmoil surrounding the Grizzlies front office and coach Dave Joerger, but Conley’s excited to proceed with Joerger and most of his teammates back for another year in Memphis, as he tells Jeff Caplan of NBA.com.
Jamil Wilson To Sign With D-League
Jamil Wilson is set to sign with the Bakersfield Jam of the D-League, tweets Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times. Bakersfield is Phoenix’s D-League affiliate, so that suggests that the Suns have retained the D-League rights to the former Marquette forward who was on a non-guaranteed deal with Phoenix before the team waived him last week. Otherwise, Wilson would be subject to the D-League draft.
Wilson, who turns 24 next month, appeared in two preseason games for a shade under nine minutes while with the Suns after joining the Wizards for summer league. His 11.7 points per game in his senior year at Marquette gave him his lone double-digit scoring season in college, but the Suns, Jazz, Wizards, Raptors, Timberwolves, Mavs, Pacers, Spurs and Pistons all reportedly worked him out this spring prior the draft. Still, he didn’t hear his name called on draft night.
NBA teams can retain the D-League rights to as many as four of players they cut during the preseason, up from three last year. It’s unclear if Phoenix will do so with Joe Jackson and Casey Prather, whom the Suns also let go when they released Wilson.
Pistons Waive Thabeet, Cook, Bostic, Brown
The Pistons have waived Hasheem Thabeet, Brian Cook, Lorenzo Brown and Josh Bostic, the team announced via press release. That means the team has cut ties with all four of the players it had on non-guaranteed contracts, leaving only 16 fully guaranteed deals.
Thabeet was hoping to rehabilitate a foundering career after the Sixers waived him in September, shortly after the Thunder sent him to Philadelphia in a cost-cutting trade. Still, Joel Anthony‘s arrival in the swap the Pistons made Friday with the Celtics gave Detroit another backup center and made Thabeet’s long-shot chances of making it to opening night with the club even worse. Cook was hoping to turn an appearance in Pistons summer league into his first NBA regular season action since 2011/12. Brown wound up in Pistons camp after a failed physical prompted Italy’s Reyer Venezia to call off their deal earlier in the summer, while Bostic is a veteran of the overseas circuit, having spent much of his pro career in international leagues since going undrafted in 2009.
None of the four saw significant playing time in preseason games this month. The Pistons and the agents for Bostic and Brown have discussed an arrangement in which Detroit would keep the D-League rights to the pair, who would sign to play for the team’s new one-to-one affiliate in Grand Rapids. Detroit can keep the D-League rights to as many as four of its preseason cuts.
Nets Notes: Jordan, Sale, 44-Minute Game
The Nets must reduce their roster by at least two more players by opening night, though they will have to make those decisions with less time for evaluation than they might otherwise have had if not for Sunday’s experiment with a 44-minute game. Still, Brooklyn probably won’t feel the effects of the missing four minutes, and the same will probably be said of every other team, since it appears unlikely the shorter game time will become a permanent fixture in the league, writes Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. There’s more on the time-saving measure amid the latest on the Nets, as we detail.
- Coach Lionel Hollins says he’s rooting for the team to keep Jerome Jordan, who’s on a non-guaranteed contract, for opening night, as Bondy relays in the same piece.
- Bruce Ratner, who holds a minority stake in the Nets, has shifted focus from selling his 20% share of the team to selling his majority share of the Barclays Center, as Daniel Kaplan of Sports Business Journal reports in a subscription-only piece. Ratner’s desire to unload his portion of the franchise was reportedly behind Mikhail Prokhorov’s pledge this spring to curb his record spending on the team. The Barclays Center appeared to be part of talks that reportedly took place between Guggenheim investors and Nets owners, though Kaplan heard from a Guggenheim spokesperson who denied that any such discussion was taking place. At the very least, Nets-Guggenheim negotiations seem to have hit a snag.
- Hollins credits Mavs coach Rick Carlisle with the idea of a 44-minute game, notes Alex Raskin of The Wall Street Journal. NBA president of basketball operations Rod Thorn admits that better tailoring the game to fit TV time slots is an aim of the experiment, as Thorn tells Raskin.
Western Notes: Villanueva, Price, Boozer, Jazz
Various reports have painted conflicting pictures of Mavs owner Mark Cuban’s willingness to keep Charlie Villanueva‘s non-guaranteed contract into the regular season, but Cuban nonetheless has plenty of praise for the nine-year veteran. Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has the details.
“He’s the prototype of what we like,’’ Cuban said. “A guy who was in a difficult situation and got a bad rap, but when you do your homework he’s really a good guy. He’s great in the locker room, guys love him and he’s putting on a battle for that last spot.”
