Rockets Suspend Royce White
10:31am: The suspension is without pay, as Feigen confirms. White tweets his response, writing, "Threat, Fines, Suspension won't deter me. I won't accept illogical health decisions, I will keep asking for safety & health."
10:02am: The Rockets have suspended Royce White, sources tell Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston (Twitter link). It will be a one-week suspension, tweets Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. It's the latest setback for the 16th overall pick in the draft this past June, who said this week there's a "very high" chance he'll never play in the NBA, and refused an assignment to the D-League last weekend.
In a statement, Rockets GM Daryl Morey said the suspension is for "refusing to provide services as required by his Uniform Player Contract," as Berman details (Twitter links). Morey also said the Rockets will continue to work with White, who has yet to make his debut for Houston as he seeks accomodations for his obsessive-compulsive and generalized anxiety disorders, which manifest in a fear of flying. White dismissed the idea of playing for another NBA team in a radio interview this week, and the Rockets have no intention of releasing him, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported last week.
The suspension doesn't come as a surprise to White, Feigen tweets. The rookie has been unable to reach an accord with Morey despite having engaged in talks for the last week. Still, it's not clear exactly what the suspension accomplishes, since White is already estranged from the team. After White spoke on the radio last week, Kurt Helin of NBCSports.com wrote that White has yet to receive a paycheck due to the fines he's incurred during his absence from the team, which dates back to mid-November. The Rockets had fined White for every day he missed or failed to meet with Dr. Aaron Fink, the team-assigned therpist, but White said in November that he had begun seeing Fink and was no longer being fined.
Odds & Ends: Lakers, Rose, DeQuan Jones
It's a 10-game night in the NBA, and the best game might be the last one to tip off, as the Warriors and Clippers square off for the second time in four days. The teams, who occupy the top two spots in the Pacific Division, will also meet January 21st, so it's a taste of playoff-level familiarity for untested Golden State. Here's more from around the Association.
- Mark Heisler, writing for The New York Times, reveals that part of the reason the Lakers hired Mike D'Antoni instead of Phil Jackson was because the front office was concerned the triangle offense would minimize Steve Nash's effect on the offense.
- People who've seen Derrick Rose work out believe he's almost ready to return, but the Bulls front office and coaching staff have different opinions on when the star point guard will be back on the court, as Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News writes.
- The Magic can place DeQuan Jones on waivers by Monday afternoon and avoid paying him his full rookie minimum salary this season, but as Josh Robbins affirms via Twitter, it's unlikely the team will do that with the 6'8" small forward who rejoined the team's starting lineup this week.
- With another bumper crop of prospects on the way, including point guard Andrew Harrison, No. 3 on the Draft Express 2014 mock, and twin brother Aaron Harrison, 13th on that list, next year's University of Kentucky team is already drawing plenty of interest from NBA scouts. Some teams will assign scouts to Lexington for the entire season, notes Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv (Twitter links).
- Keith Schlosser of Ridiculous Upside engages Mike James in a Q&A after the 37-year-old guard signed this week with the Texas Legends of the D-League in hopes of getting a call-up from the Mavericks.
Heat Rumors: Harris, Big Men, Martin, Pittman
The Heat were pounded on the boards last night in a loss to the the Bulls, who outrebounded them 48-28. That came just days after Nikola Vucevic set a Magic franchise record by pulling down 29 rebounds against the Heat. No team has grabbed fewer rebounds this season than the defending champs, and that makes it easy to assume Miami will pursue a rebounder with the open roster spot they'll have when Terrel Harris clears waivers. We have more on that and other matters out of South Beach this afternoon.
- Team president Pat Riley said through a team spokesman that Miami is not looking to add anyone at the moment, reports Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. That echoes the sentiments of coach Erik Spoelstra and the players, who believe the team can solve its rebouding woes on its own.
- Free agent Kenyon Martin had the Heat atop his wish list in November, but the team has shown little recent interest in the veteran who's averaged 7.1 rebounds per game for his career, writes Michael Wallace of ESPN.com.
- Part of the reason the Heat let go of Harris is so they can keep a roster spot open to add someone via trade, or make a signing after the trade deadline when players from other teams are bought out, as Chris Tomasson of Fox Sports Florida explains (Sulia link).
- If Harris clears waivers, the Heat could opt to bring him back via 10-day contract, just as they did with Mickell Gladness last year, Winderman points out.
- Winderman also checks in with Heat center Dexter Pittman, who's on assignment with the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the D-League, and provides updates on a handful of former Heat players.
