Pistons Sign Eugene Omoruyi To 10-Day Contract
The Pistons have filled the open spot on their 15-man roster, announcing in a press release that they’ve signed forward Eugene Omoruyi to a 10-day contract.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors’ 10-Day Contract Tracker]
Omoruyi, 26, has spent most of this season with the Thunder, appearing in 23 games for the team and averaging 4.9 points and 2.3 rebounds on .468/.258/.607 shooting in 11.8 minutes per night.
The former Oregon standout was on a two-way contract until being promoted to Oklahoma City’s standard roster after last month’s trade deadline. However, he was cut this past Sunday in order to make room for Lindy Waters on OKC’s 15-man squad.
In addition to seeing some action at the NBA level, Omoruyi also played for the Oklahoma City Blue in the G League this season. He averaged 17.5 PPG and 5.7 RPG in 13 NBAGL contests (26.8 MPG), making 45.1% of his shots from the floor but just 18.1% of his three-pointers.
The Pistons opened up a spot on their 15-man roster on Monday, when they bought out Nerlens Noel. Omoruyi will occupy that spot for at least the next 10 days — his deal will run through March 12, covering Detroit’s next five games.
A second-year player, Omoruyi will earn $94,136 on his 10-day contract, as our chart shows.
Southwest Notes: Porter, Morant, Kyrie, Jones, Vassell
After returning on Wednesday from a 20-game absence due to a toe injury, Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. admitted that he still wasn’t 100%, writes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. However, Porter considers it important to play during the final stretch of the season to try to carry some positive momentum into the offseason.
“There’s definitely going to be some tolerable pain going on,” Porter said. “I want to play. This is the best I can get it. Can’t get it 100 percent, so I will play.
“Just the passion and love I’ve got for the game. I’ve been away, been trying to do everything I can to get back on the court. Twenty games later, I’m at this point. This is the best I can get as far as my toe. The pain’s not too bad. I can play through it.”
As Feigen observes, injuries have prevented the Rockets from getting an extended look at their young core together this season, so the hope is that they can stay relatively healthy down the stretch. The starting lineup that Houston employed on Wednesday – Porter alongside Jalen Green, Jabari Smith, Alperen Sengun, and Kenyon Martin Jr. – is probably the one the team would like to lean on down the stretch, but it has been used just four times so far this season.
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, whose alleged involvement in a pair of off-court incidents had been previously reported, has been accused of threatening a security guard at a Memphis mall, according to reporting from Molly Hensley-Clancy of The Washington Post. The Post’s report also stated that the 17-year-old who was punched by Morant last summer during a pickup game claimed that the Grizzlies star went into his house and reemerged with a gun visible in his waistband. Morant’s lawyer and agent put out statements on Twitter vehemently disputing that claim, but didn’t address the incident involving the security guard.
- On Thursday, two days after expressing a need to scale back the pressure he’s putting on himself with his new team, Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving scored 40 points to complement Luka Doncic‘s 42 in a victory over Philadelphia. The Mavs are still just 2-4 in games the two stars have played together, but are confident that the wins will come, according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “They’ve got to work through the kinks,” head coach Jason Kidd said of his backcourt duo. “But I think at the end of the day, we’ll be happy with what we have.”
- The Spurs got two of their top rotation players back on Thursday, as Tre Jones (left foot soreness) returned from a five-game absence, while Devin Vassell (left knee surgery) played for the first time since January 2. Both players were on minute limits, but had positive plus-minus ratings in a victory over Indiana, with Vassell scoring 18 points in 23 minutes. “It’s refreshing, man,” Spurs center Zach Collins said, per Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. “These guys mean so much to our team. We’ve had a lot of guys hurt, one through 15. But Tre and Devin were starters for us. To get them back, is going to make the game a lot easier for us.”
Warriors Sign Lester Quinones To 10-Day Contract
MARCH 2: Quinones’ 10-day deal is now official, the Warriors announced (via Twitter).
MARCH 1: The Warriors intend to promote guard Lester Quinones from their G League affiliate in Santa Cruz to their NBA roster, having agreed to sign him to a 10-day contract, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The move is being made due to a rule buried deep in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, as Anthony Slater of The Athletic explains. A team that has an open spot on its 15-man roster can only have its two-way players active for a total of 90 combined games, rather than 100 (50 each).
Golden State’s two-way players have hit that 90-game limit — Anthony Lamb has been active for 47 games and Ty Jerome has been active for 43. By filling the 15th spot on their standard roster, the Warriors will ensure that they can continue to activate Lamb and Jerome for at least a few more games.
As Slater observes, a simpler solution may have been for the Warriors to promote one of those two-way players to a standard contract, but the club wants to maintain some roster flexibility before finalizing any decisions on Lamb or Jerome. There’s an expectation that at least one of them will likely be promoted before the end of the season, but it may come down to which player head coach Steve Kerr believes would be more needed in the playoff rotation.
After going undrafted out of Memphis last summer, Quinones signed a two-way contract with Golden State, but he was waived just before the regular season began in October and has instead spent his first professional season as an affiliate player for the Santa Cruz Warriors.
