Blazers Invite Dee Bost To Training Camp
Dee Bost was with the Trail Blazers summer league team a year ago, but he didn't get a training camp invitation last fall and wasn't with Portland's summer league squad this year. Nonetheless, he remained on the team's radar, and he's agreed to join the Trail Blazers in training camp this fall, tweets Jared Zwerling of ESPNNewYork.com.
Bost went undrafted in 2012 after four years at Mississippi State, where the 6'2" point guard put up 15.8 points, 5.6 assists, and 3.0 turnovers per game as a senior. He spent last season playing in Montenegro, and his numbers dipped to 8.3 PPG, 1.8 APG and 1.3 turnovers in 21.5 minutes per contest. He wasn't too statistically impressive in summer league last year, but he did knock down 45.5% of his three-point attempts across a small sample size.
Like most training camp invitees, Bost will probably receive a "summer contract," or a non-guaranteed minimum-salary arrangement that would cover just 2013/14 if he were to make the regular season roster. Teams can carry as many as 20 players into training camp, which gives fringe prospects like Bost a chance.
Knicks Re-Sign Kenyon Martin
THURSDAY, 12:22pm: The Knicks have officially re-signed Martin, the team announced today (Twitter link).
WEDNESDAY, 3:32pm: Martin will make the minimum on a one-year deal, Wojnarowski reports.
2:51pm: Kenyon Martin and the Knicks have reached an agreement that will see the veteran big man return to the team, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Multiple reports over the last ten days have indicated the team and agent Andy Miller were moving toward a pact. Martin is eligible to sign for up to 120% of the minimum salary via Non-Bird rights.
Martin sat out the first half of last season hoping for a deal worth the mini mid-level, but settled for a pair of 10-day contracts from the Knicks, who followed in February with a deal for the rest of the season. The 35-year-old paid dividends, averaging 7.2 points and 5.3 rebounds in 23.9 minutes per game during 18 regular season contests, 11 of them starts. Those numbers were only down slightly in the playoffs, when he mostly appeared off the bench.
The former No. 1 overall pick may have his greatest influence on defense, as Grantland's Zach Lowe points out via Twitter. The Lakers, Clippers, Spurs and Nets all reportedly had interest as free agency began, with San Antonio perhaps the most aggressive suitor. Martin appeared to have his eyes on the Lakers at one point, but it became increasingly apparent that a return to New York was in the offing.
Grizzlies Claim Josh Akognon Off Waivers
The Grizzlies have claimed Josh Akognon off waivers from the Mavericks, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Memphis assumes Akognon's minimum-salary contract as a result. Dallas decided this weekend to let go of Akognon to accomodate their deal with free agent Monta Ellis, whose three-year, $25.08MM deal became official yesterday, Stein also tweets. The team also has an outstanding agreement with Wayne Ellington, but presumably that will become official soon, too.
The same cap crunch also forced the team to waive Bernard James, but he went unclaimed and the Mavs re-signed him. Akognon originally joined the Mavs on a 10-day contract in April after putting up impressive scoring numbers in China. He put up 29.0 points per game this past season in the Chinese league and 28.2 in 2011/12, and while he was drawing heavy interest from China following the Mavs' decision to waive him, it appears he'll get his wish to remain in the NBA.
The Alpha Basketball Agency client was the Mavs' leading scorer in the Las Vegas Summer League at 17.5 PPG, and he shot 39.1% on 46 total attempts from behind the arc. The 5'11" guard may provide another outside shooter for the Grizzlies in case they miss out on their pursuit of Mike Miller. The claim probably won't affect the team's plans to chase Miller or another free agent, since the Grizzlies can absorb him using the minimum-salary exception. Indeed, Stein tweets that Akognon's pickup doesn't affect their pursuit of the former Heat sharpshooter, whom Memphis is pushing hard to sign.
Warriors Waive Jones, Machado, Murphy
The Warriors have waived Dwayne Jones, Scott Machado and Kevin Murphy, the team announced today. Jones and Machado were late-season signings from this past spring, while Murphy joined the team as part of a three-team trade two weeks ago.
All three were on non-guaranteed minimum-salary contracts, but they all would have received at least a partial guarantee if Golden State hadn't waived them on or before August 1st. The contracts for Jones and Machado would have become fully guaranteed if they had stayed on the roster past that date, while Murphy's would have been guaranteed for $75K.
