Dahntay Jones

Clippers Officially Announce Coaching Staff

The Clippers have officially announced Tyronn Lue‘s coaching staff for the 2020/21 season, confirming today in a press release that former Heat assistant Dan Craig has come aboard as L.A.’s associate head coach.

The team has also hired Kenny Atkinson, Chauncey Billups, Larry Drew, and former Bulls assistant Roy Rogers as assistant coaches. Rogers, who was let go by Chicago earlier this fall, reportedly drew interest from Doc Rivers in Philadelphia, but will instead join Rivers’ old team.

Previous reports had indicated that Craig, Atkinson, Billups, and Drew would be part of Lue’s staff.

Cam Hodges, Shaun Fein, Beau Levesque, and Dahntay Jones – who played for Lue in Cleveland in 2016 and 2017 – will also be part of the new-look staff in various coaching and player development roles, according to the team. Additionally, L.A. retained assistants Jeremy Castleberry and Brendan O’Connor.

“We have assembled a strong and experienced group of coaches with diverse backgrounds and perspectives,” Lue said in a statement. “They will provide our players with every opportunity to improve individually and excel as a team. As coaches, their skillsets are different, but they are all great teachers with a passion for player development, who understand how to impart their knowledge. I couldn’t be more excited to get on the court with this group.”

Eastern Notes: Kaminsky, Maker, Giannis, Cavs

Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak said Thursday that no decisions have been made about pursuing a contract buyout with young forward Frank Kaminsky, with the 25-year-old still on the Hornets’ roster after the trade deadline.

“He wants to play,” Kupchak said of Kaminsky, as relayed by Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. “He’s under contract. Short of that, no decisions have been made addressing that situation.”

Bonnell also relayed that Kupchak, hired by the Hornets last April, is sympathetic to a remedy if Kaminsky is looking to play elsewhere.

The Hornets explored moving Kaminsky in the hours leading up to the trade deadline Thursday, but failed to find a suitable deal for the fourth-year player. Sean Deveney of Sporting News reported (via Twitter) that Kaminsky would likely become a buyout candidate in the near future, but it’s unclear where the possibility stands right now.

Charlotte also held strong trade discussions with the Grizzlies on a deal centered around Marc Gasol, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link), but talks eventually broke off. The Hornets ended up not making a single trade on deadline day.

There’s more from the Eastern Conference today:

  • The Bucks traded Thon Maker to the Pistons for Stanley Johnson this week, sending away one of Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s closest teammates in an effort to upgrade the roster. “Thon is like my little brother, this one hurts more than any trade that happened that I’ve been a part of but this is the business we work in,” Antetokounmpo said, according to Cassidy Hubbarth of ESPN (Twitter link). The Bucks eventually flipped Johnson, Jason Smith and two second-round picks to acquire sharpshooting forward Nikola Mirotic.
  • For Milwaukee, Antetokounmpo could be the next star involved in rumors as the 2019/20 season draws closer, Dan Feldman of NBC Sports notes. Antetokounmpo is eligible to receive a super-max extension in the summer of 2020, but could become a free agent in 2021 if he chooses not to sign the extension. Antetokounmpo has cemented himself as one of the league’s top stars, leading the Bucks to a 40-13 record through 53 games this season. “He has been incredibly loyal,” coach Mike Budenholzer said. “I think that’s something that’s important to him. So, he’s a gift, for sure.”
  • The Cavaliers renounced the free agent rights to Deron Williams and Dahntay Jones today, Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports tweets. Cleveland made multiple trades in the past week, acquiring Brandon Knight, Marquese Chriss and a 2019 first-round pick in a multi-team deal on Wednesday.

East Notes: Hornets, Fultz, Jones, Celtics

The Hornets will audition a pair of potential lottery picks on Monday, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer reports, bringing Donovan Mitchell and Terrence Ferguson in for workouts with a batch of four other players.

Mitchell, a Louisville product pegged at No. 16 in NBADraft.net‘s latest mock draft, is a particularly intriguing combo guard with a 6’10” wingspan. Ferguson, a more traditional swingman, played professionally in Australia last season in lieu of a stint in the NCAA.

Joining Mitchell and Ferguson will be Bryce Alford, Cameron Oliver, Devin Robinson and Tai Webster. The Hornets pick 11th in this month’s draft.

