Timberwolves Sign Othyus Jeffers
1:06pm: The team has formally announced the signing, via Twitter. It covers the rest of this season, according to the team, but there’s no mention of it extending into 2014/15.
11:17am: The signing should take place this afternoon, tweets Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune.
8:45am: The Timberwolves are close to signing Othyus Jeffers, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The 28-year-old has been playing with Minnesota’s shared D-League affiliate, the Iowa Energy. The Wolves appear set to bring aboard the shooting guard to fill the roster spot vacated when the team waived A.J. Price last week. Stein refers to the pending arrangement as a 10-day deal, though it would be tantamount to a signing for the rest of the 2013/14, since there are fewer than 10 days remaining in the regular season.
Jeffers was with Minnesota for the preseason before the team cut him prior to opening night. He had a brief stint with the Spurs on a 10-day contract in late January, appearing in four games and scoring seven points in a total of 34 minutes before San Antonio terminated his deal a couple of days early to bring in Shannon Brown. The 6’5″ rebounding ace has spent the lion’s share of his time this season with Iowa of the D-League, scoring 20.9 points and grabbing 9.9 boards in 37.6 minutes per game.
The timing of the Wolves’ move to waive Price was odd, and it was reportedly unrelated to the legal troubles of forward Dante Cunningham. I speculated at the time of the move that the Wolves had their eyes on a young prospect they would sign to a multiyear deal, but given Stein’s assertion that it’ll be just a short-term contract for Jeffers, it seems Minnesota is instead merely plugging gaps on its roster. Chase Budinger and Shabazz Muhammad will likely miss the final six games of the season, perhaps necessitating the addition of another healthy body.
Draft Notes: Saric, Napier, Harrison Twins
Connecticut finished off a surprise run to the NCAA title on Monday, and with the college basketball season in the books, the focus on the June 26th draft sharpens. Underclassmen who’ve declared for the draft have just one more week to withdraw without losing their NCAA eligibility, so decision time is drawing near for many. Here’s the latest:
- Agent Misko Raznatovic of BeoBasket says he’s become the new representative for lottery prospect Dario Saric, adding that he expects to make an announcement about Saric’s future in the next couple of days (Twitter links; hat tip to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). He’ll partner with Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management, tweets Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress. A report last month indicating that Saric had agreed to a deal that would keep him in Europe prompted Carchia to tweet shortly thereafter that he expected Saric to sign with Raznatovic, but the European deal never came to fruition, and Saric said a few days ago that he’s leaning toward entering the draft.
- Shabazz Napier won the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player award, but several NBA executives tell Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders that they still see the point guard as a second-round pick (Sulia link).
- NBA types also continue to downplay the prospects of Kentucky freshman twins Aaron Harrison and Andrew Harrison, as Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv details.
Hoops Rumors Features
Hoops Rumors passes along the latest news and rumors on NBA player movement 365 days a year, but those aren’t the only updates you’ll see on the site. On our right sidebar, you’ll find a number of additional features and featured posts. Here’s a rundown of a few of them:
- You can follow all of our updates about your favorite teams or players on your iPhone or iPad using the Hoops Rumors app.
- As the regular season winds down, many teams are looking ahead to free agency. Our 2014 Free Agent Power Rankings list the top 10 free agents for the summer ahead, and you can find a complete list here. We’ve also begun to go in depth with our Free Agent Stock Watch series.
- We keep an eye on the more distant future with a list of 2015 free agents, and we’ve got the present covered, too, as we track players who could help a team down the stretch this season with a list of current free agents.
- Our list of 2013/14 roster counts is a convenient tool for keeping tabs on how many players your favorite NBA team is carrying and how many guaranteed contracts are on each club’s books.
- If your favorite team has a better chance at Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker or Joel Embiid than a playoff berth, be sure to follow our reverse standings, which are updated daily to reflect the projected 2014 draft order.
- Our Prospect Profile series examines the next wave of NBA players in detail, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses and handicapping when they’ll hear their names called on draft night.