The Rockets And Money Owed To Waived Players
The Rockets are expected to sign Patrick Beverley soon, and when they do, they'll have to waive someone, since they're at the 15-man roster limit. Everyone on the team has at least a partially guaranteed contract, so the Rockets will be on the hook for money to another guy who won't be playing for them the rest of this year. That will be on top of seven other players they've already let go despite guaranteed money on their contracts. Houston paid three players after releasing them last year, but this year they're obligated to a much larger group of ex-Rockets.
Because of the set-off provision, which I explain on a case-by-case basis below, they won't have to dole out quite as much money as the guarantees stipulate, but they're still racking up quite a bill. Of course, they have plenty of flexibility to do so, since their payroll is only about $51MM, well below the cap. Here are all seven players who are no longer Rockets but still receiving money from the team, with their salary from Houston in parentheses.
- Daequan Cook ($3,090,942) — He was waived January 2nd, on the 65th day of the 170-day season, so he was due $1,181,380 for the rest of the season. However, a portion of that would be set off by his new salary with the Bulls once he officially signs with Chicago, as expected. Per the set-off rules, the Rockets would deduct one half the difference between his new salary and $762,195 from their deal with Cook. However, since Cook is likely to sign for the prorated minimum salary, there won't be enough money for set-off, since his Bulls salary will be less than $762,195.
- Gary Forbes ($1,500,000) —Waived October 29th. He signed in November with a Chinese team, and last night we heard he's moved on to a team in Puerto Rico. His salaries overseas aren't known, but if they're more than $762,195, they count toward the set-off provision, too — set-off applies if a player signs any professional basketball contract, whether it's in the NBA or another league. So the Rockets could be on the hook for less than $1.5MM.
- Lazar Hayward ($1,174,080) — Waived October 29th. He signed with the Wolves on December 31st, but since he's likely to be placed on waivers by Monday so his minimum-salary contract isn't guaranteed for the rest of the season, his take from Minnesota will likely be too small for the Rockets to recoup any set-off, unless Hayward catches on somewhere else this season.
- JaJuan Johnson ($1,089,240) — Waived October 29th. He signed to play in the D-League, but his salary is likely too small for the Rockets to take back any money through set-off.
- Jon Brockman ($1,000,000) — Waived October 29th. The Rockets likely take back a set-off based on his salary in France, where he signed to play in November.
- Shaun Livingston ($1,000,000) — Waived October 29th. His contract was originally for $3.5MM, but only $1MM was guaranteed. He signed with the Wizards on November 15th, and the Cavs inherited his minimum-salary contract when they claimed him off waivers from Washington on Christmas. If the Cavs keep him past Monday, the Rockets take back $138,126, based on his prorated seven-year veteran's minimum salary of $1,038,446.
- E'Twaun Moore ($381,098) — Waived July 25th. He was originally due the one-year veteran's minimum of $762,195, but his deal was only 50% guaranteed. He signed a minimum-salary deal with the Magic on September 6th, but the Rockets won't take any set-off, since the difference between his salary with the Magic and $762,195 is zero.
Derek Fisher is frequently listed as being in line for $644,005 from the Rockets this year. It's not entirely clear whether Fisher receives this money or not. The Rockets bought him out March 18th, but Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported that the buyout occurred before Fisher had exercised his player option for 2012/13. That made him eligible to sign with the Lakers this season, but it also presumably means he'd have been off Houston's books by the end of last season. In any case, the small prorated minimum-salary amount of money he received from the Mavericks this season is not enough to trigger set-off.
The Rockets also continue to pay Luis Scola, whom they waived via the amnesty provision this summer. Because they amnestied him, the money they owe Scola doesn't count against the salary cap, and since the Suns claimed him with a partial bid, the Rockets aren't obligated to pay off the entirety of Scola's contract. Houston is paying Scola $17,148,353 from this season through 2015, while the Suns are picking up the other $13,525,513 on his deal.
ShamSports was used in the creation of this post.
Odds & Ends: Nolan Smith, Beverley, Draft
It was an active day around the Association, and it might be that way for a while. Monday is the start date for 10-day contracts and the final day teams can waive players on non-guaranteed deals in time for them to be off rosters by January 10th, when those contracts would become guaranteed for the balance of the season. Come Monday, we'll also be just two weeks and a month from the trade deadline. As we count down, here's the latest NBA scuttlebutt.
