One-Day D-League Assignments
The D-League season is only a few weeks old, but a few trends involving the way NBA teams use their D-League affiliates are already developing. Six NBA teams have so far assigned a total of 10 players to the D-League for just a single day, as our list of D-League assignments and recalls shows. In many cases, such moves demonstrate an organizational willingness to shuttle players back and forth in an effort to maximize their playing time in the D-League and practice time with the big club.
Sometimes, a one-day assignment is more by happenstance than design, as with Marquis Teague‘s abbreviated stint with the Iowa Energy. Mike James suffered an injury while Teague was en route to join the D-League team, so the Bulls recalled Teague as soon as his plane landed. His was the only D-League assignment the Bulls have made all year, and it was the team’s first assignment since the 2010/11 season, so despite the relative proximity of Chicago to the Energy’s home base in Des Moines, it’s unlikely the Bulls will make a habit of such one-day stints.
The Bulls are one of five teams sharing the Energy as an affiliate, and most of the NBA clubs that shuttle players back and forth have one-to-one affiliations with their D-League partners. That’s the case with every other team that’s made a one-day assignment so far this season. All five of Golden State’s D-League assignments have lasted just a single day, and the Warriors lead the league in this category, making frequent use of their affiliate in nearby Santa Cruz.
The Lakers took the concept a step further last month, recalling Elias Harris and Ryan Kelly the same day they were assigned. It helps that the D-Fenders, the D-League affiliate of the Lakers, play their games at the Toyota Sports Center, the same complex where the Lakers practice.
The Thunder were one of the leading practioners of the one-day assignment last season, but they haven’t pulled off the trick so far this year, keeping Andre Roberson with the Tulsa 66ers for six days in the team’s only 2013/14 assignment. That figures to change as the season wears on, and other teams will likely join this list as well. Still, early returns help show which clubs are exploiting the NBA’s burgeoning player development system to its fullest.
Warriors (5):
- November 24th: Assigned Dewayne Dedmon (Recalled November 25th)
- November 24th: Assigned Nemanja Nedovic (Recalled November 25th)
- November 19th: Assigned Dewayne Dedmon (Recalled November 20th)
- November 19th: Assigned Ognjen Kuzmic (Recalled November 20th)
- November 19th: Assigned Nemanja Nedovic (Recalled November 20th)
Spurs (4):
- December 8th: Assigned Aron Baynes (Recalled December 9th)
- December 8th: Assigned Nando De Colo (Recalled December 9th)
- December 1st: Assigned Aron Baynes (Recalled December 2nd)
- December 1st: Assigned Nando De Colo (Recalled December 2nd)
Lakers (2):
- November 23rd: Assigned Elias Harris (Recalled November 23rd)
- November 23rd: Assigned Ryan Kelly (Recalled November 23rd)
Bulls (1):
- December 3rd: Assigned Marquis Teague (Recalled December 4th)
Kings (1):
- December 6th: Assigned Hamady N’Diaye (Recalled December 7th)
Nets (1):
- November 10th: Assigned Tornike Shengelia (Recalled November 11th)
Pacific Rumors: Jackson, Rivers, Bledsoe
A pair of Pacific Division teams have turned their final roster spots over to experienced players, with the Clippers signing Stephen Jackson and the Warriors bringing on Hilton Armstrong. Doc Rivers says he wanted a player who’s been around, as Brian Robb of ESPN.com notes, and the 35-year-old Jackson, who’s played 13 seasons in the NBA, certainly fits the profile. Rivers also enjoys getting to make that kind of decision, as we detail in our roundup from the Pacific:
- The opportunity to coach as well as run the front office helped make the Clippers job appealing to Rivers, as he said on radio with Felger and Massarotti of 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston (link via CBS Boston).
- Soon-to-be restricted free agent Eric Bledsoe says he feels more confident and has a greater sense of freedom playing for the Suns this year as opposed to his time with the Clippers, observes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic.
- The Suns are 12-9, just a game and a half out of first place in the division, and the success is surprising even to members of the team’s braintrust, notes Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). Phoenix’s unexpected victories hurt the team’s chances of landing a superstar in the draft, but they don’t necessarily derail an ascent to contention, writes Mark Whicker of the Orange County Register.