- We’ve also listed the key dates for underclassmen thinking of declaring for the draft, and we’re compiling a running list of those who’ve announced their intentions to do so.
- We’re keeping tabs on this season’s D-League assignments right here.
- Our agency database is a handy reference point for determining the representation for virtually every NBA player.
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- Our list of outstanding traded player exceptions is updated whenever a trade exception is created, used or expires.
- We’re tracking each team’s use of the amnesty clause. Our complete table shows which clubs have used the amnesty clause and which will have it available in the summer.
- The Hoops Rumors glossary helps explain some of the more complex concepts in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement.
- Zach Links rounds up the best of the blogosphere with Hoops Links on Sundays.
- If you’re looking to catch up, our Week in Review posts compile the top news and rumors from the past seven days, while our Hoops Rumors Originals posts recap the site’s original content for the week. Both roundups are published every Sunday.
- Be sure to check out the Featured Posts section on the right sidebar for more original pieces from the Hoops Rumors writing team. Recently, we explained a link between team options and restricted free agency, detailed how the trade deadline deals worked financially, and looked at teams with dead money already on the books for 2014/15.
Joe Dumars Plans To Resign From Pistons
Joe Dumars has told multiple people around the league that he intends to resign from his post as Pistons president of basketball operations, reports Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News. He could step down as soon as this week, Goodwill adds. The imminent parting of ways between Dumars and his longtime team is no surprise, as rumors about his job security were circulating even before the Pistons fired coach Maurice Cheeks in early February.
The 50-year-old Dumars has been with the Pistons as a player or executive since 1985. He took over the basketball operations in 2000, securing Ben Wallace as part of a sign-and-trade for Grant Hill in his first major move. Wallace was the defensive anchor of the 2003/04 team that won the championship, but before that season began, Dumars made his most frequently cited mistake, drafting Darko Milicic second overall while Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were all still available. The Pistons nonetheless made six consecutive appearances in the Eastern Conference Finals, but the team disintegrated after Dumars traded 2004 Finals MVP Chauncey Billups to the Nuggets for Allen Iverson in 2008.
The following summer, Dumars splurged on free agents Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, who didn’t pan out. The Pistons had another spending spree this past offseason, inking Josh Smith to a four-year, $54MM contract and arranging a sign-and-trade for Brandon Jennings, whose deal is for three years and $24MM. Those moves have been similarly disappointing, and this season, in which Detroit has gone 28-49, appears to have been the last straw. Dumars has reportedly grown weary of criticism surrounding his performance, and soon after Gores ordered the firing of Cheeks, whose job Dumars attempted to save, there was news that Dumars might step down after the season, with his contract expiring July 1st.
Disagreements over the coaching position appear to have been a consistent theme for Dumars and Gores, who bought the team in 2011. Dumars wanted to hire Mike Woodson, now coach of the Knicks, when Gores instead brought in Lawrence Frank that year. Also fomenting difficulty was a period of inactivity mandated by Karen Davidson, the widow of former owner Bill Davidson, who had protracted negotiations to sell the team before she and Gores finally reached an agreement.
The Pistons quickly shot down a rumor in early March that Isiah Thomas would succeed his former backcourt mate as head of basketball operations for the team, but chatter has persisted that Thomas is campaigning for that job. The Pistons also reportedly have their eye on making Billups, still an active player for the team, a part of their front office, although it’s not clear if they envision hiring him as the primary front office executive so soon. Billups, like Dumars, is also a rumored candidate for the front office in Cleveland, where owner Dan Gilbert, a Detroit native, calls the shots.