The team's roster is at 13 players, which gives Golden State plenty of flexibility heading into training camp. Teams can have as many as 20 players on their camp rosters, a limit that shrinks to 15 for the regular season. The Warriors have a hard cap this season, but the subtraction of a few minimum-salary players won't make too much of a difference considering they were more than $7MM shy of the hard cap before today's moves.
None of the three saw significant playing time last season. Jones and Machado didn't make it into any regular season games with the Warriors, instead appearing only briefly during the playoffs. Machado did play in six regular season contests during his stint with the Rockets in 2012/13. Murphy spent 2012/13 with the Jazz, who made him the 47th pick of the 2012 draft.
Celtics Expected To Invite Nolan Smith To Camp
A sprained calf led to an abbreviated summer league stint for former Trail Blazer Nolan Smith, but he's still expected to join the Celtics for training camp, tweets Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld. The Knicks were also considering Smith. Presumably, the 21st pick in the 2011 draft will join Boston on a non-guaranteed contract that amounts to the chance to try out for the 2013/14 regular season roster.
The Blazers changed management in between Smith's first and second seasons, and new GM Neil Olshey elected not to pick up their option for Smith's third year. That made the former Duke standout an unrestricted free agent entering the summer. He was a trade candidate this past season, and by April, when a report identified the Thunder, Bulls and Hawks as teams likely to have interest in him, it was clear he wouldn't be re-signing with the Blazers.
Smith played just 12.3 minutes per game as a rookie, and he saw even less action this past season, racking up just 7.2 MPG. He notched 20.6 points per game as a senior at Duke, so the Celtics clearly hope that he can once more summon that scoring touch if given a chance.
Mavericks Sign Ricky Ledo
The Mavericks have signed 43rd overall pick Ricky Ledo, the team announced via press release. Dallas acquired the rights to Ledo from the Bucks, via the Sixers, as our rundown of offseason trades shows.
Ledo attended Providence University, but he never played for their team after the NCAA ruled him academically ineligible. Still, the shooting guard impressed teams during pre-draft workouts. He averaged 7.3 points and 3.8 rebounds this month on the Mavs summer league team.
Agent Seth Cohen of the Verus Management Team first tweeted news of the deal this afternoon. The Mavs haven't yet reached an agreement with their other draft pick, 18th overall selection Shane Larkin, who suffered a broken ankle in summer league.
2013 Offseason Trades
Our Free Agent Tracker runs down the signings that have taken place this summer, but it doesn’t cover trades. That’s where this post comes in. As we’ve done with last year’s offseason trades and the moves during 2012/13, we’ll list all of the trades that have gone down this summer here.
Together with the free agent tracker and the 2013 draft results, you can see the full picture of the movement across the NBA landscape over the past month. For up-to-the-minute news on trades as well as other roster moves as the offseason continues, follow our transactions-only feeds via RSS and Twitter.
The moves are listed in reverse chronological order, with the latest on top. So, if a player has been traded multiple times (as often happens with draft picks), the first team listed as acquiring him here is the one that currently holds his rights.
- Wizards acquire Marcin Gortat, Shannon Brown, Kendall Marshall, and Malcolm Lee.
- Suns acquire Emeka Okafor and a top-12 protected 2014 first-round pick.
- Bucks acquire Caron Butler
- Suns acquire Viacheslav Kravtsov and Ish Smith
- Sixers acquire Tony Wroten.
- Grizzlies acquire future second-round pick.
- Celtics acquire Donte Greene.
- Grizzlies acquire Fab Melo and $1.66MM cash.
- Pistons acquire Brandon Jennings (sign-and-trade).
- Bucks acquire Brandon Knight, Viacheslav Kravtsov and Khris Middleton.
- Pacers acquire Luis Scola.
- Suns acquire Miles Plumlee, Gerald Green, and a lottery-protected 2014 first-round pick.
- Grizzlies acquire the draft rights to Nick Calathes.
- Mavericks acquire fully unprotected 2016 second-round pick (the pick had been top-55 protected).
- Sixers acquire Royce White, Furkan Aldemir and cash.
- Rockets acquire future draft considerations.
- Kings acquire Luc Mbah a Moute.
- Bucks acquire a 2016 second-round pick and the right to swap 2018 second-round picks with the Kings.
- Nets acquire Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Jason Terry and D.J. White.
- Celtics acquire Kris Humphries, Gerald Wallace, MarShon Brooks, Kris Joseph, Keith Bogans (sign-and-trade), a 2014 first-round pick, a 2016 first-round pick, a 2018 first-round pick, and the right to swap first-round picks with the Nets in 2017.
- Pelicans acquire Jrue Holiday and 2013 No. 42 pick (Pierre Jackson).
