Beau Beech

2017 NBA G League Expansion Draft Results

The NBA G League conducted its expansion draft today, allowing the league’s four new franchises to add the returning rights to 11 players apiece. The league’s previously-existing 22 teams had been permitted to retain the rights to nine players each, leaving the rest of their players unprotected and free to be drafted, though no team can lose more than two players. Adam Johnson recently outlined the full details of the expansion draft process in a piece for 2 Ways & 10 Days.

The G League’s four new teams this year are affiliates for the Hawks (Erie BayHawks), Grizzlies (Memphis Hustle), Bucks (Wisconsin Herd), and Clippers (Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario). The Erie BayHawks have been in the G League for years but are technically an expansion team since the old iteration of the BayHawks was purchased by the Magic and moved to Lakeland, Florida — the Lakeland Magic will retain returning rights for former BayHawks players.

The players added today by the G League’s four expansion teams won’t necessarily play for them this season — in fact, it’s not all that common for expansion draftees to suit up for their new clubs. Many of those players will try to catch on with an NBA team or will end up playing overseas, if they’re not already on an NBA or international roster. Still, the expansion draft gives the G League’s new teams some assets as they start to build their rosters for the coming season.

Listed below are the results of today’s expansion draft, per the G League’s official announcement. The player’s former G League team is noted in parentheses, and picks are ordered by round. The teams will hold their players’ rights for the next two seasons:

Erie BayHawks (Hawks)

  1. DeAndre Daniels (Raptors 905)
  2. Sean Kilpatrick (Delaware 87ers)*
  3. Ronald Roberts (Reno Bighorns)
  4. Terran Petteway (Maine Red Claws)
  5. Casey Prather (Windy City Bulls)
  6. Jordan Crawford (Grand Rapids Drive)*
  7. Jordan Sibert (Iowa Energy)
  8. Beau Beech (Long Island Nets)
  9. Raphiael Putney (Rio Grande Valley Vipers)
  10. Luke Harangody (Lakeland Magic)
  11. Will Bynum (Windy City Bulls)

Memphis Hustle (Grizzlies)

  1. Marquis Teague (Fort Wayne Mad Ants)
  2. Okaro White (Sioux Falls Skyforce)*
  3. D.J. Stephens (Iowa Energy)
  4. Omari Johnson (Fort Wayne Mad Ants)
  5. Jamaal Franklin (Long Island Nets)
  6. Adonis Thomas (Grand Rapids Drive)
  7. Manny Harris (Texas Legends)
  8. Mark Tyndale (Reno Bighorns)
  9. Jordon Crawford (Canton Charge)
  10. Jimmer Fredette (Westchester Knicks)
  11. Terrence Drisdom (Santa Cruz Warriors)

Wisconsin Herd (Bucks)

  1. Vince Hunter (Sioux Falls Skyforce)
  2. Gracin Bakumanya (Northern Arizona Suns)
  3. Perry Ellis (Greensboro Swarm)
  4. Corey Walden (Maine Red Claws)
  5. Josh Davis (Greensboro Swarm)
  6. Michael Dunigan (Canton Charge)
  7. Jarvis Summers (Rio Grande Valley Vipers)
  8. James Siakam (Raptors 905)
  9. Kyle Casey (Northern Arizona Suns)
  10. Cady Lalanne (Austin Spurs)
  11. Tyler Harvey (Lakeland Magic)

Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario (Clippers)

  1. Andre Dawkins (Texas Legends)
  2. Bryce Cotton (Oklahoma City Blue)
  3. Corey Hawkins (Delaware 87ers)
  4. Will Cummings (Delaware 87ers)
  5. J.J. O’Brien (Salt Lake City Stars)
  6. Jamil Wilson (South Bay Lakers)
  7. Keith Steffeck (Santa Cruz Warriors)
  8. Julian Jacobs (South Bay Lakers)
  9. Aaron Craft (Salt Lake City Stars)
  10. Thanasis Antetokounmpo (Westchester Knicks)
  11. Youssou Ndoye (Austin Spurs)

Players marked with an asterisk (*) are currently on an NBA roster. If they remain under contract and are assigned to the G League, they would join their current NBA team’s affiliate.

