Grizzlies Sign Xavier Sneed To 10-Day Contract
The Grizzlies have completed another hardship signing, adding forward Xavier Sneed on a 10-day contract, the team announced today (Twitter link).
Memphis has now signed three players to 10-day deals in the last two days, having officially finalized agreements with Tyrell Terry and Shaq Buchanan on Sunday. The club currently has five players in the health and safety protocols.
Sneed, a 6’5″ wing who went undrafted out of Kansas State in 2020, played in 13 games for the Greensboro Swarm last season and returned to the Hornets’ G League affiliate for a second go-round this year. In 27 total G League games, he has averaged 9.1 PPG, 4.0 RPG, and 1.9 SPG in 24.9 minutes per contest.
The 24-year-old has improved his scoring efficiency significantly in his second NBAGL season. After making 36.0% of his field goal tries, including 27.9% of his threes, in 2020/21, he has knocked down 50.5% of his shots and 39.0% of his threes in ’21/22.
Sneed’s new deal will run through January 5, covering Memphis’ next five games. He’ll earn $53,176 in his 10 days with the team.
Eastern Notes: Raptors, Wright, LeVert, Turner, Bridges
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said on Sunday that two of the replacement players the team had hoped to sign in advance of its game vs. Chicago last Wednesday didn’t pass the COVID-19 screening process, as Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca tweets. The game was ultimately postponed because Toronto didn’t have enough players available.
The Raptors were said to have deals in place with Brandon Goodwin and Nik Stauskas, but those agreements were reported a week ago and were never finalized, so presumably those are the two players Nurse was referring to.
It’s possible Toronto will circle back to Goodwin and/or Stauskas at some point. However, if they contracted COVID-19, they won’t be short-term options for the Raptors, so we’re no longer counting on those deals to be completed and have removed them from our roster counts page.
Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Hawks guard Delon Wright has entered the health and safety protocols, tweets Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. Atlanta’s roster is in rough shape, with 11 players now in the protocols, but – for now at least – the team still has enough bodies available Monday’s game vs. Chicago, including five replacement players (a sixth, Wesley Iwundu, is in the protocols).
- Caris LeVert has been playing his best basketball this month since joining the Pacers, averaging 22.1 PPG and 5.3 APG with a .392 3PT% in his last 10 games. Myles Turner, meanwhile, had one of his best games of the season last Thursday, putting up 32 points on 14-of-18 shooting. Besides helping out Indiana with their production, LeVert and Turner – both considered trade candidates – are displaying their value for potential suitors, writes Gregg Doyel of The Indianapolis Star (subscribers only).
- Philadelphia native and former Villanova star Mikal Bridges, who was traded from the Sixers to the Suns on draft night in 2018, doesn’t think often about what could have been if he had remained with his hometown team, writes Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “Being (in Phoenix) and knowing the city, the people, and what we’ve been doing these past years, I don’t even think twice about ever being home,” Bridges said. “I’m in a great situation now, and I love it.”
Jayson Tatum Enters Health And Safety Protocols
Star forward Jayson Tatum has joined a long list of Celtics players in the health and safety protocols, the team announced today (via Twitter).
There are now nine Celtics players in the protocols, as our tracker shows. Of those players, eight have been ruled out for Boston’s Monday game vs. Minnesota. The ninth, Grant Williams, is listed as questionable, which suggests he has either exited the protocols or is on the verge of doing so.
Only two other teams – Atlanta and Toronto – currently have more players in the protocols than the Celtics, whose situation actually seemed to be improving in recent days. Juan Hernangomez, Jabari Parker, Sam Hauser, and Brodric Thomas all recently cleared the protocols.
However, now Boston’s top scorer will be out for 10 days or until he can return consecutive negative tests at least 24 hours apart. Tatum is averaging 25.6 PPG, 8.6 RPG, and 3.8 APG this season in 33 games (36.7 MPG), though his shooting numbers are down (.417 FG%, .329 3PT%).
Tatum contracted COVID-19 last season and had breathing problems well after his return, using an inhaler before games.
Kenneth Faried Signs G League Contract
Veteran big man Kenneth Faried has signed a G League contract, league sources tell Marc Stein (Twitter link). Stein first reported on Friday that a contract had been sent to Faried.
