Heat Sign DeAndre Liggins To 10-Day Deal
TUESDAY, 9:35am: The Heat have signed Liggins to a 10-day contract, the team announced.
MONDAY, 8:04am: DeAndre Liggins is “all but gone” to the Heat, a source tells Gino Pilato of D-League Digest (Twitter link). Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel heard late Sunday that Miami was strongly considering a signing of the former Magic and Thunder swingman, so it seems the two sides are nearing an agreement. If the Heat and the Henry Thomas client come to terms on a deal that would fill Miami’s open roster spot, it would seem likely that it would be a 10-day arrangement, allowing the team to retain flexibility on the buyout market.
Oklahoma prosecutors recently dropped felony domestic violence charges against Liggins stemming from an incident this past August. They’re expected to refile a single misdemeanor charge. The Thunder waived Liggins the same day the felony charges were filed.
Liggins, now 25, hooked on with the D-League, and the Sioux Falls Skyforce picked him seventh overall in the 2013 D-League draft. He’s averaged 14.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists in 40.4 minutes per game for the Skyforce, the Heat’s affiliate.
Magic Sign Dewayne Dedmon To 10-Day Deal
FEBRUARY 25TH: Orlando has made the signing official, the team announced.
FEBRUARY 21ST: The Magic are expected to sign Dewayne Dedmon to a 10-day contract on Monday, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. Orlando reportedly has an agreement to sign Adonis Thomas the same day, and there’s room for both, since the Magic are at 12 players after today’s buyout agreement with Glen Davis. Dedmon had wanted to sign long-term with the Sixers, according to Spears, but Philadelphia opted not to give him another deal after signing him to a pair of 10-day contracts.
Orlando will be Dedmon’s third NBA stop this season. He was with the Warriors for camp, and Golden State re-signed him in November before cutting him once more a couple of weeks later. Dedmon has also seen action with the Warriors’ D-League affiliate, both on assignment and after Golden State let go of his NBA rights. The center has put up 15.2 points and 13.6 rebounds per game in the D-League this season.
The Michael Silverman client has seen action in 15 NBA games as an undrafted rookie out of USC, notching 2.5 PPG and 3.3 RPG in 10.4 minutes per contest.
Magic Sign Adonis Thomas To 10-Day Deal
FEBRUARY 25TH: The team has officially announced the deal, via press release.
FEBRUARY 21ST: The Magic will sign D-Leaguer Adonis Thomas, his agent tells L. Jason Smith of The Commercial Appeal (Twitter link). It’ll be a 10-day deal, tweets Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. Orlando is at 12 players after waiving Glen Davis earlier today, meaning the team has two weeks to find a 13th man. The signing of Thomas will take place Monday, according to both Smith and Robbins (on Twitter).
Thomas spent time with both the Hawks and Nets in camp this fall after going undrafted out of the University of Memphis this past summer. The Nets kept his D-League rights for their affiliate, the Springfield Armor, and he’s averaged 16.2 points and 4.2 rebounds in 35.1 per game for them.
Orlando plays five games from Monday through March 5th, when the small forward’s 10-day deal would expire. Thomas is a client of Relativity Sports, as our Agency Database shows.
Nene Averts Season-Ending Injury
3:47pm: Nene has been diagnosed merely with a sprained MCL, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. He’ll be out four to six weeks, but it’s not the season-ender that had been feared, Wojnarowski adds.
10:06am: The Wizards are worried that Nene is done for the season with a left knee injury sustained in Sunday’s game, reports Michael Lee of The Washington Post. The big man will have an MRI and meet with team doctors today, and the extent of the damage to his knee won’t be known until after that. Still, a source tells Lee that, “It doesn’t look good.”
Nene left the game and didn’t return after the injury occurred during the third quarter, and the initial diagnosis is a knee sprain. The timing is particularly unfortunate for the Wizards, since the trade deadline just happened on Thursday. The January 15th deadline to apply for a disabled player exception has long since passed, and even so, the Wizards are hamstrung with a team salary that’s within $2MM of the tax line. Washington also faces a hard cap, so the Wizards couldn’t go more than $4MM into the tax even if they wanted to.