NBA D-League Affiliate Players For 2016/17

Throughout the offseason, and in the weeks leading up to the start of the regular season, NBA teams are permitted to carry 20 players, but that total must be cut down to 15 in advance of opening night. However, up to four players waived by teams before the season can be designated as affiliate players and assigned to their D-League squads.

The players have some say in the decision — if they’d prefer to sign with a team overseas, or if they get an opportunity with another NBA club, they’re free to turn down their team’s request to have them play in the D-League. Most NBA and international teams have fairly set rosters by late October though, so having the opportunity to continue playing in the same system is appealing to many of those preseason cuts. Especially since they’ll maintain NBA free agency while they play in the D-League.

There are a few other rules related to D-League affiliate players. A player whose returning rights are held by a D-League team can’t be an affiliate player for another club, which is why undrafted free agents from the current year are commonly signed and assigned. Additionally, an affiliate player must have signed with his team during the current league year, which explains why we often see players signed and quickly waived in the days leading up to the regular season. And, of course, not every NBA team has a D-League affiliate, so clubs like the Hawks, Nuggets, or Clippers have no place to send affiliate players.

With all that in mind, here are the NBA D-League affiliate players to start the 2016/17 season:

Austin Spurs (San Antonio Spurs)

Canton Charge (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Delaware 87ers (Philadelphia 76ers)

Read more

Nets Waive Chase Budinger, Three Others

The Nets have reduced their roster from 20 players to 16 today, announcing in a press release that they’ve requested waivers on four players. Chase Budinger, Jorge Gutierrez, Beau Beech, and Egidijus Mockevicius are the roster casualties in Brooklyn.

Budinger and Gutierrez are the most notable names in the Nets’ list of Tuesday cuts. Budinger has logged more than 400 NBA regular season games over the course of his seven-year career, while Gutierrez has appeared in regular-season contests with three different teams in the last three seasons. Both players were on non-guaranteed contracts, however, and it seems neither will earn a spot on Brooklyn’s 15-man roster.

Beech and Mockevicius were also camp invitees, though they each received modest guarantees on their minimum salary deals — Mockevicius got $100K from the Nets, while Beech received $45K. Still, both players were viewed as long shots to make the club’s regular season roster as undrafted free agents, and seem like good bets to join the D-League’s Long Island Nets.

With 16 players still in the mix, the Nets have to make one more cut before opening night. The most likely candidate to be waived is Yogi Ferrell, the only other player on the roster who doesn’t have a fully guaranteed salary for 2016/17.

Atlantic Notes: Beech, Colangelo, Nets

Beau Beech, who inked a partially guaranteed deal with the Nets in August, hopes that his strong showing in summer league play will translate into him earning a regular season roster spot, Cody Taylor of Basketball Insiders relays. “It is just Summer League, but in the same breath, Summer League is correlated to the NBA,” Beech told Taylor. “What happens in Summer League may not be a direct correlation right away, but it definitely has the same kind of game flow, the same schemes and the same thinking for coaches and players. It’s on a smaller scale, but it’s definitely good to have had that experience underneath my belt and it definitely gave me a lot more confidence going into camp.” In five games in Las Vegas this summer, Beech averaged 8.8 points and 3.8 rebounds per game while shooting 33% from three-point range.

The forward understands that he has an uphill battle to break camp as a member of the team, Taylor notes. “[The Nets] signed the roster that they wanted to sign and those players are all very good and I respect all of them,” Beech said. “As a competitor, not having a fully-guaranteed contract, I want a fully-guaranteed contract. That’s my goal and that’s what I want to do. I want to be on this team from day one, but I know the situation at the same time.

Here’s more from out of the Atlantic Division:

  • Sixers advisor Jerry Colangelo believes the team will better in 2016/17 than in years past, but wants to temper expectations for his young club, Jessica Camerato of CSNPhilly.com relays. “I’m sure that everyone should have optimism,” Colangelo said. “But there’s a word I’ve always used over the years about optimism. It should be guarded optimism because things take time. When you’re building teams — and I’ve had the privilege of doing that quite a few times in my career — you’re adding pieces here and there, and then once in a while you strike out and get that last piece. I think where the Sixers are today is, this is the beginning of that particular process, and that is building what everyone would hope to be a championship team.”
  • The crew over at Basketball Insiders weighed in on the Nets‘ and Sixers‘ chances this coming season, with the general consensus being that Brooklyn will compete with Philly for last place in the Atlantic Division.