A first-round pick in the 2011 draft, Faried appeared in 478 regular season games from 2011-19. The 6’8″ power forward played for the Nuggets for most of his career, but also spent time with Brooklyn and Houston in 2018/19. He played for Portland’s Summer League team earlier this year.
Although Faried has solid career averages of 11.4 PPG and 8.1 RPG in 24.5 minutes per contest, he isn’t a great rim protector or floor spacer, which has limited his appeal to NBA teams in recent years. The 32-year-old has played in China, Puerto Rico, and Russia since 2019 — he recently finished a two-month contract with CSKA Moscow.
The G League is on a brief hiatus right now, as the start of its regular season has been pushed back to January 5 to give teams more time to adjust to the recent exodus of talent to the NBA. As Stein points out, Faried himself is a candidate to earn a 10-day hardship deal with an NBA team. If he doesn’t, he’ll be available to any G League club, first on waivers and then (if he goes unclaimed) via the player pool.
Salaries For 10-Day Contracts In 2021/22
When a player signs a 10-day contract, his team can theoretically use cap room or an exception to pay him more than the minimum salary. However, in practice, that never happens — virtually every player that signs a 10-day deal receives a prorated portion of the minimum salary.
The minimum salary in a given season differs from player to player, based on his years of NBA experience entering the season. For instance, in 2021/22, a rookie on a full-season minimum deal will earn $925,258, whereas a 10-year veteran who is earning the minimum will make $2,641,691.
[RELATED: NBA Minimum Salaries For 2021/22]
The same is true for 10-day deals. A rookie will earn significantly less over the course of his 10 days with a team than a tenured NBA veteran will.
Because the 2021/22 season is 174 days long, a player’s full-season minimum salary can be divided by 174 to calculate his daily salary. From there, it’s just a matter of multiplying by 10 to determine his salary on a 10-day contract.
Using that formula, here’s the full breakdown of what salaries for 10-day deals look like in ’21/22:
| Years in NBA | Salary |
|---|---|
| 0 | $53,176 |
| 1 | $85,578 |
| 2 | $95,930 |
| 3 | $99,380 |
| 4 | $102,831 |
| 5 | $111,457 |
| 6 | $120,083 |
| 7 | $128,709 |
| 8 | $137,336 |
| 9 | $138,019 |
| 10+ | $151,821 |
Because the NBA doesn’t want teams to avoid signing veteran players in favor of cheaper, younger options, the league reimburses clubs who sign veterans with three or more years of experience to 10-day, minimum-salary contracts.
In those instances, teams are on the hook for $95,930, the minimum salary for a player with two years of experience, while the NBA covers the difference. So a team would pay the same amount whether they sign a player with three years under his belt or a player with 12 years of NBA experience.
Based on the new temporary roster rules agreed upon by the league and the players’ union, 10-day contracts signed via hardship exceptions don’t count against team salary for cap or tax purposes. So even though the team is responsible for paying $95,930 to a player signed to a 10-day hardship deal, that money won’t count against the team’s cap. Normally, the portion of the player’s salary paid by the team would be his cap hit, even if he’s technically earning a higher salary.
Here are a few examples based on 10-day deals that are currently active:
| Player | Team | Years | Salary | Paid by team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Javin DeLaurier | Bucks | 0 | $53,176 | $53,176 |
| Danuel House | Knicks | 5 | $111,457 | $95,930 |
| Joe Johnson | Celtics | 10 | $151,821 | $95,930 |
Pacific Notes: Kings, Robinson, Weatherspoon, Ayton, Crowder
In what has become a recurring scene this season, the Kings were ripped by head coach Alvin Gentry following their latest poor performance on Sunday night. As Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee details, the Kings led at the half, but fell behind by as many as 30 points in the second half en route to a 127-102 loss, prompting’s Gentry’s postgame comments.
“This is the most disappointed I’ve been in 34 years in the NBA,” Gentry said. “I can honestly say that. That performance was absolutely ridiculous. We didn’t play hard. We didn’t compete. We gave up 19 offensive rebounds for — I don’t know — 37 points or some astronomical figure. We didn’t guard the ball. We didn’t guard screen and rolls. We didn’t follow the game plan — all of those things — and to be honest with you, it’s the most disappointing game that I’ve been involved with.