The 31-year-old struggled with plantar fasciitis for much of his first season and a half with the Wizards, but he’s played in 33 straight games, his longest such streak since a March 2012 trade that brought him from Denver. He’s averaging 14.2 points and 5.8 rebounds in 30.1 minutes per game this season, with a 16.4 PER. The Wizards outscore opponents by 2.8 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor, and give up 3.9 more points per 100 possessions when he’s on the bench, according to NBA.com. Washington, at 28-28, is fifth in the Eastern Conference, a game and a half back of fourth place but just a game and a half ahead of eighth place in a tightly bunched playoff race.
The Wizards have an open roster spot, so they could pursue someone on the buyout market, as long as that player comes cheaply. They can’t sign any free agents for more than the minimum salary, and while they could use one of their trade exceptions to snag a player off waivers, that’s an unlikely proposition. Former Wizard Antawn Jamison is among a group of forwards that have either already hit free agency or have been linked to possible buyouts that includes Metta World Peace, Earl Clark and Charlie Villanueva.
Clippers Interested In Metta World Peace
Metta World Peace‘s buyout from the Knicks is expected to become official today, and the Clippers have interest in signing him as a free agent, tweets Sam Amick of USA Today. Amick cautions that it’s not a “slam dunk” that the former Ron Artest will wind up back in L.A. The Clippers still have a pair of open roster spots after signing Glen Davis today to get back to the league-minimum 13 players.
The Clippers would be limited to offering World Peace the minimum salary. He’d help shore up depth along a front line that lost reserves Antawn Jamison and Byron Mullens at the trade deadline. It would be a return to familiar territory for the 34-year-old, who spent the last four seasons in L.A. with the Lakers.
World Peace took to Twitter to reveal that he’s already put pen to paper on his buyout agreement with the Knicks, so assuming the team makes an announcement today, he’ll be set to clear waivers on Wednesday. It seems unlikely that any team will submit a waiver claim for the 15th-year veteran’s contract, which pays him $1.59MM this season and includes a player option for slightly more next season.
Southwest Rumors: Nowitzki, Grizzlies, Daye
The Rockets are apparently on the mind of Charlie Villanueva as the possibility of a buyout from the Pistons looms, while the Grizzlies are interested in Lester Hudson, who last played in the NBA two years ago with Memphis. Here’s the rest of what we’re hearing from the Southwest Division:
- Dirk Nowitzki said last month that he’ll probably re-sign with the Mavericks on a two- or three-year deal this summer, but the 35-year-old can envision a series of one-year deals after that, keeping him in the NBA past his 40th birthday. Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has the details.
- The Grizzlies were willing to make a trade that put them a hair over the tax line, but they weren’t going to give up Ed Davis, an object of desire for many teams, as TNT’s David Aldridge writes in his latest “Morning Tip” column for NBA.com.
- Austin Daye was overjoyed when he heard about Thursday’s trade that sent him to the Spurs, telling reporters, including Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News, that he screamed into his pillow in a moment of exuberance upon hearing the news. Daye, whose contract is partially guaranteed for next season, said the Spurs have been one of his favorite teams since childhood, McDonald adds (Twitter links).
Grizzlies, Knicks, Clippers Eye Lester Hudson
The Grizzlies, Knicks and Clippers have expressed interest in Chinese league guard Lester Hudson, reports Shams Charania of RealGM.com. Hudson is still playing with the Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association postseason, but he’ll be avaiable to return stateside before the conclusion of the NBA’s regular season.
Hudson, who’s played parts of three seasons in the NBA, has been a standout in China this year, averaging 26.1 points, 7.6 rebounds and 5.0 assists for the team with the second best record in the league. It’s the third straight strong showing in China for the 29-year-old who spent camp this past fall with the Jazz.
The former second-round pick made his most significant impact in the NBA in 2011/12, the last time he appeared during the regular season. Hudson averaged 12.7 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 24.2 minutes per contest in a 13-game stint with the Cavs. Cleveland elected not to re-sign him for the season after his first 10-day contract expired, instead offering only another 10-day deal. That drew the ire of agent Keith Glass, who rebuffed the Cavs when they put a contract that covered the rest of the season on the table after the second 10-day was up. Hudson wound up inking for the rest of the year with Memphis.
