Clippers Waive Jordan Hamilton
11:01pm: The team has indeed placed Hamilton on waivers, according to fellow Times scribe Eric Pincus (Twitter link).
5:23pm: The Clippers are in process of waiving Jordan Hamilton, Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times tweets. There are no other accompanying moves, Bolch adds.
The 6’7” shooting guard appeared in 14 games last season, averaging 2.7 points, 1.1 rebounds and 0.5 assists in 8.7 minutes per game. The 24-year-old played his first two-plus seasons with the Nuggets, then was dealt to the Rockets for Aaron Brooks midway through the 2013/14 season. Hamilton was taken in the first round of the 2011 draft by the Mavericks, who shipped him that night to Denver.
He signed two 10-day contracts with the Clippers last season and then was signed for the remainder of the season in March. He did not appear in any postseason games with the Clippers. He had a non-guaranteed salary of just over $1MM for the upcoming season.
And-Ones: Bucks Arena, Mavs, Huestis
The $500MM plan to fund a new Bucks arena has enough votes to pass the Wisconsin State Assembly on Tuesday, Republican Majority Leader Jim Steineke said, according to Scott Bauer of the Associated Press. Under the proposal, half of the cost would initially be paid by state and local taxpayers and the other $250MM would come from current and former Bucks owners, Bauer continues. If approved without any changes by the Assembly, the bill would then head to Governor Scott Walker for his consideration, Bauer adds.
In other news around the league:
- The Mavericks have renounced their rights to Bernard James, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets. Pincus notes the Mavs did the same thing last summer, then re-signed him. James’ cap hold was $947,276.
- The Spurs’ contract with Reggie Williams is not guaranteed, Pincus reports in a separate tweet. Williams would make approximately $1.186MM this upcoming season if he gets paid the full amount.
- The Thunder are saving their final open roster spot for Josh Huestis, Marc Stein of ESPN.com hears (Twitter link). Oklahoma City selected the 6’7” forward with the 29th overall pick in 2014 but he spent last season with the Oklahoma City Blue of the D-League.
- The Warriors will hire from within regarding their coaching moves and promote Luke Walton and Jarron Collins, Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com tweets.
Heat Rumors: Ennis, Richardson, Johnson
- They plan to make an offer to No. 40 overall pick Josh Richardson soon, according to Jackson. The shooting guard from Tennessee will likely see a multiyear offer with partial guarantees similar to the deal that Ennis signed with Miami last year, tweets Winderman.
- Miami didn’t signal the likelihood or lack thereof that it would offer Henry Walker a chance to re-sign with the team, but their parting today was “amicable,” agent Mike Naiditch told Jackson for the same piece.
- Tyler Johnson‘s 50% contract guarantee will be picked up by Saturday’s deadline, according to Winderman (Twitter link). That would mean Johnson will receive at least $422,530 this coming season.
- Team president Pat Riley and point guard Goran Dragic have collectively decided that Dragic won’t play for Slovenia this summer, Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press tweets.
Kobe Bryant Notes: Minutes, Free Agents, Jackson
The Lakers can only use Kobe Bryant at power forward against Western Conference teams on a limited basis, Kurt Helin of ProBasketballTalk opines. Lakers coach Byron Scott plans to gives Bryant some minutes at power forward next season, as he told NBA.com’s David Aldridge. “There’s some games, against some teams, where he’ll probably play four,” Scott said. “With his tenaciousness, the way he guards people and when his mind is set, if I say ‘Kobe, you’ve got him,’ he takes that as a challenge.” Helin doubts Bryant will see much action there against some of the better Western Conference teams, pointing out that he cannot match up defensively with the likes of Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin, Serge Ibaka, LaMarcus Aldridge, Zach Randolph, Dirk Nowitzki and Draymond Green. Scott will likely split up most of the minutes at power forward between Julius Randle and Brandon Bass, Helin concludes.
In other news regarding Bryant:
- Bryant’s failure to reach out to the team’s newcomers is a non-issue for Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak, Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News reports. Roy Hibbert, Lou Williams and Bass were silent during their introductory press conference when asked if Bryant had contacted them. In a SiriusXM NBA Radio interview, Kupchak laughed off the controversy: “Kobe doesn’t call every single player we sign or trade for. I don’t even know if he’s in the country, to be honest with you. There was much made of it. But I thought it was kind of comical.” However, Bryant did attend FC Barcelona’s soccer practice last week in Los Angeles, Medina notes.
