Celtics Sign D.J. White
THURSDAY, 11:31am: The Celtics have officially signed White to a 10-day contract, the team announced today in a press release.
WEDNESDAY, 2:12pm: D.J. White has finally received his letter of clearance from China, opening the door for him to sign with an NBA team, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Now that he's been cleared, White will sign with the Celtics in the next 24 hours, tweets Wojnarowski.
White, 26, signed a contract to play in China this season, and averaged 21.6 PPG and 9.7 RPG in 32 games for the Shanghai Sharks before his team was eliminated from postseason contention. The 6'8" forward has played four NBA seasons with the Thunder and Bobcats, and was actually fairly productive for Charlotte last season, averaging 6.8 PPG and 3.6 RPG in 18.9 MPG over 58 contests.
Head coach Doc Rivers confirmed this past weekend that the Celtics were expecting to sign White once he became eligible, while GM Danny Ainge indicated on Monday night that the deal would be a 10-day contract.
Ainge also pointed out that 10-day deals are often timed to maximize a player's time with the team, so I wonder if the Celtics will wait until Friday to finalize White's deal — that would mean his 10 days would include five games rather than four. Boston may prefer to get him signed before then, however, in order to get him some extra practice time with the club.
Terrence Williams is also currently on a 10-day contract with the C's. His deal is set to expire after Friday's game.
Atlantic Notes: Sixers, Collins, Knicks, Celtics
We've already had plenty of news out of the Atlantic Division today, as the Knicks announced Rasheed Wallace will undergo surgery and miss the rest of the regular season, while the Sixers look to bounce back from Doug Collins' post-game rant last night. We have a few more Atlantic-related links to pass along though, so let's round them up below:
- Collins is "clearly a very good coach," but when it comes to the Sixers' roster construction and performance, he shouldn't be shifting the blame elsewhere, writes Zach Lowe of Grantland.
- Shaun Powell of Sports on Earth believes it would be very risky for the Sixers to offer Andrew Bynum more than a two-year contract in free agency this summer.
- In an Insider-only piece, ESPN.com's Kevin Pelton revisits the Knicks' summer decision to bring in Raymond Felton rather than re-signing Jeremy Lin. While Felton got off to a hot start in New York, the fact that Lin may have already pulled even suggests the current Rocket will be the better long-term choice, writes Pelton.
- Yesterday, we passed along the key quotes from Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck's WEEI appearance, in which he suggested that Boston had discussed several major deals leading up to the trade deadline. Grousbeck made a number of other interesting comments on WEEI though, including his thoughts on the new CBA and on retiring Paul Pierce's and Kevin Garnett's numbers. Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com has the details.
- In his latest mailbag for ESPNBoston.com, Forsberg also fielded questions relating to the Celtics' non-moves and 10-day signings, among other topics.
Odds & Ends: Coach K, Howard, Harkless, Rookies
A roundup of the latest news and notes from around the NBA on Tuesday evening:
- Mike Krzyzewski has issued a statement refuting recent reports that he will return as head coach of Team USA, reiterating that he intends to stay retired (Reuters report via the New York Times).
- Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News writes that the Mavericks should be an attractive free-agent destination for Dwight Howard this summer.
- Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld is impressed with Maurice Harkless' recent play as he has been given a greater opportunity for minutes on the rebuilding Magic.
- Sean Deveney of the Sporting News ranks the best rookies of this season, headlined by Anthony Davis and Damian Lillard.
- Erik Gundersen of TrailBlazers.com chronicles the relationship between Trail Blazers guards Wesley Matthews and Eric Maynor, dating back to their rookie season together in Utah.
- Amir Johnson praises Cavs big man Tristan Thompson to Frank Zicarelli of the Toronto Sun.
- Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com wonders whether the Celtics could have traded for Marcus Morris from the Rockets.
Celtics Discussed Several “Significant” Shakeups
The Celtics didn't end up participating in many trades at last week's deadline, completing one minor move, sending Leandro Barbosa and Jason Collins to Washington in exchange for Jordan Crawford. Despite the team's apparent inactivity though, owner Wyc Grousbeck told WEEI today that the team was very active in trade discussions leading up to the deadline (link via Gary Dzen of the Boston Globe).
According to Grousbeck, the Celtics discussed several deals that would have been "significant" shakeups for the club, including one four-way trade that ultimately fell through because two other teams backed out.
"Most of the other guys in this league are not as confident as we are in making trades," Grousbeck said. "We are aggressive in exploring things through. I'm not saying we're always right. But we are more likely to make a trade and stick to it than anybody else in the league. The rest of them are afraid to do anything. They'll say they'll do it and then they won't…. It takes two teams to trade, and it's very incorrect to accuse us of not looking for things."