- Sixers acquire 2013 No. 6 pick (Nerlens Noel) and a 2014 first-round pick.
- Timberwolves acquire Kevin Martin (sign-and-trade) and cash (from Thunder)
- Bucks acquire Luke Ridnour and a 2014 second-round pick (from Timberwolves)
- Thunder acquire Szymon Szewczyk (from Bucks).
- Warriors acquire Andre Iguodala (sign-and-trade from Nuggets) and Kevin Murphy (from Jazz).
- Nuggets acquire Randy Foye (sign-and-trade from Jazz) and a 2018 second-round pick (from Warriors).
- Jazz acquire Andris Biedrins, Richard Jefferson, Brandon Rush, a 2014 first-round pick (from Warriors) a 2017 first-round pick (from Warriors), a 2016 second-round pick (from Warriors), a 2017 second-round pick (from Warriors), a 2018 second-round pick (from Nuggets), and cash (from Warriors).
- Pelicans acquire Tyreke Evans (sign-and-trade from Kings) and Jeff Withey (from Trail Blazers).
- Trail Blazers acquire Robin Lopez and Terrel Harris (from Pelicans).
- Kings acquire Greivis Vasquez (from Pelicans), a 2016 second-round pick (from Trail Blazers) and future second-round considerations (from Trail Blazers).
- Suns acquire Eric Bledsoe and Caron Butler (from Clippers).
- Clippers acquire J.J. Redick (sign-and-trade from Bucks) and Jared Dudley (from Suns).
- Bucks acquire a 2014 second-round pick (from Suns) and a 2015 second-round pick (from Clippers).
- Knicks acquire Andrea Bargnani.
- Raptors acquire Marcus Camby, Steve Novak, Quentin Richardson (sign-and-trade), a 2016 first-round pick, a 2014 second-round pick and a 2017 second-round pick.
- Trail Blazers acquire Thomas Robinson
- Rockets acquire the rights to Kostas Papanikolaou and Marko Todorovic, a 2015 second-round pick, and a 2017 second-round pick.
- Grizzlies acquire Kosta Koufos
- Nuggets acquire Darrell Arthur and 2013 No. 55 pick (Joffrey Lauvergne).
- Celtics acquire 2013 No. 53 pick (Colton Iverson).
- Pacers acquire cash.
- Heat acquire 2013 No. 50 pick (James Ennis).
- Hawks acquire a future second-round pick.
- Jazz acquire 2013 No. 47 pick (Raul Neto).
- Hawks acquire a future second-round pick.
- Thunder acquire 2013 No. 40 pick (Grant Jerrett).
- Trail Blazers acquire cash.
- Mavericks acquire 2013 No. 43 pick (Ricky Ledo).
- Sixers acquire a 2014 second-round pick.
- Bucks acquire 2013 No. 38 pick (Nate Wolters).
- Sixers acquire 2013 No. 43 pick (Ricky Ledo) and a future second-round pick.
- Wizards acquire 2013 No. 35 pick (Glen Rice Jr.).
- Sixers acquire 2013 No. 38 pick (Nate Wolters) and 2013 No. 54 pick (Arsalan Kazemi).
- Trail Blazers acquire 2013 No. 31 pick (Allen Crabbe).
- Cavaliers acquire two future second-round picks.
- Hawks acquire Jared Cunningham, 2013 No. 16 pick (Lucas Nogueira) and the 2013 No. 44 pick (Mike Muscala).
- Mavericks acquire 2013 No. 18 pick (Shane Larkin).
- Celtics acquire 2013 No. 13 pick (Kelly Olynyk).
- Mavericks acquire 2013 No. 16 pick (Lucas Nogueira) and two future second-round picks.
- Jazz acquire 2013 No. 9 pick (Trey Burke).
- Timberwolves acquire No. 14 pick (Shabazz Muhammad) and pick No. 21 (Gorgui Dieng).
- Suns acquire Malcolm Lee and 2013 No. 29 pick (Archie Goodwin).
- Warriors acquire 2013 No. 30 pick (Nemanja Nedovic).
- Thunder acquire 2013 No. 26 pick (Andre Roberson).
- Warriors acquire 2013 No. 29 pick (Archie Goodwin) and $1MM cash.
- Warriors acquire 2013 No. 26 pick (Andre Roberson) and Malcolm Lee.
- Timberwolves acquire a 2014 second-round pick and $1.6MM cash.
- Jazz acquire 2013 No. 27 pick (Rudy Gobert).