- The Warriors made the right decision when they traded Monta Ellis at the 2012 deadline to free up playing time for Klay Thompson, and the move has worked out well for Ellis, too, as Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com argues in an Insider piece.
- There’s plenty of activity surrounding the Kings, as we passed along earlier today.
Warriors Sign Hilton Armstrong
1:01pm: Golden State has officially announced the signing.
10:49am: The Warriors will sign big man Hilton Armstrong, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Armstrong has been playing with the team’s D-League affiliate in Santa Cruz. Golden State has an open roster spot, so the team won’t have to cut anybody to make room for the veteran of five NBA seasons.
Armstrong was with the Pacers in training camp, but he hasn’t appeared in an NBA regular season game since the 2010/11 season. The 29-year-old has played in France, Greece and the D-League since then, and was averaging 15.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.0 blocks for Santa Cruz this year. New Orleans made the 6’11” Armstrong the 12th overall pick in the 2006 draft.
Golden State is thin in the middle, where Festus Ezeli and Ognjen Kuzmic are sidelined with long-term injuries and Jermaine O’Neal is questionable for tonight’s game. Armstrong appears to be the team’s latest attempt to bolster its depth with a player from its D-League affiliate after signing Dewayne Dedmon in November, only to waive him last week. Like Dedmon, Armstrong will probably be on a non-guaranteed contract for the minimum salary.
Kings/Raptors Notes: Gay, Acy, Arena
The Kings and Raptors hooked up on a seven-player deal this week, and neither club appears ready to stop trading. Every game is an audition of sorts for the players on the Raptors in the wake of this week’s trade, observes Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys sitting in that room who have to take this opportunity and take their chance when their name is called to not only show us, but to show 29 other teams what they can do,” coach Dwane Casey said.
Here’s more on two teams that figure to be surrounded by rumors in advance of the February 20th trade deadline:
- Casey believes the trade was the right move, but says it shouldn’t been seen as an indictment of Rudy Gay‘s talent or Toronto’s decision to acquire him last season, Wolstat notes in a roundup from last night’s game.
- The Kings are enthusiastic about Gay’s game, and he’s excited to be with a team that believes in him, as Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee details.
- Jones, in a separate piece, looks at how the Kings are dismissing Gay’s shortcomings in advanced metrics, and Jeff Caplan of NBA.com crunches the numbers for a similar story.
- Quincy Acy tells Eric Koreen of the National Post that he was “kind of stunned” when he found out he was being traded, and the power forward fondly reflects on his time in Toronto.
- The Bee’s Dale Kasler has the latest on Sacramento’s efforts to build a new arena, noting that it will take weeks to determine whether opponents of the project have enough signatures to force a referendum.
Bobcats Waive James Southerland
11:12am: The Bobcats have officially announced the move, via press release.
10:19am: Bobcats coach Steve Clifford has confirmed that the team will sign Douglas-Roberts and waive Southerland, Bonnell tweets.
8:33am: The Bobcats are set to add Chris Douglas-Roberts, and with a full 15-man roster, that means someone must go to accommodate the signing. Rookie small forward James Southerland will be the victim of the numbers crunch, as the Bobcats will waive him, according to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter link).
Southerland signed with Charlotte after he went undrafted out of Syracuse this past June. He made the team out of camp on his non-guaranteed contract for the minimum salary, but he’s barely seen any playing time in the regular season, appearing for just three minutes in a single game on November 29th. He hasn’t gone on a D-League assignment either, meaning he’s simply been stuck on the bench.
The Bobcats were likely looking for depth at small forward, where Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Jeff Taylor are both hurt, and apparently prefer a more experienced hand in Douglas-Roberts. Southerland is the most obvious choice to be cut, since power forward Jeff Adrien, the only other Charlotte player on a non-guaranteed contract, is part of the rotation. Jannero Pargo had been on a partially guaranteed deal that was essentially non-guaranteed, but it became fully guaranteed when the Bobcats failed to waive him yesterday.