Had one of those "significant shakeups" occurred, it likely would have involved Kevin Garnett and/or Paul Pierce heading to another team. According to Grousbeck, those two veterans were the players that drew the most interest in trade discussions. Earlier today, we heard from Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports that a deal sending Garnett to Los Angeles for Eric Bledsoe and DeAndre Jordan was "closer to happening than people think." KG would have had to waive his no-trade clause to approve any move.
Western Notes: Rockets, Clippers, Garnett, Mavs
Here's the latest from around the Western Conference, where the Lakers are three games back of the Rockets for the eighth seed and three and a half back of the seventh-place Jazz:
- Although his plan was being openly questioned in NBA circles eight months ago, GM Daryl Morey continues to build the Rockets into a team with strong long-term potential, observes Grantland's Zach Lowe. Within his piece, Lowe writes that Morey and assistant coach Kelvin Sampson were both fixated on acquiring James Harden, and that the team would like to add a defense-first wing to the roster.
- The Clippers were "closer than people think" to acquiring Kevin Garnett for Eric Bledsoe and DeAndre Jordan last week, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.
- Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News questions whether the Mavericks ought to try to build a team around Dwight Howard, even if the All-Star center is willing to sign in Dallas this summer.
- Although Dirk Nowitzki indicated recently that he hopes to play for a few more years, his focus for now is more on the short term, as he tells Jeff Caplan of NBA.com. "[Mark Cuban]’s obviously said his bank’s open, so we’ll see what happens this summer," Nowitzki said. "It’s going to be a big summer for us. We want to get back to winning ways. We always competed and were part of the playoffs, so we’ll see what happens this summer. It’s going to be a big summer for this franchise."
- The Thunder decided to bring back Derek Fisher for the stretch run because they know exactly what they're getting in the veteran point guard, writes Susan Bible of HoopsWorld.
Celtics Notes: White, Williams, Melo
The Celtics completed their five-game western road trip last night with a big win in Utah, finally finishing off the Jazz in overtime with the help of a great performance from Paul Pierce. The C's head back home now, and will get a few days off before hosting the Warriors in Boston on Friday. In the meantime, here's the latest on potential roster moves for the team, courtesy of Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald:
- D.J. White continues to wait on his letter of clearance from China before he can officially sign with the Celtics. GM Danny Ainge expects the paperwork to be complete very soon, but we'll see if the team waits until later in the week to formally add White — Ainge himself notes that 10-day contracts are often stragetically timed to maximize a player's time with the club.
- Ainge wouldn't says whether the Celtics plan to sign Terrence Williams to a second 10-day conract when his current deal expires after Friday's game.
- Ainge on roster additions and the possibility of committing to Williams or anyone else: "We’re still looking. Things change week by week and we’re still looking. We don’t really have to decide until the day before the playoffs start. There’s a lot of guys who can contribute, but there’s not enough of a difference between them to be able to say, 'He’s the guy.'"
- There's a decent chance Fab Melo will be re-assigned to the D-League's Maine Red Claws when the Celtics return home this week. "If he hasn’t fit into the rotation, we’ll get him some minutes in Portland," said Ainge. "He was playing great until his concussion, then he got a thigh bruise, and then he came on this trip. It’s been good for him to be on this trip. He’s putting in a lot of time. It’s just experience."
Teams Projected To Be In The Tax
On deadline day, the Warriors traded a pair of minimum-salary players, Jeremy Tyler and Charles Jenkins, for essentially nothing. Sixers GM Tony DiLeo confirmed that his team not only acquired Jenkins and put heavy protection on the second-round pick sent to the Warriors, but received an amount of cash from Golden State that more than covered the youngster's salary for the rest of the season. The specific details of the Hawks trade for Tyler aren't clear, but we can probably assume Golden State included a similar amount of cash there, and that Atlanta's second-rounder included similar protection.
For the Warriors, paying a little extra money now made more sense than paying the price later, as trading Jenkins and Tyler allowed the team to get below the tax threshold ($70,307,000) and avoid becoming a taxpayer. The moves will not only save the team from making a tax payment itself at year's end, but will allow the Warriors to receive a portion of the tax payments from the clubs above the threshold.
While the Warriors chose to avoid the tax, the Bulls resigned themselves to becoming a taxpayer for the first time rather than give up a future first-round pick to get below the line. A club like the Celtics also chose to remain marginally over the threshold, while others like the Heat, Nets, and Lakers remained significantly in the tax. Here are the clubs projected to be taxpayers this year, along with their current team salaries, which could rise if they make additional signings before season's end:
- Los Angeles Lakers: $100,166,250
- Miami Heat: $83,204,612
- Brooklyn Nets: $83,147,981
- New York Knicks: $80,165,743
- Chicago Bulls: $74,061,031
- Boston Celtics: $71,371,552
Of the six teams on this list, three of them – the Lakers, Heat, and Celtics – were also taxpayers last season, putting themselves in line for the repeater tax down the road. Teams that are in the tax for four of five seasons are subject to the repeater tax, so after being taxpayers for two consecutive years, the Lakers, Heat, and Celtics will have to stay out of the tax for two of the next three seasons to avoid paying the more punitive repeater penalty in 2016.
