Thunder Release Rob Edwards
The Thunder have trimmed their preseason roster to 19 players, announcing today that they’ve waived guard Rob Edwards.
Edwards, who went undrafted out of Arizona State in 2020, played for the Oklahoma City Blue – the Thunder’s G League affiliate – as a rookie in 2020/21. The 6’6″ guard averaged 12.5 PPG and 3.5 RPG with a .440 3PT% in 15 NBAGL games (21.3 MPG).
Edwards was a member of the Thunder’s Summer League team in Las Vegas in August and appears likely to rejoin the Blue for the upcoming G League season, since OKC has his returning rights. Having received an Exhibit 10 deal, he’d be in line for a bonus worth up to $50K if he spends at least 60 days in the NBAGL.
Oklahoma City now has 13 players on guaranteed contracts, one with a partial guarantee, three on non-guaranteed deals, and a pair on two-way pacts.
Kosta Koufos To Play For G League Ignite
Veteran center Kosta Koufos is returning stateside, but he’ll be playing in the G League, rather than the NBA, reports Marc Stein of Substack (Twitter link). According to Stein, Koufos is signing with the G League Ignite.
Koufos, 32, was a first-round pick in 2008 and has appeared in over 700 total games in the NBA (counting postseason contests) for Utah, Minnesota, Denver, Memphis, and Sacramento. However, he has been out of the league since playing for the Kings in 2018/19, having spent the last two seasons in the EuroLeague with CSKA Moscow and Olympiacos.
According to Stein, Koufos – who posted regular season averages of 5.7 PPG and 5.0 RPG in 11 NBA seasons – received multiple offers from European teams this offseason, but decided to sign with the Ignite instead.
The G League Ignite is the league’s developmental team for top prospects who are not yet draft-eligible. That group of prospects – which will include Jaden Hardy this year – is supplemented by a handful of experienced veterans who serve as mentors to their young teammates. In 2020/21, Amir Johnson and Jarrett Jack were among those veteran mentors. This year, Koufos will play that role.
Although the Ignite won’t take part in the standard G League regular season in 2021/22, the team will compete in the league-wide Showcase Cup tournament that will tip off in early November. Their full roster will be announced at some point before then.
Talen Horton-Tucker Undergoing Thumb Surgery
Talen Horton-Tucker has been diagnosed with a torn ligament in his right thumb, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Sources tell Charania that the Lakers guard will undergo surgery to repair the ligament.
Horton-Tucker, who will turn 21 next month, emerged as a regular rotation player for the Lakers in 2020/21, averaging 9.0 PPG, 2.8 APG, and 2.6 RPG on .458/.282/.775 shooting in 65 games (20.1 MPG). He signed a three-year contract worth nearly $31MM during the 2021 offseason, with the team making a big bet on his continued development.
While a recovery timeline for Horton-Tucker hasn’t been provided yet, it seems safe to assume he’ll be sidelined to open the regular season. Recovery from a thumb surgery is typically measured in weeks or months, not days.
It’s another blow to a Lakers team that will be missing Trevor Ariza (ankle) for several weeks to start the season. Head coach Frank Vogel said on Sunday that Malik Monk will also be out for “probably about a week” due to a strained groin, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link), so the Lakers’ backcourt and wing depth will be tested early. Wayne Ellington, Kent Bazemore, and Kendrick Nunn could see increased roles.
Nets Waive Bryce Brown, Josh Gray
Shortly after signing the two guards, the Nets have requested waivers on Bryce Brown and Josh Gray, the team announced today.
As we noted in our initial story on Brown and Gray signing with Brooklyn, the moves were made for G League purposes. The Long Island Nets recently acquired Brown’s returning rights from the Westchester Knicks and secured Gray’s returning rights in a deal with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
By signing both players to Exhibit 10 contracts, the Nets ensured that Brown and Gray will earn bonuses worth up to $50K as long as they report to Long Island and spend at least 60 days in the G League.
Brooklyn now has two openings on its 20-man preseason roster.
Odds Of Ben Simmons Reporting To Sixers Have Increased
The chances of Ben Simmons ultimately reporting back to the Sixers have increased in recent days, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter).
Sources tell Wojnarowski (Twitter link) that 76ers team officials and Simmons’ agent Rich Paul have made progress in discussions about ending Simmons’ holdout and having him return to the team in the near future. Shams Charania of The Athletic echoes that report, tweeting that the two sides have been “working around the clock” over the last few days to find a resolution. Those conversations are ongoing, per Wojnarowski.