- Nolan Smith has fired agent Joel Bell, who asked the Blazers to trade his now former client, as Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com reports. Smith said he has never asked for a trade himself, and as we passed along earlier, he also spoke with Haynes about his upcoming free agency, professing his love for Portland in the process. Sam Amick of SI.com identified Smith as a trade candidate earlier today.
- Sean Deveney tweets financial details on Patrick Beverley's $850K buyout from Spartak St. Petersburg. The Rockets, who are expected to sign Beverley, paid the maximum $550K while Beverley chipped in the rest out the $700K in earnings he had already drawn on his $1MM contract with the Russian club.
- Chris Mannix of SI.com mentions Kansas freshman shooting guard Ben McLemore as a darkhorse for the No. 1 pick and ranks the top 20 draft prospects for June, with Kentucky center Nerlens Noel atop the list.
- Hornets coach Monty Williams said the team wants to have the flexibility to bring in new players at small forward, as John Reid of The Times-Picayune notes, and presumably that's why New Orleans waived Dominic McGuire today. Williams has been unpleased with the play of the team's threes since before McGuire signed last month, and now the coach is calling for improvement from Al-Farouq Aminu, who'll be an unrestricted free agent in the summer because the Hornets declined his fourth-year option prior to the season.
Pacers Rumors: Young, Lee, Johnson
The Pacers fell out of sole possession of first place in the Central Division tonight following their loss to the Celtics and the Bulls' win over the Heat. We rounded up the latest out of Chicago earlier this evening, and now we'll do so with the other team atop the Central, courtesy Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star.
- Sam Young suffered a sprained ankle in practice yesterday that could cost him his job. The 6'6" swingman's minimum-salary contract is guaranteed for $25K, and it will become fully guaranteed if he doesn't clear waivers before Thursday. As Wells notes, the Pacers would have to waive him by Monday to avoid the full season tab, and they'll consider doing just that over the weekend when they receive further information on Young's injury. The prognosis at this point has Young missing two weeks.
- Courtney Lee, who signed a four-year, $21.35MM deal with the Celtics last summer, gave thought to signing with the Pacers instead, since he's an Indianapolis native and friends with George Hill. When the Pacers signed D.J. Augustin and Gerald Green, though, Lee knew it probably squeezed him out, and as Wells writes, Indiana was turned off by his agent's asking price. "It just didn't pan out right," the shooting guard said. "I was kind of laid-back with that situation. I wasn't really too much into it. I was trying to relax and take my mind off free agency as much as possible and have my agent handle things."
- Orlando Johnson, recalled today from the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, was supposed to have a longer stint in the D-League, but Young's injury forced the team to bring him back early to provide depth for the big club.
Eastern Notes: Knicks, Magic, Vucevic, Carlesimo
Lakers coach and former Knicks boss Mike D'Antoni was a little thrown by Amare Stoudemire's recent assertion that he was never taught defense before this year, as Newsday's Al Iannazzone documents. D'Antoni, who coached Stoudemire in New York and Phoenix, said he didn't think Stoudemire meant to be malicious, but still found the comment "mind-boggling" and implied that Stoudemire threw him and his assistant coaches with the Knicks under the bus. Here's more from around the Eastern Conference.
- We heard earlier today that the Magic, unsurprisingly, will not try to sign Dwight Howard in the offseason, and Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel reports that the team isn't interested in acquiring fellow Dan Fegan client DeMarcus Cousins, either.
- Schmitz also writes that Nikola Vucevic is off the market unless a team "blows away" the Magic with a proposal (and a Cousins offer wouldn't qualify). Still, Schmitz wonders if Orlando could swap him for a marquee talent when he gets closer to the end of his rookie deal in 2015.
- HoopsWorld's Yannis Koutroupis checks in with Nets interim coach and former Spurs assistant P.J. Carlesimo, who has admiration for the San Antonio model but doesn't think it's one that can be applied in Brooklyn.
- In a video attached to the same piece, Nets swingman MarShon Brooks, who's been seeing more playing time under Carlesimo, predictably gives the coach his stamp of approval, and brushes off trade rumors.
- Former Raptors small forward Gary Forbes had his sights set on an eventual return to the NBA when he signed with the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions in China in November, but his next move will be to Puerto Rico, where he'll play for Atleticos de San German, reports Manolo Rodriguez of Tiro Al Blanco (translation via Sportando).