“… You can’t get a reputation in this league of being a team where you can come into their home gym and do what they just did to us,” Gentry continued. “I’m just telling you that will stay with you in the NBA if you let teams come in and do what they did to us. They basically toyed with us, and we’re not that team. We’re not a team that people should be able to come in here and toy with us. So, yes, if you ask me if I’m upset, disappointed, you’re damn right I am.”
The Kings have already made an in-season head coaching change, so if the team continues to underachieve, it’s safe to assume that a roster shakeup could be next. While there has been no indication yet that the front office is considering anything drastic, the club’s compete level and leadership can only be called into question so many times before GM Monte McNair has to seriously consider personnel changes.
“I don’t think we lack leadership,” Kings guard Terence Davis said on Sunday, per Anderson. “I just think we lack a leader’s voice, if that makes sense. We don’t really have a leader’s voice. We have leaders. Their voice isn’t being heard enough, honestly. That’s just my opinion.”
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- The Kings don’t plan to sign Justin Robinson to a second 10-day contract at this point, a league source tells James Ham of ESPN 1320 (Twitter link). Robinson, whose first 10-day deal expired on Sunday night, logged a total of 15 minutes across three games for Sacramento.
- Klay Thompson played a part in getting Quinndary Weatherspoon called up to the Warriors, tweets Nick Friedell of ESPN. Weatherspoon, whose 10-day deal runs through January 1, heard from multiple people in the organization that Thompson “sung his praises” to the front office for the way he defended Klay in G League scrimmages.
- Suns head coach Monty Williams says he feels “somewhat responsible” for Deandre Ayton not getting a contract extension this fall after asking the center to sacrifice touches last season, writes Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. “From a personal perspective, I feel like I failed him,” Williams said. “Because when we asked you to do all that we ask you to do and you go out there and do it and you still don’t get what you want, that falls on my plate. … I wanted him to get everything he wanted. And I think he still will.”
- Jae Crowder bounced around the NBA from 2017-20, playing for four teams in the next three seasons. As Joe Vardon of The Athletic writes, the Suns forward says he has learned not to get too attached to a team since finding out about his 2017 trade out of Boston on the same day his mother died. However, Crowder suggested he’d be happy to settle down in Phoenix. “I do want to make a certain spot my home, and this does feel like home – I’m not gonna lie to you,” he said. “From top to bottom, from (general manager) James Jones, to our coaching staff, to my teammates. It does feel like home, it does feel sacred, but at the same time, it’s a business, so I don’t get too caught up into it. I don’t put my heart into it anymore.”
COVID-19 Updates: Suns, Blazers, Rockets, Wolves, More
Here are the latest health and safety protocols updates from around the NBA:
Entering the protocols:
- Jae Crowder and Elfrid Payton have become the first two Suns players to enter the COVID-19 protocols, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
- The Trail Blazers‘ outbreak continues to grow, with Jusuf Nurkic and Cody Zeller among the players now in the protocols, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Seven Portland players have been placed in the protocols since Friday.
- Rockets guard Garrison Mathews became the second Houston guard to enter the protocols today, joining teammate D.J. Augustin, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter link).
- Timberwolves big man Naz Reid is now in the health and safety protocols, bringing Minnesota’s list of affected players up to eight, tweets Chris Hine of The Star Tribune.
- The Thunder announced today that they’ve placed rookie guard Tre Mann in the protocols. Oklahoma City now has two players affected — Mann and Darius Bazley.
Exiting the protocols:
- Point guard De’Aaron Fox returned to action on Sunday when the Kings hosted Memphis. Fox had been in the health and safety protocols since December 16.
- A pair of Timberwolves – Patrick Beverley and Josh Okogie – are no longer in the health and safety protocols, tweets Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News. They’re both listed as questionable for Monday’s game vs. Boston.
- Clippers forward Marcus Morris has cleared the health and safety protocols, though he remained inactive on Sunday as he goes through a reconditioning period, tweets Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.
- Cavaliers wing RJ Nembhard was no longer listed on the team’s injury report on Sunday and played vs. Toronto, so he’s out of the protocols. Isaac Okoro has exited the protocols too, though he’s still working his way back, according to head coach J.B. Bickerstaff (Twitter link via Kelsey Russo of The Athletic).