Even if Simmons does report to the Sixers, that doesn’t mean that he’s prepared to play out the next four years of his contract in Philadelphia. According to Wojnarowski, the plan would be for the front office to continue exploring the market for a potential Simmons trade.
This scenario has always been a strong possibility if the Sixers were unable to find a deal they liked, following Simmons’ trade demand. The three-time All-Star is currently losing approximately $360K for each game he misses and isn’t expected to be able to recoup that money down the road — a report last week indicated that those financial ramifications were starting to hit home for Simmons and his camp.
The 76ers, meanwhile, have maintained since the start of training camp that they want Simmons back in the fold. Wojnarowski says that stance hasn’t changed, tweeting that the organization wants to convince the 25-year-old that it’s the best place for him long-term.
While that may be public posturing, the team is better with Simmons on the court than without him, and Philadelphia may not be able to find a trade offer it likes until a couple months into the regular season. At that point, more players will become trade-eligible and some teams may be off to underwhelming starts, making them a little more desperate.
Still, it will be interesting to see what exactly it looks like if Simmons does report to the 76ers. Given how far down the road the standoff has progressed, it won’t be easy for the two sides to mend fences and move forward.
Simmons has been described as “mentally checked out,” so it seems unlikely that we’d see him return to peak form for a team he has been pushing hard to leave. I’m also skeptical that the fans in Philadelphia would welcome him back with open arms — being booed by the home crowd would make the situation even more uncomfortable for Simmons and the Sixers. As Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice and Zach Lowe of ESPN (Twitter link) observe, Simmons “reporting” to the team might not be the same as him actually “playing” for the club.
The 76ers have two preseason games left this week, on Monday and Friday. If Simmons hasn’t returned to the team by then, he’d have forfeited more than $1.4MM in salary. However, it’s possible that negotiating a reduction in that penalty is something Simmons’ camp has discussed with the Sixers.
Spurs Cut Jaylen Morris, Denzel Mahoney; Will Sign Jordan Burns
The Spurs continue to shuffle players in and out of the last few spots on their roster, having waived recent signees Jaylen Morris and Denzel Mahoney over the weekend, according to NBA.com’s transactions log.
Both Morris and Mahoney signed training camp deals with San Antonio last week, but neither player was under contract with the team for more than a couple days. The signings were almost certainly completed with an eye toward filling out the roster of the Austin Spurs, San Antonio’s G League affiliate. Morris and Mahoney would receive Exhibit 10 bonuses worth up to $50K if they report to Austin and spend at least 60 days with the NBAGL club.
After opening up two roster spots, the Spurs have reached an Exhibit 10 deal with rookie guard Jordan Burns, agent Daniel Green tells Alex Kennedy of BasketballNews.com (Twitter link).
Burns, 24, was the Patriot League Player of the Year in 2021 after putting up 16.8 PPG, 5.3 APG, and 4.3 RPG on .402/.392/.899 shooting in 16 games (29.3 MPG) for Colgate. The point guard went undrafted on July 29, but is now on track to sign his first NBA contract.
Like Morris and Mahoney, Burns appears likely to end up playing in Austin — San Antonio is already facing a roster crunch for the regular season, with 17 players on guaranteed contracts competing for 15 roster spots.
Nuggets Waive Matt Ryan
The Nuggets have released forward Matt Ryan, according to NBA.com’s transactions log. Ryan had signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the team prior to the start of training camp last month.
Ryan played at three different school from 2015-20, finishing his college career with Chattanooga after stints at Notre Dame and Vanderbilt. As a senior for Chattanooga, he averaged 15.4 PPG and 4.9 RPG on .423/.359/.879 shooting in 33 games (30.6 MPG). He played for the Cavaliers at the Las Vegas Summer League this August.
Ryan seems likely to become an affiliate player for the Grand Rapids Gold, Denver’s new G League affiliate. He’d be in line for a bonus worth up to $50K if he spends at least 60 days with the Gold.
Denver used the newly-opened spot on its 20-man preseason roster to sign Giorgi Bezhanishvili, who reached an Exhibit 10 agreement with the team a month ago.