Nets Notes: Stephenson, Ferrell, Mockevicius, Beech

Former Nets GM Billy King turned down a trade proposal last season that would have brought Lance Stephenson to Brooklyn, according to NetsDaily.com. King, who lost the GM title in January in a shakeup that cost coach Lionel Hollins his job, nixed the deal, which would have sent Joe Johnson to Charlotte in exchange for Stephenson and other unidentified players. The trade had the approval of Dmitry Razumov, chairman of the Nets’ board of directors, and NetsDaily shares the story as a way of showing that King had final say on all personnel moves, including the disastrous deal with the Celtics that put Brooklyn in its current position. King, the columnist added, also rejected Razumov’s suggestion to pursue JaVale McGee.

There’s more news tonight out of Brooklyn:

  • Yogi Ferrell, Egidijus Mockevicius and Beau Beech will come into camp knowing that they’re likely headed to the Nets’ new D-League affiliate on Long Island, NetsDaily writes in the same piece. All three received “training camp invites,” which don’t become fully guaranteed unless the players remain on the roster until all contracts are guaranteed in early January. The author notes that roster spots could be hard to earn with Brooklyn having 15 players with fully guaranteed contracts, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Seven of those players have deals that either will expire or can expire after the upcoming season, so the Nets have flexibility if they decide to keep Ferrell, Mockevicius or Beech.
  • The Nets may pick up another player before camp with the intention of sending him to the D-League, NetsDaily adds. The rights of the last four players cut would automatically go to the Long Island affiliate if they aren’t claimed off waivers. Brooklyn currently has 18 players headed to camp, two shy of the NBA limit.

Nets Sign Beau Beech

AUGUST 5: The Nets have issued a press release formally announcing that Beech’s deal is now complete.

JULY 24: The Nets will sign Beau Beech to a partially guaranteed one-year deal, Shams Charania of The Vertical reports (on Twitter). Brooklyn has 15 guaranteed contracts so Beech is likely headed to the team’s D-League affiliate in Long Island.

Beech went undrafted last month out of the University of North Florida. At 6’9,” Beech is versatile enough to play shooting guard, small forward or power forward. He played mostly as a shooting guard in college.

Beech  averaged 15.9 points and 6.5 rebounds over 32 minutes per game last season last season. He also shot 42.4% from 3-point range. Beech played on the Nets’ summer league team and impressed enough to earn the partially guaranteed deal.

Atlantic Notes: Raptors, Olynyk, Sloan, Nets

The Raptors have focused on keeping as much of their own talent as possible in free agency, according to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Over the years, Toronto has been a place that star players have left, with the list including Marcus Camby, Damon Stoudamire, Vince Carter and Chris Bosh. This summer, the Raptors didn’t have the cap room to keep backup center Bismack Biyombo, but they held onto DeMar DeRozan as part of a core that is largely tied up with long-term contracts. “The improvement of our team is going to come from inside,” said GM Masai Ujiri.Kyle [Lowry], DeMar, and Jonas [Valanciunas] and Patrick [Patterson] and Terrence [Ross]. They will probably take it to another level.” The Raptors’ major addition in free agency was former Boston power forward Jared Sullinger.