Carmelo Only Knick Off-Limits For Trade
The Knicks fell further into last place in the Atlantic Division last night with a loss to the Cavaliers, and with a 5-15 record, Carmelo Anthony is the only player who’s certain not to be traded, writes Marc Berman of the New York Post. The free agents the team signed this past offseason become eligible to be traded Sunday, except for Cole Aldrich, who becomes trade-eligible on December 23rd, and J.R. Smith, who isn’t allowed to be traded until January 15th.
Some have suggested trading Anthony might be the Knicks best course of action, but a recent report indicated that New York has no plans to do so. He’s likely to become a free agent at season’s end, but there are few expiring contracts on the team’s books, limiting flexibility. It would be especially difficult to find takers for Amar’e Stoudemire, the team’s highest-paid player, given that he’s making nearly $21.7MM this year and is set for more than $23.4MM next season. Four Knicks have deals that end after this season, but they’re among the cheapest on the books, and Chris Smith‘s minimum salary for 2014/15 is non-guaranteed
There have been plenty of rumors about Iman Shumpert, and the team is apparently trying to boost his value by telling other front offices that Mike Woodson‘s coaching is hiding the full extent of his abilities. Woodson knows his job isn’t on solid ground. He senses that the vote of confidence owner James Dolan gave him last month no longer applies, according to Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com, who hears from a source that, “People are just waiting for Dolan to snap.”
Clippers Sign Stephen Jackson
TUESDAY 10:28pm: The Clippers have officially announced the Jackson signing via press release. Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles tweets that Jackson will be with the team in Boston tomorrow.
MONDAY 5:00pm: Jackson still hasn’t signed his contract, according to Dan Woike of the Orange County Register, but the Clippers hope to make the move official tomorrow (Twitter links).
3:43pm: Jackson’s deal is expected to be non-guaranteed, and it wouldn’t affect the team’s pursuit of Odom, Amick says via Twitter.
3:13pm: Jackson has signed a deal with the Clippers, reports Shams Charania of RealGM.com. Presumably, it’s a non-guaranteed contract for the minimum salary. The team has yet to confirm the signing.
2:19pm: A deal between Jackson and the Clippers is “very close” but not done yet, USA Today’s Sam Amick tweets. Last night, Jackson tweeted, “I never lost faith. The wait is over.”
8:30am: Veteran swingman Stephen Jackson is a “prime candidate” to fill the Clippers’ open roster spot, according to Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com. Coach and senior vice president of basketball operations Doc Rivers said this weekend that he believes mounting injuries will force the team to add a player. A Jackson signing could happen as early as this week, Stein and Shelburne write.
Jackson has been working out independently in Texas will the goal of latching on with a contender, and the Clippers would fit that bill. The 35-year-old didn’t attend training camp with an NBA team, having last played with the Spurs before San Antonio surprisingly released him just before last season’s playoffs. Jackson had asked for a trade and was reluctant to accept a reduced role. He changed agents last month, hooking on with the Interperformances firm.
Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com mentioned Shannon Brown as a potential Clippers target this weekend, though much of the team’s focus in recent weeks has been on Lamar Odom. The team’s preference had been to wait until after Christmas to sign Odom, Stein and Shelburne say, since he might not be ready to play until mid-January, but it’s unclear how the Clippers’ plans regarding Odom have changed in the wake of all of their injuries. J.J. Redick, Matt Barnes and Reggie Bullock are among those on the team missing significant time.
The Clippers have a 14-man roster, meaning there’s only room for one more player. They could sign someone to a non-guaranteed contract and release him prior to the leaguewide guarantee date on January 10th to make room for Odom. All of the 14 players currently on the team have fully guaranteed contracts, and while the Clippers could still cut one of those guys, the team probably wants to avoid paying someone who would no longer be around. That’s especially so since the Clippers are a projected taxpayer.
Atlantic Notes: White, Marshall, Rondo, Knicks
At least three NBA teams are showing interest in Royce White, agent George Bass of AAI Sports tells Sarah Lyall of The New York Times, in comments that jibe with what White said a week ago. The 16th overall pick in last year’s draft recently hired Bass after parting ways with his representatives at ASM Sports. White says he’s ready to play, but when the Sixers waived him before the season, there’s was apparently more to their decision than concerns over his mental health difficulties, Lyall writes.