- Knicks president and former Lakers coach Phil Jackson confirmed during a Q&A session with author Charley Rosen posted Monday on ESPN.com that Bryant has a lot of animosity toward him. “Yes, quite often I could feel his hatred,” Jackson told Rosen. “I’m sure Kobe was [upset] when I wrote in “The Last Season” that he was uncoachable. And, yes, we were often at loggerheads. He wanted more freedom and I wanted him to be more disciplined. This is a normal source of friction thing between coaches and players on just about every level of competition.”
Central Rumors: Cavs, Jackson, Pacers
The Cavaliers traded Brendan Haywood and Mike Miller to the Trail Blazers mainly to add two exceptions and expand their trade options, even though they will save millions in luxury tax, Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. Cleveland believes teams are more willing to make mid-season trades and the exceptions it picked up on Monday — $10.5MM for Haywood and $2.85MM for Miller — gives it some flexibility to make those moves, Pluto continues. The Cavs’ salary cap concerns would have made any trade next season much more difficult without those exceptions, though they cannot be combined, Pluto adds.
In other news around the Central Division:
- Second-round pick Sir’Dominic Pointer is a longshot to end up on the Cavs roster this year, as Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal writes in his story on the Haywood deal. Cleveland drafted the small forward from St. John’s 53rd overall last month.
- Reggie Jackson was convinced he would re-sign with the Pistons when they helped him with a family crisis, Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press writes. When Jackson found out his father Saul had a diabetic seizure in March, the organization flew Jackson on the team plane to Colorado to visit him, the story continues. That made a lasting impression on Jackson, who didn’t consider any other teams before signing a five-year, $80MM deal as a restricted free agent to remain with the club. “I think I knew then I didn’t need to be nowhere else,” Jackson said to Ellis. “In my mind I was already here, but that kind of solidified it. There was no need to even play around and do free agency. I was good.”
- Only the first year of Glenn Robinson III‘s three-year contract with the Pacers is guaranteed, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets. Robinson will make $1.1MM this season, then $1.05MM in 2016/17 and $1.09MM in 2017/18 in the non-guaranteed years, Pincus adds. The signing was officially announced on Monday.
Atlantic Notes: Larkin, Nets, Lee
- In the same Q&A with Rosen, Jackson spelled out his reasons for trading J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert to the Cavaliers. “J.R. was more interested in hunting for his own shots than in buying into the triangle. Plus, he has a player’s option for next season that would limit our flexibility. As for Shumpert, mainly because of injuries, he’d take one step forward and two steps backward. And because of a salary ‘hold’ on his rookie contract, a CBA format that limits available money in free agency.” Jackson was presumably referring to Shumpert’s cap hold, which would have taken up more than $6.542MM on New York’s cap this summer.
- David Lee nearly signed with the Celtics the last time he was a free agent, Ben Rohrbach of WEEI.com tweets. Lee signed a six-year contract with the Knicks and then was shipped to the Warriors in a sign-and-trade in 2010. The Celtics completed a long-rumored trade for Lee on Monday. Lee was immediately interested in joining the Celtics when they showed interest in acquiring him, according to Jay King of MassLive.com (Twitter link).
- The Nets used their $2,339,131 Kevin Garnett trade exception to acquire Steve Blake from the Trail Blazers last month, as NetsDaily indicates. It was one of three exceptions Brooklyn could have used to accommodate the deal. Blake’s salary, since moved to the Pistons in the Quincy Miller trade, left a virtually unusable $262,131 remaining on the Garnett exception.
Mavs Sign Brandon Ashley To Camp Deal
MONDAY, 3:00pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
SATURDAY, 12:41pm: The Mavericks have reached agreement with undrafted Arizona power forward Brandon Ashley on a partially guaranteed multiyear deal, RealGM’s Shams Charania tweets. The 6’9” Ashley averaged 12.2 points and 5.2 rebounds as a junior last season before declaring for the draft. He averaged 11.5 points and 5.8 rebounds as a sophomore before breaking his foot in February of that season.