Quinones averaged 17.4 points on .498/.436/.745 shooting in 18 Showcase Cup games (29.6 MPG) and has put up 20.7 PPG, 7.1 RPG, and 4.9 APG with a .448/.361/.808 shooting line in 21 NBAGL regular season appearances (32.5 MPG) for Santa Cruz.
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript: 3/2/2023
Hoops Rumors hosted a live chat today at 10:00 am Central time (11:00 am Eastern).
Click here to read the transcript, and join us on Tuesday afternoon at 2:00 pm CT for our next live chat, hosted by Dana Gauruder.
Wizards Sign Jay Huff To Two-Way Contract
MARCH 2: The signing is official, the Wizards announced in a press release.
MARCH 1: G League center Jay Huff will fill one of the open slots on the Wizards‘ 17-man roster, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that the big man has agreed to sign a two-way contract with Washington.
Huff signed his first NBA contract – an Exhibit 10 deal – with Washington shortly after going undrafted out of Virginia in 2021. After being waived by the Wizards that fall, he inked a two-way deal with the Lakers. He was only on that contract for about three months before being cut again, but he has spent the majority of his first two professional seasons playing for L.A.’s G League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers.
In 18 Showcase Cup games this fall, Huff averaged 16.3 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 3.2 blocks in 29.3 minutes per night — I highlighted him in November as a G League prospect making a bid for an NBA call-up. He has continued to produce for South Bay since then, posting 14.3 PPG, 7.9 RPG, and 3.6 BPG in 19 NBAGL regular season contests (26.2 MPG).
The Wizards have an open two-way slot after recently promoting Jordan Goodwin to their standard roster, so no corresponding move will be necessary to make room for Huff. Having waived Vernon Carey Jr. today, Washington still has one more roster spot available.
Because he’s signing so late in the season, Huff is eligible to be active for a prorated portion of the usual 50-game limit for two-way players. Assuming he signs today, he could be active for up to 12 Wizards games.
Leandro Bolmaro Signs With Spanish Team
Former NBA first-round pick Leandro Bolmaro has returned to Spain, signing with Lenovo Tenerife (also known as CB Canarias), according to a press release from the team.
Bolmaro, 22, was the 23rd overall pick in the 2020 draft and signed his NBA rookie contract with the Timerwolves a year later, in 2021. However, he played very sparingly as a rookie in Minnesota, then was dealt to Utah in last summer’s blockbuster Rudy Gobert trade.
Bolmaro was unable to crack the Jazz’s rotation this season and was eventually bought out last month by the team, a move that was made to allow him to head back overseas and get more playing time.
In total, the Argentine guard averaged 1.1 PPG and 1.0 RPG and posted a shooting line of .270/.227/.846 in 49 NBA appearances (6.3 MPG) across two NBA seasons. He was more productive at the G League level, including averaging 12.1 PPG, 6.6 APG, and 6.1 RPG on .478/.382/.556 shooting in seven regular season games (33.1 MPG) for the Salt Lake City Stars this year.
Bolmaro previously played in Spain from 2018-21, when he was a member of FC Barcelona — he won a Spanish League (Liga ACB) title with the club in ’21.
His new team, Lenovo Tenerife, is currently chasing Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Baskonia in the standings, with a 14-5 record in Liga ACB play. Lenovo Tenerife is also the defending champion of FIBA’s Basketball Champions League.
Atlantic Notes: Harris, G. Williams, Sixers, Barton, VanVleet
Nets sharpshooter Joe Harris entered this season having started almost every game he had played since 2018/19 and having averaged 30 or more minutes per night in four consecutive seasons. However, he finds himself coming off the bench in Brooklyn and is logging just 23.0 minutes per night on the season — that number has dipped to 13.6 MPG since the trade deadline.
Harris, who missed most of last season due to ankle issues, isn’t pushing back against his role reduction, as Andrew Crane of The New York Post writes. In fact, the 31-year-old is exhibiting an admirable level of self-awareness about his own limitations, suggesting he’s evolving into more of a “second-unit sort of player” and admitting that he’s not recovering as quickly from minor injuries as he did when he was younger.
“I just am not the same player that I was two, three years ago. It’s not to say that I’m less of a player,” Harris said, adding that he believes he can still be a contributor on a good team. “But I just have to kind of evolve and figure it out.”
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- Celtics forward Grant Williams received his first DNP-CD of the season on Wednesday in a four-point win over Cleveland. Asked after the game why Williams didn’t play at all, head coach Joe Mazzulla simply replied, “Matchups” (Twitter link via Jared Weiss of The Athletic). Williams is in a contract year and will be eligible for restricted free agency this summer.
- Sixers head coach Doc Rivers confirmed on Wednesday that Philadelphia had interest in Kevin Love before the veteran forward signed with the Heat. “We tried to get him too. I know it was us and Miami, probably one other team,” Rivers said (Twitter link via Rich Hofmann of The Athletic). “He’s just a solid player. More importantly, if it hadn’t worked here, if he hadn’t played well, you still want him in the locker room.”