“They just told me they didn’t want to keep me at this point in time, and that’s pretty much the gist of it,” he said. “There was a lot being said in meetings, and all of it was contradictory — ‘You’re supertalented; you can play; you can be an excellent player in the league, but we don’t want to keep you at this time.’”
There’s more on a player that Philadelphia seems more enthusiastic about in our roundup from the Atlantic Division:
- There were rumors that the Sixers were interested in Kendall Marshall right after the Wizards released him at the start of the season, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Marshall is now with Philly’s D-League affiliate, which makes sense, Coro says.
- Rajon Rondo said today that he’s had “no conversations” with Carmelo Anthony about joining forces, in response to the rumor that Anthony is recruiting the point guard, notes Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe (Twitter link). Yet saying otherwise would probably constitute tampering, as Frank Isola of the New York Daily News suggests (on Twitter).
- Rondo would be an awkward on-court fit with Anthony and many of the current Knicks, opines Keith Schlosser of Knicks Journal.
- Knicks owner James Dolan met with Mike Woodson right after Sunday’s 41-point loss to the Celtics for a conversation that “must have been as pleasant as root canal” for the embattled coach, according to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. At least one player was also in the meeting, Isola adds.
Poll: What Will Rudy Gay Make On His Next Deal?
Rudy Gay is in Sacramento after yesterday’s trade, the second swap he’s been a part of in an 11-month span. He’s the anti-hero of basketball analytics, a player with a 7’3″ wingspan who fits the classic profile of an elite small forward but doesn’t look quite so appealing under the bright glare of advanced statistics. Traditional numbers show averages of 19.3 points and 6.1 rebounds per game since 2007/08, but they belie the lack of a consistent outside shot. Gay seems to attempt to make up for that by simply shooting more often, and his field goal attempts this season are at a career high just as his field goal percentage is at a career low.
The Kings nonetheless believe in him. Owner Vivek Ranadive reportedly coveted him for months. GM Pete D’Alessandro thinks Gay’s shooting will at least return to the level he displayed in Memphis now that he’s again playing with a first-rate inside force in DeMarcus Cousins. Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee suggests that the team might be planning to offer Gay an extension if he performs well this season. It’s not clear if the team is truly considering that, and even if the Kings are, an extension wouldn’t have to include salaries resembling Gay’s nearly $17.9MM payday for this season, or his $19.3MM player option for 2014/15.
Still, it’s clear the Kings value him more highly than the executives from other teams who recently told Grantland’s Zach Lowe that they wouldn’t sign Gay to a deal for as much as the mid-level exception if he were a free agent. Gay sparks much debate, with front offices across the league seemingly assigning him drastically different valuations. Let us know what you think Gay will wind up with, and feel free to be more specific in the comments. Bear in mind that this poll asks what you think Gay will receive on his next deal, not what he should get.
Minor Moves: Diogu, Nogueira, Kennedy
It’s been an active past couple of days in the Association, and there are plenty of rumblings on other circuits, too. Here’s the latest on players with NBA ties:
- Knicks training camp invitee Ike Diogu will join the D-League, a source tells Gino Pilato of D-League Digest. Diogu, the ninth overall pick in the 2005 NBA draft, last appeared in an NBA regular season game with the Spurs in 2011/12, though the Knicks reportedly considered bringing him back last month after Tyson Chandler‘s injury.
- Lucas Nogueira has exercised a provision in his contract with Spanish club Estudiantes to suspend the deal while he seeks outside medical opinion on his ailing knees, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). The Hawks retain the NBA rights to Nogueira, the 16th pick in the draft this June.
- D.J. Kennedy has left Gravelines of France and is on the radar of Italy’s Reggio Emilia, reports Prima Pagina (translation via Carchia). The Italian team may view him as a replacement for Coby Karl, who appears to be on the outs with the club. Kennedy was in camp with the Mavs this fall.
- Kevin Murphy and French team SIG Strasbourg are in negotiations about a split, according to a L’Équipe report passed along by Catch-and-Shoot (translation via Carchia). Murphy signed with the club in August, shortly after the Warriors let him go.