There’s more from the Eastern Conference this evening:

  • Don’t expect the Celtics to hold Markelle Fultz‘s lack of team success at Washington against him ahead of the 2017 NBA Draft, Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald writes. “We had determined who they were long before they got to their college situations,” general manager Danny Ainge said of Fultz [and also Jaylen Brown].
  • Having nearly equaled his annual income in technical foul fines this postseason, Dahntay Jones is the unlikely benefactor of some generosity from fans. Per Alysha Tsuji of USA Today, a GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help the Cavaliers veteran cover his costly habit.
  • The Celtics just aren’t a good fit for Lonzo Ball, LaVar Ball tells A. Sherrod Blakely of CSN New England. The eldest Ball envisions his son stepping up as a leader for the Lakers while the Celtics are already more established.

Cavs Waive Larry Sanders, Sign Edy Tavares

APRIL 12, 3:05pm: The Cavaliers have officially signed Tavares, the team announced today in a press release. With the signing of Jones now official too, Cleveland’s roster is back up to the maximum 15 players.

APRIL 12, 8:39am: The Cavaliers have officially waived Sanders, according to a press release issued by the team. With 13 players now on their roster, the Cavs have cleared the way to sign Tavares and Jones, as noted below. Those deals figure to be made official later today.

APRIL 11, 9:06pm: The Cavaliers will waive Larry Sanders and sign Edy Tavares, according to Sham Charania of The Vertical. The scribe adds that Cleveland had no issues with Sanders during his time with the team and the two sides mutually decided to part ways since there were no plans to add him to the rotation.

Bobby Marks of The Vertical (Twitter links) notes that Cavs were able to waive Sanders because his contract was not expiring. Earlier this week, the Pistons were unable to complete the transaction of waiving Beno Udrih because every team would not have the opportunity to claim him on waivers. Sanders contract runs through the end of next season, though had it expired this season, the Cavs would not have been able to waive him.

Cleveland will have a busy day on Wednesday, signing both Tavares and Dahntay Jones. The team opted up a roster spot for Jones earlier this week when it waived DeAndre Liggins.

Tavares is a 7”3” center who played 12 games for the Hawks this season. He has been a key member of the Raptors 905, Toronto’s affiliate, during their D-League playoff run.

Cavaliers Sign Dahntay Jones

APRIL 12: The Cavaliers have officially signed Jones, the team announced today in a press release.

APRIL 9: The Cavaliers will sign Dahntay Jones with their newly-opened roster spot, tweets Chris Reichert of The Step Back. Jones, who last saw NBA action with Cleveland in 2015/16, was waived by the Cavs back in October and has been an NBA free agent since then.

Earlier today, the club waived defensive-minded shooting guard DeAndre Liggins. In place of Liggins, the Cavs will welcome Jones’ toughness and experience as the postseason approaches.

This move looks similar to one Cleveland made at the end of the 2015/16 season. The Cavs signed Jones on April 13 last year, just before the regular season ended. After playing 42 minutes and scoring 13 points in the Cavs’ final regular season game, the veteran swingman went on to appear in 15 playoff games for the team.

Jones hasn’t been a consistent part of a team’s rotation since the 2012/13 campaign, which he split with the Hawks and Mavs.

Cavs Waive Dahntay Jones

The Cavs have officially waived forward Dahntay Jones, the team announced. The veteran’s deal included no guaranteed salary, so Cleveland won’t be on the hook for any funds as a result of the move.

Jones, 35, has career averages of 5.4 points, 1.7 rebounds and 0.8 assists in 623regular season contests. His slash line is .439/.331/.751.

This reduces the team’s roster count to 15 players, which is the regular season maximum. It also means that DeAndre Liggins has made the team.

And-Ones: Jones, Snell, Gay

Cleveland is likely to waive Dahntay Jones, according to Sam Amico of AmicoHoops (Twitter link). The Cavs currently have 16 players under contract after waiving John Holland earlier today.

Here’s more from around the league:

Cavaliers Notes: Roster Spots, McRae, Shumpert

A four-man race has developed for the final two spots on the Cavaliers’ roster, according to Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. With four preseason games remaining, the competition has boiled down to shooting guards Jordan McRae and DeAndre Liggins, small forward Dahntay Jones and point guard Toney Douglas. Coach Tyronn Lue has promised that those four, plus everyone with non-guaranteed deals, will get a chance to prove themselves before cuts have to be made. Rookie point guard Kay Felder and veteran swingman James Jones are believed to be sure things for the final roster, and another spot will likely belong to J.R. Smith, who has been in a contract standoff with the Cavs all summer. Vardon believes McRae and Liggins are the current favorites to earn the last two positions.