Warriors Likely To Pay Tax, Keep Kent Bazemore
The Warriors aren't desperate to get under the tax threshold this season, and they probably won't let go of Kent Bazemore and his partially guaranteed contract before the deal becomes fully guaranteed on Thursday, a source tells Marcus Thompson II of the Bay Area News Group. Letting go of Bazemore, who has a meager $25K guarantee on his minimum-salary deal, wouldn't get the Warriors under the $70.307MM tax threshold, as Thompson points out. That's because the Warriors are more than $900K over and Bazemore is only owed $300K for the rest of the season.
The Warriors believe the 6'5" Bazemore, who went undrafted out of Old Dominion last summer, has a future in the league, according to Thompson's source, so the benefits of keeping him outweigh the dollar-for-dollar tax penalty. It also means the Warriors haven't changed their stance on the merits of Bazemore versus Dominic McGuire since November, when Thompson reported they weren't interested in waiving Bazemore to bring aboard McGuire, who was a part of Golden State's rotation last year. McGuire was waived by the Hornets today, but the Warriors can't add him or anyone else without cutting someone, since they're at the 15-man roster limit.
Golden State is in the rare position of having more money on the books for next season than it does for this one. The team is set to come in slightly over the tax apron for 2013/14, which is a line $4MM above the tax threshold. Teams above the apron have limited flexibility, as Thompson details. The precise threshold for next season won't be defined until July, so there's a chance the Warriors could keep all of their commitments for next season and still wind up below the apron. At that point, they could revisit the idea of keeping Bazemore, since the next season on his deal also comes without a full guarantee.
Bulls Rumors: Cook, Deng, Radmanovic
It's an active Friday for Chicago. The Bulls zeroed in on their first in-season signing, as they're set to bring Daequan Cook aboard, and they're taking on the Heat in Miami tonight. A win and a Pacers loss could leave them in a tie for first place in the Central Division, even with Derrick Rose still on the shelf. Amid that sort of optimism, here's the latest out of the Windy City.
- The Rockets shopped Cook in trades before waiving him, but couldn't find anyone willing to take on his $3MM salary, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reveals.
- Mark Deeks of ShamSports took to Twitter to break down the ramifications the Cook signing will have on Chicago's space under the $74.307MM hard cap. The Bulls will have $235,917 available if, as expected, Cook inks for the prorated minimum salary, enough for four 10-day contracts. They could instead add another minimum-salary player for the rest of the year starting March 3. A third option is to acquire a player via trade, and the Bulls can now only take back an additional $1,235,916 in a swap, which Deeks believes they'll try to use in a deal that sends out Richard Hamilton.
- Sam Smith of Bulls.com dips into his mailbag to answer reader questions, and says he isn't expecting much movement for the Bulls between now and the trade deadline, particularly regarding Luol Deng, who is "probably as solidly entrenched with the team" as he's ever been. Smith notes that the Bulls were offered high draft choices for Deng last season, but they didn't pursue them aggressively.
- With Cook, a shooter, on his way to Chicago, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune wonders why the team hasn't given outside-shooting big man Vladimir Radmanovic more playing time. Responding to a question about whether Radmanovic or Nazr Mohammed, both on minimum-salary deals, Deeks says it would complicate the already difficult task the Bulls would have in pulling off a trade, given their proximity to the hard cap (Twitter links).
Christian Eyenga Leaving D-League For China
Former first-round pick Christian Eyenga has bought out his contract with the Texas Legends of the D-League so he can sign with the Shanxi Zhongyu Brave Dragons, tweets Mark Deeks of ShamSports. The former Cavs and Lakers swingman first hinted at the move on his own Twitter account a few hours ago. Eyenga will replace another former NBA player on Shanxi's roster, Marcus E. Williams, who a few days ago became the first Chinese league player suspended for drugs after testing positive for marijuana.
Eyenga appeared in 14 games for Texas this season, but started only one of them, averaging 16.1 points and 5.7 rebounds. He was let go at the end of training camp by the Magic, who got him from the Lakers as part of the Dwight Howard trade. L.A. had acquired him from the Cavs via the Ramon Sessions trade at the deadline last year. The Lakers reportedly had an affinity for the 6'5" swingman from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but they're ineligible to re-sign him until next July.
Cleveland drafted him with 30th overall pick in 2010, but after a rookie season in which he averaged 6.9 PPG and 2.8 RPG in 21.5 minutes per contest, including 18 starts, he's seen action in only 14 NBA games. Since the Chinese season ends in February, he could still find his way back to the NBA in 2012/13.