Draft Notes: Kentucky, Wiggins, Magic, Kings
There are no NBA games scheduled this evening as the spotlight falls on the NCAA title game between Kentucky and Connecticut. Eight players on the rosters of the two teams are among the top 61 prospects in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress rankings, though potential lottery pick Willie Cauley-Stein is injured and won’t play for the Wildcats. It’s nonetheless a bevy of talent on display, and with multiple sources telling Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times that just about every one of Kentucky’s decorated freshmen will declare for this year’s draft, it looks like it won’t be long before that talent is in the NBA (Twitter link). Here’s the latest on the next wave headed for the Association:
- The Magic have Andrew Wiggins, Dante Exum, Jabari Parker and Marcus Smart, in that order, atop their draft board, Chad Ford of ESPN.com reports in his latest Insider-only “Tank Rank” piece. Exum also has “some traction” with the Sixers, and the Lakers are high on him, too.
- The Kings don’t have Wiggins within their top three prospects, Ford hears. The ESPN.com scribe makes note of the draft plans for several other teams, too, though some of it appears to be educated guesswork.
- Wiggins has chosen BDA Management’s Bill Duffy for his agent, sources tell Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling (Twitter link). Duffy beat out Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports, and Wiggins was also linked to Rich Paul of Klutch Sports.
- Parker, Randle and Joel Embiid are all expected to sign with Arn Tellem of Wasserman Media Group, Woelfel tweets. Woelfel includes Smart’s name on that list, too, reiterating what Zwerling reported last week.
- TNT’s David Aldridge ranks the shooting guards expected to be available for the draft in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com, giving Michigan’s Nik Stauskas the slight edge for the No. 1 spot over Gary Harris of Michigan State.
Lakers, Jordan Farmar Have Mutual Interest
Jordan Farmar wants to re-sign with the Lakers when he becomes a free agent this summer, and the Lakers would like to accommodate him, reports Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. A reunion isn’t a slam-dunk, Medina cautions, writing that much depends on other players the Lakers target and the offers that the Southern California native receives on the market. Still, the Tony Dutt client tells Medina that he’s optimistic about his chances to remain with the Lakers for years to come.
Farmar could have earned a combined $10MM for this season and next had he remained under contract with a Turkish team last summer, but he says he doesn’t regret his decision to leave that club and instead sign with the Lakers for the minimum salary, Medina notes. The point guard inked a three-year, $12MM deal with the Nets in 2010, but it’s doubtful he’d approach such numbers this time around after missing half of this season with two left hamstring tears and a strained right groin. Farmar is averaging 10.4 points, 4.7 assists and 2.2 turnovers in 21.9 minutes per contest.
The 27-year-old felt constrained in Phil Jackson‘s offense in his first stint with the Lakers from 2006 to 2010, and he’s a fan of embattled coach Mike D’Antoni‘s go-go attack, Medina writes. Farmar is one of 10 Lakers with expiring contracts, so there figures to be plenty of shuffling this summer for GM Mitch Kupchak and company. The Lakers can clear significant cap space, but if they use it up, they have Farmar’s Non-Bird rights, allowing them to exceed the cap with a deal worth 120% of his salary this season, slightly more than he’d make on a minimum-salary contract next year. He doesn’t appear to be one of the team’s first offseason priorities, but it looks like the Lakers wouldn’t mind bringing him back if the opportunity presents itself.
Thunder, Reggie Williams Part Ways
The Thunder have decided against re-signing Reggie Williams for the season after his second 10-day contract with the team expired last night, reports Shams Charania of RealGM. Williams’ pair of deals with Oklahoma City were sandwiched around Mustafa Shakur‘s 10-day contract with the team, but it’s unclear whether the Thunder are considering a reunion with Shakur.
The 27-year-old Williams only made it into three games for a total of 17 minutes in his time with the Thunder, scoring 11 points on 5 for 9 shooting. He’s otherwise spent the season outside the NBA after the Rockets waived him at the end of the preseason, in spite of his partially guaranteed contract. The swingman had been with Oklahoma City’s D-League affiliate at the time of his first 10-day signing, and he returned there before signing his second 10-day deal. That won’t happen this time around, since the season is over for the Tulsa 66ers, who didn’t make the D-League playoffs.
The Bulls and Grizzlies had interest in the Interperformances client earlier this season, so perhaps he’ll wind up with another NBA club before the season is through. The roster is full in Memphis, but Chicago, which brought him in for a workout in November, still has two open roster spots after signing Ronnie Brewer today.