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It’s easy to sign up and start commenting on Hoops Rumors. First, read our Commenting Policy. Then, scroll to the bottom of any post, and you’ll see the word “Login” on the right side atop the comments section. Click the word and choose whether you want to comment using a Disqus account or your existing Facebook, Twitter or Google account. If you don’t have a Disqus account and you want to create one, just choose that option and click “Need an account?” at the bottom right of the box that pops up.
To get us rolling, reader Z…. tells us why he thinks the Pacers scored big with their trade for Evan Turner:
- This is an amazing deal for the Pacers. They get scoring off the bench that they really needed, but more importantly, they added a young, athletic wing with length who should flourish in their defensive system, and should really contribute against the Heat, who desperately need an athletic wing themselves. It also gives them insurance for Lance Stephenson when they may not be able to keep him in the offseason.
Pau Gasol always seems to find himself in trade chatter, but the Lakers have yet to pull the trigger. In reaction to another batch of rumors about the four-time All-Star, dc21892 gives an explanation for why L.A. has been so hesitant to pull the trigger:
- Gasol wouldn’t be as scrutinized if he wasn’t being paid so much. He can still be a key contributor on a shorter deal, with less money in the offseason. L.A. is going to be looking at adding more star power to that roster, having a healthy Kobe on somewhat of a discount next year (compared to this year at least) and if they can retain Gasol for cheap, they’re in good shape. They also have a top draft pick.
The Cavs entertained trades for Luol Deng before the deadline, and Jon Zimmer, via Facebook, encouraged the Suns to get involved:
- The Suns should take a long look at this. Luol could be the upgrade they are looking for, and the Cavs would likely be willing to take back Emeka Okafor‘s expiring and one of their late picks to make it happen. Luol has a lot more left in him than Gasol, and the Cavs would be much less stubborn at the negotiating table than the Lakers.
We appreciate everyone who adds to the dialogue at Hoops Rumors, and we look forward to seeing more responses like these from you!
Charlie Villanueva Open To Buyout, Eyes Rockets
FEBRUARY 24TH: Villanueva would consider joining the Rockets if he and the Pistons reach a buyout agreement, tweets Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times.
FEBRUARY 21ST: Charlie Villanueva would consider a buyout if the Pistons want to negotiate one, as he tells reporters, including Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News. The 29-year-old wasn’t in many trade rumors leading up to the deadline as the Pistons were unable find a new home for his expiring contract, which pays $8.58MM this season.
“Anything’s possible. Right now, it is what it is,” Villanueva said. “I wish I could help this team in any way possible, but they’re going in a different direction. It’s part of the business, but if it presented itself, that’s something we’d look at, for sure.”
The Excel Sports Management client has played sparingly for Detroit this season, averaging just 8.9 minutes in 14 appearances. He’s never averaged as many as 24 minutes a game for the Pistons after signing a five-year, $37.7MM deal in 2009 that’s sparked widespread criticism of president of basketball operations Joe Dumars.
Jazz Rejected Offer Of First-Rounder For Williams
The Jazz rebuffed “one or two” trade proposals before the deadline that would have netted them a late first-round pick in return for Marvin Williams, as Chad Ford of ESPN.com writes in his latest Insider-only “Tank Rank” piece. There were apparently other intriguing offers on the table as well, but Utah chose to hang on to the ninth-year veteran in hopes of re-signing him this summer, Ford writes.
No first-round picks changed hands at the deadline for a second straight year, so it seems odd that Williams, who’s averaging just 10.1 points and 5.4 rebounds per game on a team with a 19-36 record, could have netted the Jazz such a return. Williams was the No. 2 overall pick in 2005, but he’s never lived up to his draft position. He’s still just 27 years old, and has canned a career-high 40.1% of his three-point attempts this season, serving as a fairly productive stretch power forward.
Utah will have its own first-round pick plus Golden State’s unprotected first-rounder this year, and the Warriors pick stands a decent chance to become a lottery selection, since the W’s are only two and a half games up on the ninth-place Grizzlies. Utah also has an unprotected first-rounder coming its way from Golden State in 2017, and while the Jazz, who don’t owe any first-rounders, are well-stocked for the draft, it’s surprising that they’d turn down another first-round pick, even if it was destined to fall in the 20s.