Storytellers Contracts was used in the creation of this post.
Teams With Open Roster Spots
Since the trade deadline, a pair of contenders have taken advantage of having an open roster spot, with the Knicks adding Kenyon Martin on a 10-day contract and the Thunder agreeing to sign Derek Fisher for the remainder of the season.
For New York and Oklahoma City, adding a veteran as a 15th man makes sense for depth purposes, and we may see a few more playoff contenders take the same approach as Friday's buyout deadline nears. For non-contenders, a D-League pickup or two may be more likely, as teams take a look at players who may be able to contribute beyond this season.
Clubs carrying fewer than 15 players are more likely to add free agents at this point, since they won't have to release a player on a guaranteed contract to clear space for a pickup. So with the help of our constantly-updated roster counts page, let's take a quick look at the list of teams with at least one open roster spot. The number of available spots is indicated in parentheses.
Eastern Conference:
- Boston Celtics (2)
- Brooklyn Nets (1)
- Charlotte Bobcats (1)
- Chicago Bulls (1)
- Detroit Pistons (1)
- Miami Heat (1)
- Orlando Magic (1)
Western Conference:
- Golden State Warriors (2)
- Houston Rockets (1)
- Los Angeles Clippers (1)
- Los Angeles Lakers (1)
- Memphis Grizzlies (2)
- New Orleans Hornets (2)
- Sacramento Kings (1)
Atlantic Notes: White, Celtics, Kenyon, Sixers
The Nets were one of the most active teams in pre-deadline talk, but they were the only Atlantic Division team not to make a swap this week. The other four teams didn't exactly make waves, however, as Jordan Crawford, Sebastian Telfair and Charles Jenkins are division's only trade acquisitions. Still, they aren't the only players joining the Atlantic, and we examine that and other news from around the division:
- Paperwork related to D.J. White's release from the Chinese league is delaying his signing with the Celtics, and until he or another big-man signee contributes for the Celtics, the onus is on Chris Wilcox as the team's primary interior player off the bench. Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald has details.
- Terrence Williams spent two weeks this summer as a free agent working out with the Celtics, and those workouts convinced the team he could play point guard, writes Baxter Holmes of the Boston Globe.
- Replacing Ronnie Brewer with Kenyon Martin on a 10-day contract is a low-risk upgrade for the Knicks, Newsday's Al Iannazzone opines. Iannazzone also runs down a list of players who could be headed elsewhere in the offseason, including Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce of the Celtics, Amare Stoudemire of the Knicks, and Kris Humphries of the Nets.
- Interpreting Andrew Bynum's response this week to a question about whether he'd like to re-sign with the 76ers, Tom Moore of PhillyBurbs.com doesn't think he's too keen on returning. Moore looks at the options the Sixers have, including a sign-and-trade, if Bynum won't be around next season.
Eastern Rumors: Kenyon, Celtics, Morrow, Cavs
After all the pre-deadline rumors about Josh Smith, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo changing places, more than a few people around the NBA might have been scratching their heads when none of them were dealt. A check of the standings reveals that both the Hawks and Celtics are within reach of high playoff seeds, so perhaps both teams felt like they could make a run with their teams largely intact. Atlanta is just three games back of the Pacers, who sit in second-place, while Boston trails Indiana by five games. While we wait to see how a tightly packed East shakes out, here's the latest from the conference:
- Kenyon Martin is on a 10-day contract with the Knicks, but GM Glen Grunwald is hopeful the arrangement lasts for the rest of the season, as Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com documents. The veteran big man is glad months of waiting to rejoin the NBA are at an end, and he's eager to dispel criticism about his ability to fit in a team's locker room culture, Begley also writes.
- The Celtics are close to signing D.J. White, but coach Doc Rivers said the team will look for another big man as well. Greg Payne of ESPNBoston.com runs down a few likely candidates.
- Anthony Morrow, whom the Mavs acquired at the deadline for Dahntay Jones, is glad to be in Dallas, and hinted at displeasure about his time with the Hawks, as Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com notes via Twitter. "I feel so blessed to be here, coming from my last situation," Morrow said.
- A half dozen draft picks changed hands at the trade deadline, but all of them were second-rounders. That's why Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer thinks the Cavs were shrewd to acquire a first-rounder from the Grizzlies as part of their swap last month.