Sixers Sign Adonis Thomas
11:15am: The team has formally announced the deal. The release states that it’s a 10-day contract, so it’ll go down as one officially, even though he’ll be with the club for the balance of the regular season.
7:53am: The Sixers will sign former Magic small forward Adonis Thomas, reports Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Pompey refers to it as a 10-day deal, though it would be tantamount to a contract for the rest of the season, since the final regular season games are April 16th. Philadelphia gained an open roster spot when James Nunnally‘s second 10-day contract expired over the weekend, and the team isn’t planning to bring him back.
Thomas made his NBA debut on a pair of 10-day contracts with the Magic shortly after the trade deadline, but he saw limited action, scoring seven points in 24 total minutes over four games. The Magic signed him at the same time that they inked center Dewayne Dedmon, as our 10-Day Tracker shows, but they chose to keep Dedmon for the season and let Thomas go. The former Memphis Tiger returned to the D-League affiliate of the Nets upon his departure from Orlando. Thomas has displayed a keen stroke from behind the arc in the D-League, nailing 46.6% of his 3.5 three-point attempts per game this year and averaging 16.6 points per contest.
The addition of the Relativity Sports client could bring an end to a maddening carousel of players on the Sixers this season. He’s in line to become the 31st player on Philadelphia’s payroll for 2013/14.
Bulls Sign Ronnie Brewer
The Bulls have signed Ronnie Brewer for the rest of the season, the team announced via press release. He and Mike James have been the leading contenders to fill the roster spot vacated when the team waived Erik Murphy last week, though over the weekend it appeared as though the addition of James was somewhat more likely. There’s a decent chance the team signs both, especially now that the Jazz have claimed Murphy off waivers, taking his cap hit off Chicago’s books and making it less likely the team would have to pay the luxury tax if Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah trigger bonuses this year.
Brewer, 29, worked out for the team at its practice facility Thursday, but the Bulls are quite familiar with him, having employed him as a key reserve on a pair of teams that finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference in 2010/11 and 2011/12. The swingman left for the Knicks last season and started 34 games in New York, which dealt him to Oklahoma City at the 2013 trade deadline. His minutes declined sharply from that point on, and the Rockets waived his minimum-salary contract shortly after the trade deadline this year.
The Bulls are back up to the NBA-minimum 13 players with the addition of the Creative Artists Agency client. The release simply says the contract covers the remainder of the season, so presumably there isn’t a non-guaranteed year tacked on for 2014/15.
Northwest Rumors: Wolves, Love, Corbin
Blazers GM Neil Olshey would deserve the NBA’s Executive of the Year award based on his acquisition of Robin Lopez alone, opines Jason Quick of The Oregonian, who believes Olshey scored with upgrades to the team’s bench, too. Coach Terry Stotts is similarly pleased, as Quick notes.
“I’ve said it many times: Getting Robin Lopez was the perfect fit for our team,’’ Stotts said. “Getting Mo Williams was the perfect fit for our team. Dorell Wright gives us the ability to play [him at either forward position]. And the young guys have improved. But those three guys in particular, for what we needed coming into the season … Neil did a terrific job of addressing those needs.’’
I think there are several other deserving candidates for the award, but after recording their 50th win of the season on Sunday, it’s clear that the Blazers have taken a significant step forward after last season’s 33-win campaign. Here’s the latest from elsewhere in the Northwest Division:
- Finding the proper successor to coach Rick Adelman will be critical for the Wolves, and some in the organization believe having the right coach in place will help convince Kevin Love to stay in Minnesota, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders writes in his NBA AM piece.
- Kyler also suggests that it’s far from certain that Love would sign with the Lakers if he decides to opt out of his deal in 2015, and that other teams would be on his radar (Twitter link).
- Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin and his staff will know by the end of the month if they’ll return to the team for 2014/15, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, who includes the news in his latest NBA power rankings.