Mavericks Sign Maurice Ndour
The Mavericks have signed undrafted forward Maurice Ndour, the team announced via a press release. The length and terms of the arrangement are not yet known, but it’s most likely a training camp deal, though that is merely my speculation.
Ndour comes off of a successful run at the Las Vegas Summer League where he played for the Knicks’ squad. The 6’9″ forward averaged 9.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.0 block, 1.0 steal in 28.3 minutes per contest. The Knicks were reportedly impressed with Ndour, but a dwindling amount of open roster slots kept New York from signing him. “Maurice was solid, he brought energy and activity to our game,’’ Knicks coach Derek Fisher said. “He showed ability to shoot fairly well and defend, block shots, rebound. He represented himself well. We may not be able to keep him. Our roster’s filling up pretty fast.’’
The 23-year-old native of Senegal spent the last two seasons playing for Ohio University, and his career NCAA numbers are 14.8 PPG, 7.6 RPG, and 1.6 APG. Ndour’s slash line was .498/.388/.757.
Hornets Sign Tyler Hansbrough
WEDNESDAY, 3:16pm: The signing is official, the Hornets announced.
TUESDAY, 9:30pm: The Hornets and unrestricted free agent Tyler Hansbrough have come to terms on a deal, Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer reports (Twitter link). The length and terms of the agreement are unknown at this time.
Hansbrough appeared in 74 games for the Raptors last season, averaging 3.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 0.3 assists in 14.3 minutes per contest, and his shooting line was .521/.143/.698. In six NBA seasons since becoming the No. 13 overall pick back in 2009, the forward ‘s numbers are 7.2 PPG, 4.5RPG, and 0.5 APG. His career slash line is .439/.053/.746.
The 29-year-old returns to North Carolina, where he had starred for the the Tar Heels while in college. The Mavericks had also reportedly expressed interest in Hansbrough, whose rights were renounced by Toronto back on July 9th, according to the RealGM transactions log.
Mavs Eye Salah Mejri
The Mavericks are interested in Tunisian free agent center Salah Mejri, sources tell Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi. Sources told Sportando colleague Emiliano Carchia earlier today that Mejri has an offer from an NBA team, and Cauchi hears the 7’1″ 29-year-old is leaning toward playing in the NBA. The Cavs were reportedly interested as of this past spring, though it’s unclear if they remain so.
Real Madrid of Spain informed Mejri of his release a few days ago, as David Pick of Eurobasket.com reported. The Arn Tellem client didn’t see much playing time for the Spanish club this past season, having averaged only 4.3 points and 2.1 rebounds in 9.2 minutes per game, fewer minutes than he saw for Real Madrid in 2013/14.
Multiple reports from last week indicated that the Mavs have held interest in free agents Ryan Hollins, Elton Brand, JaVale McGee, Samuel Dalembert, Kevin Seraphin and Tyrus Thomas as they seek to complement trade acquisition Zaza Pachulia and fill the void left when DeAndre Jordan broke his deal to sign with the team. Thus, Mejri appears to be one of many options for Dallas, which has cap space still to burn.
DeAndre Jordan On Chris Paul, Mavs, Clippers
DeAndre Jordan is scheduled to address the media today for the first time since he spurned the Mavs for the Clippers, but he got a jump start on explaining his story via The Players’ Tribune. Half of the piece is written and the other half is presented in a video, one in which Jordan’s struggle with his decision is apparent as he reflects on the events of two weeks ago. The entire piece is well worth your time, but we’ll pass along some of the most noteworthy quotes from the big man here:
On Chris Paul, with whom he reportedly had a rift:
“I love Chris, man. Chris is a big brother to me. When you play sports, you’re competitive — especially when you play them at as high a level as we have these last few years. And of course, yeah, we all bump heads during the course of the game. But we know that whatever criticisms or arguments we have on the floor, they’re about one thing: winning.”
On the doubt that crept into his mind following his commitment to Dallas:
“I woke up Monday morning [July 6th] feeling like there was something missing, like something that I didn’t do, something that was not covered. And that’s why, and that’s when I started to begin to have second thoughts. I feel like we’ve all had decisions in our lives where we’ve had second thoughts about things and have gone back and had to revisit a situation, and I definitely feel like that this was one of those times for me.”