Ashley played seven games for the Hawks in the Las Vegas Summer League, averaging 10.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists. He originally committed to play for the Lakers in the summer league, then shifted gears and instead joined Atlanta.
According to his draft profile by ESPN Insider Chad Ford, Ashley’s attributes include length, athleticism, shot-blocking ability and an improving jump shot. On the downside, he needs to add strength and refine his post game and footwork, along with showing he has the motor and toughness to play in the NBA.
Pacers Sign Glenn Robinson III
MONDAY, 2:02pm: The deal is official, the team announced.
“Glenn comes to us with a set of skills we think will blend in with our team,” said Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird. “We expect him to be very good on the defensive end and he can score the ball. We look forward to seeing him improve throughout the year.”
SATURDAY, 11:48am: Glenn Robinson III has agreed to a three-year contract with the Pacers, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Agents Austin Brown and Aaron Mintz of CAA informed Wojnarowski of the agreement.
Robinson, 21, became an unrestricted free agent after the Sixers declined to make him a qualifying offer. The 6’7” swingman appeared in 35 games last season. He averaged 1.2 points in 25 games for the Timberwolves, who waived him in March. He averaged 4.4 points in 10 games after the Sixers claimed him.
The Pacers still have some cap space left even with the addition of Robinson III because they have yet to make their deal with Lavoy Allen official, former Nets executive Bobby Marks tweets.
Robinson will have to fight for playing time at the wing positions with Paul George, Monta Ellis, Chase Budinger, Solomon Hill and C.J. Miles.
Robinson declared for 2014 draft after his sophomore season with the University of Michigan and was taken with the 40th overall pick by Minnesota.
Emmanuel Mudiay Signs With Nuggets
The Nuggets have signed No. 7 overall pick Emmanuel Mudiay, as Mudiay revealed on his Twitter account. The team hasn’t made a formal announcement, but it did tacitly acknowledge the signing on Twitter.
Mudiay can receive a maximum of $3,102,240 in the upcoming season and $3,241,800 in 2016/17 with a total of $14.02MM over the next four seasons, as our chart of likely salaries for first-round picks shows. The point guard, who played in China last season after originally committing to SMU, was expected to be a top-five pick leading up to the draft before he slipped to the Nuggets’ spot in the lottery.
With veteran Jameer Nelson the only other viable option on the roster, Mudiay is expected to be the team’s starting point guard in his rookie season. As GM Tim Connelly told Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post, the main concern with Mudiay is not playing him too much.
“I think it’s certainly a slippery slope,” Connelly said. “If you look at a lot of the elite players, they were thrown to the wolves early. Their early failures led to big-time success down the road. There’s going to be nights when Emmanuel is going to look like a 19-year old, and hopefully there’s nights where he looks like one of the elite point guards in the league. But we’re not going to put too much pressure on him. We’re going to kind of let it happen organically. And having a guy like Jameer [Nelson] behind him makes the transition that much easier.”
Warriors Re-Sign Leandro Barbosa
JULY 13TH, 4:06pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
JULY 6TH, 6:08pm: Leandro Barbosa will re-sign with the Warriors on a one-year, $2.5MM contract, Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com tweets. The veteran guard was a key reserve on Golden State’s championship team.
The signing comes as somewhat of a surprise, given that the Warriors have already pushed themselves into taxpayer territory by reaching a long-term commitment with restricted free agent Draymond Green. Currently, the Warriors have approximately $99.3MM in salary commitments when Green’s starting salary of $14.26MM is factored in.
The club only has Non-Bird rights on Barbosa and thus will have to use part of the $3,376MM taxpayer mid-level exception to re-sign him. The Warriors can ease their tax burden greatly if they can find a taker for David Lee‘s expiring contract. He’s owed nearly $15.5MM in his remaining year.
The 6’3” Barbosa, who will be entering his 13th season, averaged 7.1 points and 1.5 assists during 66 regular-season games last year and supplied 5.0 points and 0.9 assists per game in 21 postseason appearances. He’ll once again back up Klay Thompson and, at times, Stephen Curry.