There’s more news out of Cleveland:

  • McRae is no longer being considered as a possible backup to point guard Kyrie Irving, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com“It’s not fair to him,” Lue said. “It’s something he hasn’t done his whole career. You can put guys in position, they’ve got to come out and just score the basketball. But to tell them they’ve got to get into their sets, little guards picking up full court and just having to think so much when you’re a natural scorer, it is kind of tough.” Lue is looking at a committee approach, with Liggins, Felder and Douglas all logging time as reserve point guards. McRae has been the Cavs’ leading scorer in the past two games with 20 points each night.
  • With Smith still absent, Iman Shumpert has been impressive in training camp, Fedor writes in the same piece. The fifth-year shooting guard has started just six games since coming to Cleveland in January of 2015, but he took over the starter’s role in camp and seems likely to begin the season in that position. Shumpert is trying to bounce back from a disastrous season in which he shot a career-low 37% from the field and 30% from 3-point range. “J.R. here or J.R. not here, Shump still has the same role on our team,” Lue said, “and that’s to come out and be a stopper every single night and take and make his open shots.”

Players Who Can Veto Trades

No-trade clauses are rare in the NBA, and they became even rarer this offseason, when several players with those clauses in their contracts either called it a career or signed new deals. Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, and Kevin Garnett, who all opted for retirement, had no-trade clauses last season, and so did Dwyane Wade, who doesn’t have the same protection on his new contract with the Bulls.

Nonethless, while the list of players with explicit no-trade clauses may be dwindling, there are still several players each year who have the ability to veto trades. A player who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year contract – or a two-year contract with an option clause – is given no-trade protection, and so is a player who signs an offer sheet and has that offer matched by his previous team. Players who accept qualifying offers after their rookie deals expire can also block deals, though no restricted free agents signed their QOs this year.

Taking into account that list of criteria, here are the players who must give their consent if their teams want to trade them during the 2016/17 league year:

No-trade clauses

Players whose offer sheets were matched

Players accepting qualifying offers

  • None

Players re-signing for one year (or two years including an option)

Information from Basketball Insiders and Yahoo! Sports was used in the creation of this post.

Contract Details: Brand, Rockets, Thunder, Pacers

With training camps underway, teams have now officially finalized the contract agreements with various camp invitees that had been reported over the past several weeks, meaning we have plenty of contract details to round up. As usual, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders has been busy reporting those details, updating his salary pages for teams around the NBA.

Because we have so many updates to pass along from Pincus, we’ll divide them up by players who received some guaranteed money from their teams, and those who didn’t. All of the links below point to the Basketball Insiders team salary pages, so be sure to click through for additional information.

Here are the latest salary updates from across the league, via Pincus:

Players receiving guaranteed money:

These players aren’t necessarily assured of regular-season roster spots. In fact, many of them likely received guarantees as an incentive to accept a D-League assignment. Still, for some players, larger guarantees should increase their odds of making 15-man rosters.

  • Thomas Walkup (Bulls): One year, minimum salary. $69.5K guaranteed.
  • Keith Benson (Heat): Two years, minimum salary. $75K guaranteed.
  • Henry Sims (Jazz): One year, minimum salary. $75K guaranteed.
  • Alex Poythress (Pacers): One year, minimum salary. $35,381 guaranteed.
  • Kevin Seraphin (Pacers): Two years, $3.681MM. First year ($1.8MM) guaranteed.
  • Julyan Stone (Pacers): One year, minimum salary. $50K guaranteed.
  • Gary Payton II (Rockets): Two years, minimum salary. First year ($543,471) guaranteed.
  • Isaiah Taylor (Rockets): Two years, minimum salary. $50K guaranteed.
  • Kyle Wiltjer (Rockets): Two years, minimum salary. $275K guaranteed.
  • Cat Barber (Sixers): One year, minimum salary. $50K guaranteed.
  • Elton Brand (Sixers): One year, minimum salary. $1MM guaranteed.
  • Derrick Jones (Suns): Three years, minimum salary. $42.5K guaranteed.
  • Alex Caruso (Thunder): One year, minimum salary. $50K guaranteed.
  • Kaleb Tarczewski (Thunder): One year, minimum salary. $75K guaranteed.
  • Chris Wright (Thunder): One year, minimum salary. $100K guaranteed.

Players receiving no guaranteed money:

The following players all signed one-year, minimum salary contracts with no guaranteed money. Many of these deals are “summer contracts,” which won’t count against a team’s cap unless the player earns a spot on the 15-man roster.