- Raptors assistant coach Earl Watson, who played with Will Barton in Portland in 2013/14, was a factor in Barton’s decision to sign with Toronto, per Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. “Me and Earl have a very strong relationship,” Barton said on Wednesday. “So, I trust him a lot.”
- Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet made just 1-of-11 shots in his return to the lineup on Tuesday. However, he didn’t turn the ball over and helped jump-start the team’s outside shooting with his knack for making the right pass, according to Eric Koreen of The Athletic, who argues that VanVleet’s impact even on an off night shows why Toronto needs to prioritize re-signing him this offseason.
And-Ones: Cheatham, Summer League, Udoka, Team USA
Veteran forward Zylan Cheatham, who has appeared in NBA games for the Jazz and Pelicans since 2019, will resume his playing career in the EuroLeague. According to reporting from BasketNews.com, German club Bayern Munich added Chatham to its roster ahead of today’s deadline for EuroLeague teams to register new players.
After going undrafted out of Arizona State in 2019, Cheatham began his professional career on a two-way contract with the Pelicans, spending his entire rookie season with the team, though he only appeared in four NBA games.
Cheatham was sent to Oklahoma City in a sign-and-trade for salary-matching purposes during the 2020 offseason in the deal that landed Steven Adams in New Orleans, but was waived by the Thunder a week later. Since then, he has primarily played in the G League, though he did sign 10-day contracts with Miami, Utah, and New Orleans last season.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- The NBA has officially confirmed the dates for this year’s Las Vegas Summer League, announcing (via Twitter) that it will take place from July 7-17.
- Teams are beginning the vetting process of former Celtics head coach Ime Udoka, according to Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com. Bulpett explores what teams want to know about Udoka and what steps he might have to take to land a new job following his year-long suspension and his subsequent exit from Boston.
- Suns forward Kevin Durant and Kings forward Harrison Barnes are among the former Olympic medalists who are part of USA Basketball’s Board of Directors. Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press explores what that role entails, noting that Durant has sought to have real input on the program, rather than just having an honorary seat at the table.
- Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic polled a handful of players at All-Star weekend about what they’d change about the NBA and received some interesting responses, including Anthony Edwards criticizing the concept of load management (“Just play, man. If you 80 percent, you got to play. I don’t like all this sitting, missing games and stuff”) and Tyrese Haliburton advocating for the league to expand (“The talent in the world right now is amazing, so to add two more teams would be good for our league”).
Wizards Waive Vernon Carey Jr.
The Wizards have officially waived big man Vernon Carey Jr., the team announced today in a press release.
Carey, who turned 22 on Saturday, has appeared in just 11 games this season for the Wizards and 14 overall since joining the team at the 2022 trade deadline in the Montrezl Harrell deal. The former Duke standout, who was drafted 32nd overall by the Hornets in 2020, has played in 37 total games for Charlotte and Washington, with career averages of 1.9 PPG and 1.4 RPG in 5.1 MPG.
Carey’s contract covered one additional season beyond this one, but the Wizards held a minimum-salary team option for 2023/24. By releasing him, Washington is essentially declining that option and will only be on the hook for the rest of this season’s $1.78MM salary, assuming Carey is not claimed on waivers.
The move will create an opening on the Wizards’ 15-man roster for another addition, and the club still has enough breathing room below the luxury tax line after signing Jordan Goodwin to fill that spot without becoming a taxpayer. Washington also still has an open two-way contract slot.
As for Carey, because he’s being waived on March 1, he’ll be playoff-eligible if he catches on with another NBA team. Given his lack of meaningful NBA experience though, it seems unlikely that he’ll be targeted by contenders.
Stephen Curry May Return During Warriors’ Upcoming Road Trip
2:29pm: The Warriors’ official update on Curry (via Twitter) states that he’s “making good progress” and has begun scrimmaging. The team doesn’t offer a specific timeline for his return, indicating that it will be based on how he responds to full practices and scrimmages.
1:04pm: There’s optimism that Warriors star Stephen Curry will be able to return to action sometime during the team’s upcoming road trip, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter).
That three-game trip begins on Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles against the Lakers. The Warriors then travel to Oklahoma City to play the Thunder on Tuesday and to Memphis to face the Grizzlies next Thursday.
Curry has been unavailable since February 4 due to a left leg injury, and it sounds like he’ll miss at least two more games — Golden State hosts the Clippers this Thursday and the Pelicans on Friday.
The Warriors lost four of their first six games after Curry went down, but have perked up in the last week, winning consecutive home contests against Houston, Minnesota, and Portland. The Dubs have actually moved up to No. 5 in the West, though their record (32-30) is modest and there are only 3.5 games separating them from the No. 13 Thunder, so a couple losses could significantly affect the club’s place in the standings.
Curry was putting up his usual All-NBA numbers prior to his injury, averaging 29.4 points, 6.4 assists, and 6.3 rebounds in 38 appearances (34.6 MPG) and making 42.7% of 11.4 three-point attempts per night. It goes without saying that his return would provide a major boost for the Warriors, putting the team in a good position to secure a playoff spot in the final few weeks of the season.