Spurs Sign, Waive Kylor Kelley
The Spurs signed forward/center Kylor Kelley to an Exhibit 10 deal and then subsequently waived him, a source told JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors (Twitter link).
Kelley, 23, started his journey to the NBA playing in a Christian college, moved onto a community college, and spent his final two collegiate seasons at Oregon State. In two seasons with the Beavers, he averaged 9.4 PPG and 5.3 RPG while averaging 3.4 blocks as a defensive menace.
The seven-footer set the all-time record for blocks (211) in OSU history. Additionally, the Oregon native set the school’s single-season records for blocked shots (107) and single-season blocked shots average (3.45), as well as the record for blocked shots in a game (nine).
An Exhibit 10 contract is a non-guaranteed one-year, minimum salary pact that allows a player to make a bonus of up to $50K if he is waived and remains on the franchise’s G League squad for at least 60 days.
The plan for the 2020/21 G League season has yet to be officially announced, but Kelley would be a strong option to see time for the Austin Spurs if they participate.
Spurs, Magic Planning To Host Fans In Arenas
As the beginning of the 2020/21 NBA season approaches, the Magic and Spurs have emerged as the latest teams with plans to host fans inside their arenas.
Orlando and San Antonio join the Jazz as teams to have announced they will allow spectators during the 2020/21 season. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic – and no longer playing in a campus setting – the league has stressed safety and health precautions.
The Spurs announced that the organization plans to welcome fans starting on January 1, 2021, for a matchup against the Lakers. Seating at the games will be “limited capacity, pending the status of public health data and guidelines.”
“We’ve been planning for this moment for months and are confident in the health and safety protocols we have in place,” said Spurs Sports & Entertainment CEO R.C. Buford. “Waiting until Jan. 1 will allow us to run through real in-game scenarios to ensure that we are doing everything possible to responsibly celebrate the start of a new season with our Spurs Family.”
As for the Magic, their press release states that plans are being made to host fans in a “socially distanced, limited capacity at the Amway Center.” First priority will be given to season ticket holders based on tenure and then fans who made a season ticket deposit. The team will also release tickets to the general public on a game-by-game basis.
“As we have said, the health and safety of everyone connected to our game will be top priority,” said Magic CEO Alex Martins. “Our goal is to make everyone feel comfortable that extensive safety precautions have been taken for the return to Amway Center. We continue to work through protocols as outlined by the NBA, CDC and local health officials and will use the preseason as a trial to assess and evaluate safety measures.”
The 2020/21 NBA season is scheduled to tip off on December 22.
Celtics Sign Amile Jefferson To Exhibit 10 Deal
The Celtics have signed former Duke big man Amile Jefferson to an Exhibit 10 contract, according to Jay King of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Jefferson, 27, spent five seasons with the Blue Devils, including being team captain for three of them. The Philadelphia native helped lead Duke to the 2015 National Championship.
A right foot fracture in 2015/16 limited Jefferson to just nine games and he was granted medical redshirt approval by the ACC to return for a fifth season. Jefferson’s fifth season at Duke included being teammates with now Celtics All-Star Jayson Tatum.
Jefferson has spent parts of the last two seasons suiting up for the Magic, appearing in 30 games and averaging 1.4 PPG and 1.5 RPG for Orlando. He also had a stint in the G League with the Timberwolves’ G League affiliate Iowa Wolves.
Jefferson’s Exhibit 10 contract is a non-guaranteed one-year, minimum salary pact that allows a player to make a bonus of up to $50K if he is waived and remains on the franchise’s G League squad for at least 60 days.
Xavier Tillman Signs Four-Year Deal With Grizzlies
NOVEMBER 29: The signing is official, the Grizzlies announced in a press release. Tillman will receive $4.6MM in guaranteed money, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. That breaks down to $1.3MM for the upcoming season, $1.5MM in 2021/22, $1.8MM in 2022/23 and $1.9MM in 2023/24. Marks notes that it’s the second-largest amount of guaranteed money ever for a second-round pick who is headed to the NBA immediately after being drafted.
NOVEMBER 28: The Grizzlies have agreed to a four-year deal with their second-round pick Xavier Tillman, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports (Twitter link).
Memphis traded up in a deal with the Kings to get the 35th overall pick Tillman. The team will be able to give him a four-year contract using a portion of its mid-level exception.
Tillman, 21, was regarded as a solid player in the draft who could be a late first-rounder or an early second-round pick. It was with good reason as he posted outstanding numbers as a junior with Michigan State.
The 6’8″ forward averaged a double-double for the Spartans, posting 13.7 PPG and 10.3 RPG to go with 3.0 APG and 2.1 BPG across 31 games. Tillman was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.