Blazers Sign Jarron Cumberland, Brandon Williams To 10-Day Contracts
DECEMBER 26: The Trail Blazers have officially signed Cumberland and Williams to 10-day deals, the team announced today in a press release. Those contracts will run through January 4.
DECEMBER 25: The Trail Blazers, having already agreed to terms with Cameron McGriff, will sign two more players using hardship exceptions, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links), who reports that guards Jarron Cumberland and Brandon Williams are signing 10-day contracts with the club.
Cumberland, 24, went undrafted out of Cincinnati in 2020 after earning AAC Player of the Year honors in 2019. The 6’5″ shooting guard played for the Raptors 905 and Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the G League as a rookie and joined the Delaware Blue Coats for the 2021/22 season. In 13 NBAGL games (21.1 MPG) this season, he has averaged 9.4 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and 2.8 APG on .432/.341/.857 shooting.
A former Arizona Wildcat, Williams had been playing for the Westchester Knicks this season. While his averages of 17.7 PPG, 4.5 APG, and 1.9 SPG through 10 games (30.1 MPG) are impressive, he has struggled with his efficiency, making just 36.4% of his field goal attempts, including 28.3% of his threes.
Portland didn’t have any players in the health and safety protocols entering the day on Friday, but has since placed five players in the protocols and lined up three deals with replacement players.
The Blazers’ next game is on Monday, so the team has a couple days to get its roster in order and finalize its signings. Hopefully no more Portland players have to be placed in the protocols before then.
Trail Blazers Sign Cameron McGriff To 10-Day Deal
DECEMBER 26: The Blazers have officially signed McGriff, according to a press release from the team.
DECEMBER 25: The Trail Blazers intend to sign forward Cameron McGriff to a 10-day contract via a hardship exception, agent Keith Kreiter tells Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). McGriff is being called up from the Greensboro Swarm, Charlotte’s G League affiliate.
McGriff, 24, went undrafted out of Oklahoma State in 2020 and played for Belgium’s Okapi Aalstar last season, putting up 13.5 PPG and 5.0 RPG. With the Hornets’ NBAGL team this season, he has averaged 10.2 PPG and 4.9 RPG on .455/.364/.846 shooting in 14 games (22.4 MPG).
The Blazers had avoided this month’s league-wide COVID-19 outbreak up until Friday, when they placed two players – Dennis Smith Jr. and Trendon Watford – in the health and safety protocols.
With Smith and Watford in the protocols, Portland is eligible to sign two replacement players. As a two-way player, Watford must be replaced by someone with no more than three years of NBA experience, so McGriff fits that bill. If the Blazers want to sign a replacement for Smith, any free agent would be eligible.
Raptors Sign Daniel Oturu To 10-Day Contract
DECEMBER 26: The signing is official, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports.
DECEMBER 24: The Raptors have reached an agreement to sign center Daniel Oturu to a 10-day contract, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Toronto will complete the signing using a hardship exception.
Oturu, the 33rd overall pick in the 2020 draft, spent his rookie season in ’20/21 with the Clippers, averaging 1.8 PPG and 1.6 RPG in 30 games (5.4 MPG). He was sent to the Grizzlies along with Patrick Beverley and Rajon Rondo in an August trade, then joined the Bulls for training camp after being waived by Memphis.
Although Oturu didn’t make a real impact at the NBA level in his first season, he’s still just 22 years old and is only two years removed from a standout sophomore season for the Minnesota Gophers. He averaged 20.1 PPG, 11.3 RPG, and 2.5 BPG in his final year at college, earning Big Ten All-Defensive honors. He also got off to a strong start in the G League for the Windy City Bulls this season, putting up 20.6 PPG, 9.3 RPG, and 1.9 BPG in seven games (32.1 MPG).
The Raptors, who have eight players in the health and safety protocols, have had a busy week on the transaction wire. They signed three players – Juwan Morgan, D.J. Wilson, and Tremont Waters – to 10-day contracts on Wednesday and have reportedly reached deals with Nik Stauskas and Brandon Goodwin as well.
Assuming Stauskas and/or Goodwin didn’t test positive for COVID-19, the Raptors will likely sign them and Oturu before their next game on Sunday in Cleveland.