On the Mavs:
“Originally, I said yes to the Mavericks because I thought I needed change. I thought I wanted change at that point in time. And they had a great presentation. They have a great owner, great coach, a championship team, but, at the same time, I felt like I didn’t give it all of my thought. At the end of the day, we’re basketball players and these great athletes, but we’re also human, and we make mistakes. We have emotions and feelings, just like everybody else.”
On the Clippers:
“I decided to stay with the Clippers because I’ve been with this team for seven years, and being on one team for my entire career was definitely important to me. I’ve been here since I was 19, so this is what I know. I love the city, I love the fans, I love my teammates and I love this organization.”
On the difficulty of breaking his deal with the Mavs:
“A lot of the guys who I was talking to during the process, they were friends of mine. That’s what made it so tough. Talking to these guys and really wanting to maybe partner up with these guys and play, and then not wanting to, it’s definitely a tough situation it puts you in. It puts you in [it] because you want to make the right decision, but you also don’t want to step on toes.”
Southwest Notes: Gee, Cunningham, Barea, Spurs
The Pelicans used a portion of their mid-level exception to sign Alonzo Gee and Dante Cunningham, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders passes along (on Twitter). Gee will earn $1.32MM this season, while Cunningham will take home a bit more at $2.85MM. That means New Orleans still has $1.294MM of its mid-level exception remaining and 10 guaranteed contracts on the books. We’ve got more contract details in tonight’s look at the Southwest Division:
- The front-loaded deal J.J Barea inked with the Mavericks will pay him slightly more than $16MM over four years, as Pincus reveals in his updated Dallas salary page. He’ll earn $4.29MM this season, $4,096,950 the following year, $3,903,900 in year three, and $3,710,850 during the 2018/19 season. The Mavs upped the Puerto Rican guard’s yearly salaries after missing out on DeAndre Jordan.
- It has been a busy offseason in San Antonio, and the most overlooked move that the Spurs have made is the addition of 7’3” center Boban Marjanovic, as David Pick details for Bleacher Report. Marjanovic was a relative unknown prior to last season, but his efficient play and massive size netted him some lucrative offers from European teams that he turned down in favor of the Spurs, as Pick relays.
- LaMarcus Aldridge, Tim Duncan, Kawhi Leonard, David West, and Danny Green all have player options in the final years of their contracts, as Pincus notes on his updated Spurs salary page.
Southwest Notes: Smith, Cuban, Curry, Allen
Owner Mark Cuban said the Mavericks weren’t pursuing Josh Smith before he left the Rockets to sign with the Clippers, according to The Dallas Morning News. “We weren’t in that mix at all,” Cuban said in a radio interview with KESN-FM, adding that the Mavericks unsuccessfully tried to sign Smith after he was waived by the Pistons in December. There was a report last week that Dallas was one of the teams in play for the free agent forward.
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- Cuban overpaid free agents by millions to prove his loyalty, charges Tim Bontemps of The New York Post. Being spurned by DeAndre Jordan affected Cuban’s judgment in subsequent deals, Bontemps contends. He praises the Mavericks owner for acquiring Zaza Pachulia cheaply and gambling on Deron Williams for $11MM over two seasons, but writes that the deals given to Wesley Matthews ($70MM over four seasons) and J.J. Barea ($16MM over four seasons) could lead to an ugly cap situation in the future.
- The Pelicans haven’t decided whether to offer a contract to Seth Curry, tweets John Reid of The Times-Picayune. GM Dell Demps discussed the possibility tonight on NBA TV. New Orleans is rumored to be close to giving a guaranteed deal to Curry, who was the top scorer in the Las Vegas summer league heading into today’s games.
- The Grizzlies‘ Tony Allen is convinced that he made the right choice when he left Boston for Memphis five years ago, writes Geoff Calkins of The Commercial Appeal. The defensive specialist signed with the Grizzlies as a free agent in July of 2010. Allen has two more seasons and more than $10.6MM left on his current contract. “I can’t envision myself no place else,” he said. “I got about five more years.”