Donovan Mitchell Talks Extension With Jazz
Earlier this week, the Jazz officially extended franchise cornerstone Donovan Mitchell on a five-year, designated rookie max extension that could be worth up to $195MM. It was a major move for Utah, ensuring that the 2017 first-round pick will remain with the organization for the foreseeable future.
The Jazz’s focus will now look to establish itself as a formidable postseason threat for years to come, led by the New York native. Coming off his first All-Star game selection, Mitchell talked about the Jazz’s early exit from the playoffs this past season and his hopes for the future.
Eric Walden of The Salt Lake City Tribune also relays Mitchell’s thoughts on his personal on-court improvement and his ultimate legacy off of it.
Mitchell on his mindset now that he’s signed for the long haul:
“We have good pieces to make a real push for this thing. We blew a 3-1 lead [in the playoffs] this year. I look at it as we need to find a way to get over that hump in the first round and find a way to push and get to a championship. That’s really on the forefront of my brain.”
Mitchell on what he wants his lasting legacy to be:
“Championships are great, games are great, but at the end of the day, I’m a Black man first. That’s the legacy I want to be able to tell my kids, ‘Look, your dad was a part of this, your dad was a part of that.’ This game is great, this game has allowed my family to live the way we live. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t hide you from being Black, doesn’t hide you from the injustices of the world.”
Working with assistant coach Johnnie Bryant to improve his shooting ability:
“There are times where I take bad shots. Being able to hear his honesty and let me know that it’s a bad shot — more than my teammates would — that’s where our relationship really had accelerated.”
NBA Sends Teams COVID-19 Safety Guide Ahead Of Training Camp
As the NBA prepares for the start of training camp, the league sent all teams a 134-page “Health and Safety Protocol Guide” as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage around the world.
The 2020/21 season will not take place inside a bubble like the resumption of the 2019/20 campaign in which a campus was established in Disney World Resort in Florida. Therefore, as teams play at their home arenas and travel for other games, the league is instituting protocols with the hopeful expectation of limiting the spread of COVID-19.
Here are some of the known outlines in the guide:
- Per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps (Twitter link), if a player tests positive for COVID-19, there are two ways for him to be cleared for a return: At least 10 days passing since the initial positive test or symptom onset or two negative PCR tests 24 hours apart. Bontemps adds that once a player is cleared, he must spend two days working out solo with nobody else present. The player also may not use the locker room or change clothes and must wear a mask and get a cardiac screening.
- Bontemps further states that players who test positive cannot exercise for at least 10 days and then monitored during individual workouts for two days. Therefore, even an asymptomatic player would miss at least 12 days.
- Bontemps also notes that there are no criteria listed for how many positive tests or any other metric that would require a shutdown of play. As has been the case with the NFL and MLB, it would be a fluid situation.
- Per the New York Times’ Marc Stein (Twitter link), with training camps to open Tuesday, individual workouts will be capped at four players and four team staff members at a time. Everyone participating must register three negative PCR tests.
- Anyone participating in training camp must quarantine from at least Nov. 27 – Dec. 2, per ESPN’s Malika Andrews (Twitter link). Testing will begin today, Andrews adds in a separate tweet.
- The NBA will establish a hotline to report safety and protocol violations, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. A hotline was also set up inside the campus in Orlando.
- As shown in a graphic tweeted by Charania, the protocols will include keeping six feet or more of distance and face masks being required at all times outside of eating/drinking, practicing or playing on the court, or while enclosed in an office with nobody else around. Additionally, daily testing will be required. Finally, virtual educations and awareness sessions are shown as a requirement.
- USA Today’s Mark Medina tweets that for the upcoming season, every NBA team will have an infectious disease specialist, infection control specialist, rapid testing coordinator, testing officer, testing manager and contact tracing officer, two contact tracers and team protocol enforcement officer. He adds that teams will also have two face mask enforcement officers, a player liaison, facility hygiene officer, arena health and hygiene manager, health education and awareness officer and travel safety officer.
- Teams will be allowed to pay housing for players in order to isolate those who test positive, according to Bontemps. Normally, they are prohibited to pay for housing since it’s considered a way to circumvent the salary cap.
- Travel parties will be limited of 45 people, including up to 17 players, Bontemps adds.
Sixers Agree To Two-Way Deal With Paul Reed
The Sixers will sign 2020 second-round pick Paul Reed to a two-way deal, tweets Derek Bodner of The Athletic. Philadelphia selected the DePaul product with the 58th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.