There’s more from the Atlantic Division:

  • The Celtics will probably wait until next offseason to make a long-term decision on Kelly Olynyk, Washburn writes in the same piece. Olynyk can sign an extension up to the October 30th deadline, but Boston wants to see the 25-year-old big man for one more season before making a commitment. Olynyk has missed 43 games in his first three seasons, and Washburn writes that the Celtics want him to display more “toughness and consistency.”
  • Donald Sloan, who played 61 games for the Nets last season, has reached an agreement to play in China with the Guangdong Tigers, tweets international basketball writer David Pick. His teammates will include former NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer and one-time lottery pick Yi Jianlian. The 28-year-old Sloan averaged 7.0 points and 4.4 assists with Brooklyn in 2015/16.
  • The $100K guarantees the Nets gave to Yogi Ferrell and Egidijus Mockevicius are the largest the organization has ever handed out to an undrafted college player, according to NetsDaily. Brooklyn signed both players to partially guaranteed training camp contracts this week, along with Beau Beech, who got $45K in guaranteed money. Brooklyn now has 18 players under contract, and the website projects veteran big man Henry Sims and summer league standout Marcus Georges-Hunt as possibilities if GM Sean Marks decides to go with the league maximum of 20.

Eastern Notes: Nets, Cavaliers, Wizards

Beau Beech’s long-range shooting ability gives him a chance to stick with the Nets, according to an in-depth analysis by NetsDaily.com’s Bryan Fonseca. The 6’9” Beech, who went undrafted out of the University of North Florida, received a partially guaranteed contract from Brooklyn. Beech’s main attribute is his jumper and he’s supremely confident when he sets up beyond the arc, Fonseca’s film study reveals. He should be very effective in transition but doesn’t create his own shot very much, Fonseca continues. If Beech can become a defensive factor, he can play in the league, though he’ll likely spend most of next season in the D League, Fonseca adds.

In other news around the Eastern Conference:

  • Nets guard Greivis Vasquez has pulled out of the Rio Olympics for medical reasons, NetsDaily.com relayed via Vasquez’s Twitter account. Vasquez underwent ankle surgery over the winter and missed most of the season while on the Bucks’ roster. Vasquez, who was on the Venezuelan team, did not indicate if he would be ready by training camp, NetsDaily adds. Vasquez, who is expected to back up Jeremy Lin, signed a one-year deal with Brooklyn on July 13th.
  • The Cavaliers allowed two trade exceptions to expire, Sam Amico of AmicoHoops.net reports. The exceptions were created when they dealt Mike Miller and Brendan Haywood to the Trail Blazers last summer. The exception created by trading Miller was worth $2.8MM, while Haywood’s exception was originally $10.5MM. There was only $2.3MM remaining on Haywood’s exception, as the Cavs used the bulk of it to acquire Channing Frye from the Magic at the trade deadline.
  • The Wizards don’t plan on paying any more players to attend training camp, according to J. Michael of CSNMidatlantic.com. Washington’s front office will only offer non-guaranteed camp deals, Michael continues, because they already have four players on partially-guaranteed contracts to go along with a dozen more on fully guaranteed deals. Jarell Eddie, Danuel House, Sheldon McClellan and Daniel Ochefu are the players with partial guarantees. Center Micheal Eric, who played on the Wizards’ summer league team, is unlikely to attend their camp because he’s looking for guaranteed money, Michael adds.

Contract Details: Selden, Waiters, Celtics, Eddie

After passing along a handful of contract details last night, we’ve got several more to round up. Let’s dive right in…

  • The Grizzlies added Wayne Selden to their offseason roster with a summer contract, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders, who notes (via Twitter) that the training-camp, minimum-salary deal offers no real injury protection for the former Jayhawk.
  • Dion Waiters‘ new two-year deal with the Heat features a 15% trade kicker, tweets Pincus.
  • Bobby Marks of The Vertical has the details on Demetrius Jackson‘s and Ben Bentil‘s contracts with the Celtics. Jackson’s four-year deal, which is worth nearly $5.5MM in total, starts at $1.45MM fully guaranteed in 2016/17, and declines annually in subsequent seasons. Bentil, meanwhile, got a three-year, minimum-salary pact that is partially guaranteed for $250K in year one.
  • According to J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic.com, the Wizards guaranteed $175K of Jarell Eddie‘s contract in order to get him to agree to push his guarantee deadline back. Eddie originally would have been owed his full salary if he hadn’t been waived by July 15, but the two sides worked out an arrangement to postpone that deadline to October.
  • Mike Tobey received a $75K on his two-year, minimum-salary contract with the Hornets, while Beau Beech got $45K guaranteed on his one-year, minimum-salary pact with the Nets, according to Pincus (Twitter links).