Central Notes: Gores, Bucks, K. Martin, T. Brown
Speaking to Jabari Young of CNBC, Tom Gores admitted that he made a mistake early in his tenure as the owner of the Pistons by trying to take shortcuts to contention instead of being willing to be patient and endure some losing seasons while building the right way.
“I should’ve been better about the idea that you can’t always win, and you don’t win fast,” Gores said. “I think I’ve grown from that perspective. I’m not sure I understood the magnitude of the responsibility when you own a sports team in a town that is looking to you for inspiration.”
After spending several years in the middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference, Gores has embraced what general manager Troy Weaver calls a “restoration” of the franchise in the last couple years. The Pistons’ 20-52 record last season was their worst mark since 1993/94, but the team was able to add potential cornerstone Cade Cunningham to a promising young core this offseason, creating optimism for the future.
Here’s more from around the Central:
- The Bucks are on track to be a taxpayer for the second consecutive season in 2021/22 and could face some tough roster decisions a year from now, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic, who notes that Bobby Portis, Donte DiVincenzo, and Grayson Allen are all on expiring contracts and will be in line for raises on their next deals.
- Following the trade of Edmond Sumner, there’s a clearer path to a regular season roster spot for Pacers wing Kelan Martin, but he’s not taking anything for granted, as David Woods of The Indianapolis Star writes. Martin has twice agreed to push his salary guarantee date back in the hopes of making Indiana’s 15-man squad.
- Former 15th overall pick Troy Brown, who was traded from Washington to Chicago at last season’s deadline, is hoping to claim a bigger role with the Bulls in his first full season with the team, writes Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago. “I feel like me and Coach (Billy Donovan) have a good dynamic in the sense of me being like a Swiss Army Knife,” Brown said. “Whatever he needs on the court, that’s what I go do — whether it’s playmaking, rebounding, playing defense, hitting 3s. I feel like that’s my job on the team, and I just try to accept that role and do it as best as I can.”
Knicks Sign Tyler Hall To Non-Guaranteed Deal
OCTOBER 8: The Knicks’ deal with Hall is now official, per a team release.
OCTOBER 6: The Knicks are filling the open spot on their 20-man preseason roster by signing free agent shooting guard Tyler Hall to a non-guaranteed contract, reports Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Hall, 24, went undrafted out of Montana State in 2019 and has spent the first two seasons of his professional career as a rotation player for the Westchester Knicks in the G League. In 53 total games at the NBAGL level, Hall has averaged 9.5 PPG, 3.6 RPG, and 2.0 APG on .421/.411/.742 shooting in 26.1 minutes per contest. He also played for New York’s Summer League team in August.
Hall likely won’t be in consideration for a spot on the Knicks’ regular season roster. However, if his non-guaranteed contract includes Exhibit 10 language, he could receive a bonus worth up to $50K if he returns to Westchester this season and spends at least 60 days with the G League club. He signed an Exhibit 10 deal with New York last December as well.
The Knicks, who waived Luca Vildoza over the weekend, will once again have a full 20-man roster once Hall officially signs with the team.
Hornets Sign Jalen Crutcher, Cameron McGriff
After waiving two players earlier in the day, the Hornets have wasted no time filling those newly-opened roster spots. According to a press release from the team, Charlotte has signed guard Jalen Crutcher and forward Cameron McGriff.
Crutcher, a 6’1″ point guard, spent his last four years at Dayton, where he averaged 17.6 PPG, 4.8 APG, and 3.5 RPG on .463/.372/.763 shooting in 24 games (38.1 MPG) as a senior in 2020/21. He suited up for Milwaukee’s Summer League team in Las Vegas after going undrafted.
McGriff, meanwhile, went undrafted in 2020 after four seasons with Oklahoma State. He averaged 12.3 PPG and 6.6 RPG in his senior year, then played for Belgium’s Okapi Aalstar last season, putting up 13.5 PPG and 5.0 RPG. The Hornets’ agreement with McGriff, who was on the club’s Summer League roster, was reported in September.
Neither Crutcher nor McGriff is likely to make the Hornets’ regular season roster, as the team currently has 16 players on fully guaranteed contracts. However, they’re strong candidates to play for the Greensboro Swarm, Charlotte’s G League affiliate. Assuming they signed Exhibit 10 contracts, Crutcher and McGriff will be in line for bonuses worth up to $50K if they spent at least 60 days with the Swarm.
The Hornets now once again have a full 20-man preseason roster.