In his junior campaign with DePaul in 2020/21, Reed averaged 15.1 PPG, 10.7 RPG and 2.6 BPG, all totals that far exceeded his previous two seasons with the school. The standout numbers earned Reed a second-team All-Big East selection and being named the Most Improved Player in the Big East. Despite mixed rankings, Reed was even touted by Shams Charania as a “projected first-round pick.”
Philadelphia has now filled out its two-way slots in agreeing to terms with Reed and G League guard Dakota Mathias, who inked his deal last week. During the shortened 2020/21 campaign, two-way players will be allowed to play in up to 50 of their team’s games.
Knicks Sign Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
1:04pm: The signing is official, according to the team’s PR department (Twitter link).
9:16am: The Knicks have agreed to a one-year deal with veteran forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. The deal is expected to be an Exhibit 10 contract for Kidd-Gilchrist, per Newsday’s Steve Popper (Twitter link), which is essentially a non-guaranteed, one-year minimum-salary deal.
Regarded as a solid defender, Kidd-Gilchrist has ties to the current Knicks organization as current president Leon Rose represented him at CAA and is longtime friends with executive vice president and senior basketball adviser William Wesley. The 27-year-old appeared in just 25 games between the Hornets and Mavericks last season after spending the first seven seasons of his career with the Charlotte organization.
The Kentucky product was taken second overall by the then-Charlotte Bobcats in the 2012 NBA Draft and subsequently developed into a solid starter for the team. After three solid seasons, the Hornets rewarded Kidd-Gilchrist with a four-year, $52MM contract extension in August 2015.
Right shoulder injuries limited him to just seven games in his first season post-extension in 2015/16 but Kidd-Gilchrist returned to start 81 games and then 74 games in the two campaigns proceeding it. However, starting in 2018, Kidd-Gilchrist lost his starting role whilst battling a barrage of injuries.
Ultimately, Kidd-Gilchrist fell out of the rotation and was waived by the Hornets earlier this year before latching on with Dallas for 13 games down the stretch.
Nuggets Guarantee Morris’ 2020/21 Salary, Interested In Extension
Nuggets point guard Monte Morris had his salary for the upcoming 2020/21 season guaranteed on Friday, Yahoo Sports’ Keith Smith noted (Twitter link). With his salary guaranteed, the focus shifts to a possible extension, as there appears to be mutual interest in a new deal.
As we relayed earlier this month, Morris – entering his fourth season – is eligible for an extension for the first time in his career. The 25-year-old has been a strong backup point guard for Denver, especially his 2018/19 campaign when he appeared in all 82 games (six starts) while averaging 10.4 PPG and 3.6 APG. Morris shot nearly 50% from the field and 41.4% from three that season.
Last season was also a strong showing for the Iowa State product as he produced 9.0 PPG and 3.5 APG with a strong 45.9% field goal percentage. And even with Facundo Campazzo entering the point guard mix in Denver, the Nuggets are interested in extending Morris, per Mike Singer of The Denver Post (Twitter link).
“I don’t think it’s a secret to anyone,” Morris told Singer earlier this month. “I would love to get an extension here. I love Denver. I love everything from the organization to the coaches all the way down to equipment, to everyone. Me personally, hopefully, if it goes that way. I would love to be in Denver for however long.”
Morris is eligible for an extension starting at up to 120% of the league’s estimate average salary. Given his status as a minimum-salary player and the present cap numbers, Morris’ extension could be worth up to $53.76MM over four years.
Per the earlier report, while the interest is mutual, a yearly salary in the $6MM range is reportedly a “non-starter” for Morris. However, there is no rush to get an extension done as both sides can take talks into the season.
Bucks Sign Bobby Portis
NOVEMBER 25: The Bucks have signed Portis, according to the NBA’s official log of transactions.
NOVEMBER 21:: Free agent big man Bobby Portis has reached an agreement to sign with the Bucks, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). He’ll get a two-year contract with a second-year player option, Charania adds (via Twitter).
The Bucks are signing Portis using their bi-annual exception, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. That will mean a $3.6MM first-year salary with a $3.8MM option for 2021/22.
The Knicks declined an option on Portis earlier this week to make him a free agent. New York reportedly had an interest in re-signing the center but instead, he heads to the Eastern Conference powerhouse Bucks.
Portis, 25, appeared in 66 games (five starts) for the Knicks last season, averaging 10.1 PPG and 5.1 RPG. The Arkansas native spent his first three-and-a-half seasons in the Windy City with the Bulls before he was shipped to the Wizards in February 2019.
With Milwaukee, Portis and his 6’10’, 250-pound frame will get major minutes backing up the big man duo of reigning two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.