Villanueva will soon know his status one way or another, since teams have to pare down to no more than 15 players by 4pm Central on October 27th, one week from today. Here’s more from around the Western Conference as that deadline looms:
- Ronnie Price is looking like a shoo-in for the Lakers opening-night roster, observe Bill Oram of the Orange Country Register and Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter links). Price racked up 10 assists Sunday against the Jazz.
- The Jazz organization remains high on Carlos Boozer, Oram notes (on Twitter). The Lakers can’t trade the former Utah power forward this year, but he hits free agency in the summer.
- Dahntay Jones appears to have the inside track for the 15th opening-night roster spot on the Jazz if the team elects to keep that many players, as Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune examines.
- The Warriors have opened the season with just 14 players two of the last three years, but they’re leaning toward keeping 15 men until at least the leaguewide guarantee date in January based on the impressive play of many in camp, writes Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle. Golden State has 13 contracts with full guarantees, five with partial guarantees, and a non-guaranteed deal with Jason Kapono, as our roster counts show.
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There’s been plenty of discussion around the league about changing the draft lottery, and the NBA appears likely to approve a proposal to decrease the odds that the teams with the worst records will win the top pick. Reader Sky14 believes the measure could doom some franchises to years of losing.
- The league is moving in the wrong direction with the draft. The worst teams should get the best picks, not the other way around. This could make rebuilds even longer than they already are and leave some teams in a perpetual rebuild because of bad “luck.”
The Kevin Love trade promises to spark debate for years to come. The talk continues even for the Warriors, who came close to acquiring the All-Star power forward but didn’t pull it off, in large measure because of Golden State’s reluctance to include Klay Thompson in proposals that met the demands of the Wolves. Still, Steve isn’t sold on the idea that Minnesota would have taken Thompson if the Warriors had relented.
- I’m not sure the Warriors not including Klay Thompson in a trade package for Kevin Love is that big of a factor; I don’t see the why the Wolves would trade Love for one year of Thompson when they can hold out for four years of Andrew Wiggins at a little over $20MM. Especially when Klay is looking for max money next year. And that’s not even looking at how you’d rather have [Thaddeus] Young for one year and [Anthony] Bennett for four over two pricey years of David Lee and one year of Harrison Barnes.
The Nuggets wound up signing Kenneth Faried to a four-year, $50MM extension after reconfiguring what was reportedly to be a five-year, $60MM deal that would have run afoul of the stipulation that five-year rookie scale extensions start at the maximum salary. Another report had indicated that the sides were bound for four years and $48MM, but even that would have been an unfriendly arrangement for the Nuggets, ManBearPig618 opines.
- I still don’t like this deal, no matter how it gets restructured. He’s a nice player, but he’s arguably not even top 15 at his position.
Check out what more readers had to say in previous editions of Hoops Rumors Featured Feedback. We appreciate everyone who adds to the dialogue at Hoops Rumors, and we look forward to seeing more responses like these from you!
Wolves To Exercise Options On Three For 2015/16
OCTOBER 19TH, 2:10pm: The Wolves confirmed the exercising of the options via Twitter.
OCTOBER 16TH: The Wolves are set to pick up their 2015/16 rookie scale team options on Anthony Bennett. Gorgui Dieng and Shabazz Muhammad, as Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities hears (Twitter link). Bennett’s option will add more than $5.8MM to the team’s books for that season, while Muhammad will make in excess of $2MM and Dieng will be due nearly $1.5MM, as seen on our Rookie Scale Team Option Tracker. Minnesota has until October 31st to make the decisions official.
Bennett, the No. 1 overall pick from 2013, came to the team in the Kevin Love trade after a thoroughly disappointing rookie campaign. He went 0 for 15 from the floor over his first four games, and the 6’8″ forward wound up shooting just 35.6% in 12.8 minutes per game across 52 appearances last season. Still, he holds promise, as does Muhammad, the 2012 McDonald’s All-American MVP who was the 14th pick in that same 2013 draft. Muhammad saw just 7.8 MPG in 37 contests for Minnesota, which sent him on D-League assignment during the season. Dieng was the lowest pick among the three, at No. 21, but he probably had the best rookie campaign, grabbing 5.0 rebounds per night in 13.6 MPG over 60 games.
The options on all three would bring the team’s commitments to more than $36.4MM for 2015/16, but there are several decisions that stand to make that figure go up. The team is reportedly willing to shell out at least $48MM over four years in an extension for Ricky Rubio, while player options for Thaddeus Young, Chase Budinger and Corey Brewer total nearly $20MM put together.