Western Notes: Clippers, Gasol, Lawson
Mavs owner Mark Cuban, during an appearance on “The Afternoon Show with Cowlishaw and Mosley” (h/t Dallas Morning News), said that he did everything possible to land free agent DeAndre Jordan, who spurned Dallas to re-sign with the Clippers. “Well no initially you do [look back on it], ‘What could we have done differently?’ and you go through the whole process and unless we just held him hostage, there’s nothing we could have done,” Cuban said.
“I mean literally Monday night I was texting him back and forth talking about players. He was asking for Mavs gear. Monday night everything was fine,” Cuban continued. “Tuesday morning everything wasn’t. And then we flew to — I flew to Houston, and then the next day I was with his agent the whole time. And in my mind, I’m like, ‘of course the guy’s going to want to see his agent and is going to meet with him face-to-face and if he changes his mind, that’s great, but at least he’ll have the counsel of his agent to guide him through it.’ And so if I’m standing there talking to his agent, at least I’ll have a sense of what’s going on. He would text his agent, I don’t know if he actually called him, but he definitely texted him while he was sitting next to me, but he never saw him at all the entire night. I don’t know what else I could have done.”
Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- Nuggets guard Ty Lawson, who suffered his second DUI-related arrest in six months on Tuesday, was ordered to complete a 30-day residential treatment program by a Colorado judge, Kristen Wyatt of The Associated Press reports.
- Thursday’s signing of Josh Smith was the latest splash for the Clippers this summer, but it’s also their latest risk, as Dan Woike of The Orange County Register analyzes. The team has no shortage of players who like the ball in their hands, Smith among them, Woike notes. The Clips didn’t have much room to maneuver financially once they re-signed DeAndre Jordan, so president of basketball operations Doc Rivers had to get creative.
- The five-year contract Marc Gasol signed with the Grizzlies is for the max and will seem him earn a total of $113,211,750, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
- Austin Rivers‘ two-year deal with the Clippers is worth precisely $6,454,902, Pincus reports (Twitter link).
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Western Notes: Durant, Matthews, Hamilton
Executives from around the league seem to think that Kevin Durant will end up re-signing with the Thunder next year, but the Wizards, Mavericks, Lakers, Heat, Knicks and Nets are expected to be among his most dogged suitors, writes Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post. Damion James, a Wizards summer-leaguer whom Castillo describes as Durant’s best friend, says it’ll come down to wins and losses.
“He’ll do whatever it takes to win. Whoever gives him the best chance to win is where he’s going to end up,” James said.
The Thunder certainly seem to have kept themselves in the discussion on that front, having just paid the max to avoid losing Enes Kanter. Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- No contract handed out this summer has seemed to draw as many surprised reactions for its munificence as the one Wesley Matthews ended up with from the Mavericks, observes Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. The shooting guard was going to make $57MM over four years with the Mavs before they bumped his deal up to the maximum of $70,060,025, notes Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. “A healthy Wesley Matthews at $70MM is insane,” one GM told Bulpett. “But Wesley Matthews coming off Achilles’ surgery at $70MM? What’s a stronger way to say insane?”
- Justin Hamilton is close to a deal with Valencia of Spain, according to Paco Garcia Caridad of the Spanish outlet Marca (Twitter link; translation via Trapani). Hamilton, who went to the Finals with the Heat in 2013/14, finished this past season as a member of the Timberwolves.
- Miroslav Raduljica has agreed to sign with Panathinaikos of Greece, reports Sportando’s Enea Trapani. The Kings reportedly had interest in the big man who was briefly with the Wolves this past season. The team was reportedly close to a deal with Nikola Milutinov, whom the Spurs drafted 26th overall, but now the status of negotiations with Milutinov is unclear. Regardless, the Spurs have already filed paperwork with the league saying they won’t sign Milutinov this year, thus clearing his cap hold.