- Nuggets acquire 2013 No. 46 pick (Erick Green) and cash.
- Clippers acquire coach Doc Rivers.
- Celtics acquire a 2015 first-round draft pick.
Southwest Rumors: Neal, Jackson, Ellis, Dalembert
Yesterday, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported that the Spurs were in the "process of" withdrawing their qualifying offer to Gary Neal. The RealGM transactions log indicates that the move indeed took place, and if that's so, the timing is key. Yesterday was the deadline for teams to unilaterally withdraw qualifying offers without having to get the player's consent. Teams that pull QOs after the deadline also automatically lose Bird rights to those players. So, the Spurs have not only saved themselves the trouble of getting Neal's permission by presumably withdrawing his QO yesterday, but they've also given themselves more flexibility to re-sign him, if they choose. Here's more on Neal and other notes involving Southwest Division clubs:
- It's been a couple weeks since Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times mentioned that the Bucks were among the teams interested in Gary Neal, but today Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio indicates that Milwaukee remains in the running (Twitter link).
- It appears that this year's 42nd overall pick will play in France. Pierre Jackson, whom the Pelicans acquired as part of the Jrue Holiday/Nerlens Noel trade, has agreed to sign with ASVEL Villeurbanne of France, according to Gabriel Pantel-Jouve of Catch-and-Shoot (translation via Emiliano Carchia of Sportando).
- Now that the Mavs' signings of Monta Ellis and Samuel Dalembert are official, Mark Deeks has provided contract details for them on the Mavs page at ShamSports. Ellis has a three-year, $25.08MM deal with a player option in the final season, and Dalembert gets two years and $7,568,030, with only a $1.8MM guarantee in year two. Dalembert also has a 15% trade kicker.
- Chandler Parsons believes that he had a critical influence on Dwight Howard's decision to sign with the Rockets, as the big man's new teammate tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.
Clippers Sign Byron Mullens
MONDAY, 5:26pm: The Clippers announced that the deal has been signed.
SATURDAY, 6:02pm: Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times reports that Mullens is expected to sign his contract on Monday or Tuesday next week (Twitter link).
5:46pm: Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the Clippers and Mullens have agreed to a two-year deal worth $2MM. The second year will be a player option.
WEDNESDAY, 10:01pm: The deal would include a player option for 2014/15, and is on track to be finalized late tonight or on Thursday, Wojnarowski writes.
9:16pm: The Clippers and Byron Mullens are close to an agreement on a two-year deal, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Wasserman Media Group client became an unrestricted free agent when the Bobcats declined to tender a qualifying offer last month. The Lakers had interest in Mullens at the start of free agency, but may have moved on after adding Chris Kaman and re-signing Robert Sacre.
The Mullens signing would have to take place for the minimum salary, since the Clippers are over the cap and split their mid-level exception between Matt Barnes and Darren Collison. The Clips don't have their bi-annual exception, having used it to sign Grant Hill last summer. Bringing Mullens aboard may take the team out of the running for Antawn Jamison and Lamar Odom, two other big men who had been Clippers free agent targets.
Mullens is a 7'0" three-point gunner who could give the Clippers some floor spacing on offense if he continues to improve his touch. He's a career 30.1% shooter from behind the arc, and made 31.7% of his 3.9 three-point attempts per game this past season.
Celtics To Sign Phil Pressey
MONDAY, 4:17pm: The Celtics have officially signed Pressey, according to a press release.
THURSDAY, 12:05am: The contract includes some guaranteed money, Washburn writes.
WEDNESDAY, 9:42pm: The Celtics and Phil Pressey have agreed to a multiyear deal, tweets Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe. The team and the undrafted point guard from Missouri were reportedly working toward a contract this weekend, after the two sides put together an arrangement for summer league.
Washburn reported shortly after the draft that he expected the team to "immediately go after" Pressey, and the Celtics had him in the fold for summer league by the next morning. A more formal contract took a little longer, but Pressey has at least earned a chance to showcase his skills in Celtics training camp. Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com reported this weekend that the two sides were talking about a one-year deal, and though it now appears his contract will cover at least two seasons, it's not clear how much of a guarantee is involved.
The 5'11" Pressey averaged 9.4 points, 6.6 assists and 4.0 turnovers per game in five summer league contests in Orlando last week, but he was more impressive in college, where SEC coaches voted him first-team all-conference this past season. Both Chad Ford of ESPN.com and Jonathan Givony had him within the top 60 in their final rankings before the draft, so it was somewhat surprising that a team didn't use a second-round pick on him.