Kings Rumors: Rondo, Cousins, Mbah a Moute
Rajon Rondo had wanted to play with DeMarcus Cousins for a while, writes Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders, who hears from the point guard about just how enticing the chance to play with his fellow former Kentucky Wildcat is.
“What made me comfortable is them having the best big man in the game,” Rondo said of Cousins. “It was a pretty easy decision. I think he’s definitely an MVP candidate and I look forward to playing with him and helping him grow as a player.”
Of course, plenty of rumors suggest Cousins isn’t long for Sacramento, but Rondo told Kennedy that he thinks much of the reported acrimony between Cousins and coach George Karl has been overblown. Rondo had plenty of kind words for the Mavericks despite his turmoil in Dallas, but he makes it clear he’s excited about Sacramento. There’s more on Rondo amid the latest from the California capital:
- Rondo’s one-year contract with the Kings is worth $9.5MM, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
- Michael Malone said he felt “awful” for Tyrone Corbin, who guided a struggling Kings team after Sacramento fired Malone as coach in December last year, but the new Nuggets coach also told Grantland’s Zach Lowe that the Kings’ losing ways under Corbin “validated the job that my staff and I did.”
- Malone also dished to Lowe on his relationship with Cousins. “That relationship was constant work. Constant. But we came to a deep respect,” Malone said in part.
- The Kings had signed Luc Mbah a Moute for $1.55MM, an above-minimum salary, before voiding his contract Thursday because he failed his physical, Pincus tweets.
- Kings coach George Karl said he and management wanted to re-sign Derrick Williams but simply couldn’t afford him, as the coach tells Marc Berman of the New York Post. A source close to Karl who spoke to Berman nonetheless impugned Williams’ basketball IQ and said Karl tore into the forward on one occasion for his lack of rebounding. Williams left for a two-year, $8.8MM deal with the Knicks. “It was more of fitting the finances and making the finances work,’’ Karl said. “There are other pieces we wanted and we couldn’t have enough money for him.’’
And-Ones: NBPA, Hackett, Whittington
NBPA head Michele Roberts released a statement today in response to commissioner Adam Silver’s recent comments where he indicated that several NBA teams were still losing money despite the salary givebacks and enhanced revenue sharing agreed upon in the last CBA (h/t RealGM). “Under the CBA, we do not have a gross compensation system. The players’ 50% share is calculated net of a substantial amount of expenses and deductions,” Roberts said. “New and renovated arenas around the league have proven to be revenue drivers, profit centers, and franchise valuation boosters. That has been the case over the past few years in Orlando, Brooklyn, and New York, to name a few. In some instances, owners receive arena revenues that are not included in BRI. Many teams also receive generous arena subsidies, loans and other incentives from state and local governments as part of their arena deals.”
Roberts concluded by adding, “Virtually every business metric demonstrates that our business is healthy. Gate receipts, merchandise sales and TV ratings are all at an all-time high. Franchise values have risen exponentially in recent years, and the NBA has enjoyed high single digit revenue growth since 2010/11.”
Here’s more from around the league:
- A league source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link) that there are approximately 10 NBA teams that are currently losing money.
- Terdema Ussery, a finalist for the union executive director position that went to Roberts, is leaving his position as president and CEO of the Mavericks effective August 30th, the team announced via press release. He’ll join Under Armour, the Mavs said.
- Former Georgetown forward Greg Whittington has three partially guaranteed deals on the table from NBA squads, Shams Charania of RealGM tweets. The undrafted 22-year-old has averaged 15.7 points per game during Las Vegas Summer League play, Charania notes.
- Shooting guard Daniel Hackett, who worked out for the Knicks, has officially signed with Olympiacos of Greece, the team announced (translation by Enea Trapani of Sportando).
- Austin Rivers‘ two-year deal with the Clippers will pay him $3.1MM for next season, $3.3MM for the 2016/17 campaign, and the guard has a player option included in his contract for the final season, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets.
- The deal that Nemanja Bjelica inked with the Timberwolves will pay him $3.95MM for the 2015/16 season, $3.8MM the following year, $3.95MM during the 2017/18 campaign, and all three seasons are fully guaranteed, Pincus relays (on Twitter).