Louis Amundson

Lou Amundson Signs In Japan

Lou Amundson, who last played in the NBA during the 2015/16 season for the Knicks, has signed with the Kawasaki Brave Thunders of the Japanese B.League, reports Emiliano Carchia of Sportando.

Amundson, who was part of the 2015 trade that sent Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith to Cleveland, began his career in the G League and was named All-NBA D-League First Team and NBA D-League Rookie of the Year in 2007.

The 35-year-old veteran power forward has played in 428 games over 10 NBA seasons, with career averages of 3.6 points and 3.6 rebounds per game.

And-Ones: B. Roy, Blatt, BIG3, Amundson

Brandon Roy, a former sixth overall pick who earned three All-Star nods before injuries derailed his NBA career, is enjoying success in a new role. As Molly Blue of The Oregonian writes, Roy has remade himself as a high school basketball coach at Seattle’s Nathan Hale High School. After taking over a team that had gone 3-18 a year before, Roy led the school to a 29-0 run this season. Nathan Hale High School won Washington’s Class 3A state title, and the former Trail Blazers star was named the 2017 Naismith High School Coach of the Year. At age 32, Roy would probably prefer to still be playing in the NBA, but it’s good to see him continuing to thrive in the sport in a new way.

Here are a few more odds and ends from across the basketball world:

  • Former Cavaliers head coach David Blatt has been coaching in Turkey this season, and has no plans to return to the NBA for 2017/18, as Emiliano Carchia of Sportando details. In an interview with Match TV, Blatt said that he’s not going anywhere and intends to remain with Darussafaka Dogus next season.
  • The BIG3, Ice Cube‘s half-court, three-on-three league that will debut in June, has a broadcast television deal. The league announced today that it has partnered with FOX Sports and FS1. For more on the BIG3, be sure to check out our breakdown of the players and coaches participating in the league.
  • Veteran NBA center Lou Amundson, who appeared in 29 games for the Knicks last season, appears to be headed to the Philippines. Emiliano Carchia of Sportando writes that Amundson is close to signing a deal with TNT, after international basketball journalist David Pick reported (via Twitter) that the 34-year-old would land with a team in the Philippines.
  • Free agent point guard Greivis Vasquez and Lakers guard David Nwaba have new representation, according to Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal, who reports (via Twitter) that Glushon Sports Management recently signed the duo.

Knicks Notes: Ndour, Randle, Rose, Amundson

Defense was behind the Knicks’ decision to keep Maurice Ndour over Chasson Randle, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post. The 6’9″ Ndour provides a defensive presence with the bench unit, something coach Jeff Hornacek felt was important after watching the team in preseason. “He’s an activity guy when we need to mix it up,’’ Hornacek said of Ndour. “You saw in some of the preseason games when he face-guarded a point guard and ran around to deny him the ball. He creates havoc out there. He’s done a nice job with the second group. His activity of cutting to the basket, moving around, we liked that energy.’’ Ndour, a Senegal native, first impressed the Knicks while playing for their 2015 summer league team. He appeared in six games this preseason, averaging 4.3 points and 2.4 rebounds.

There’s more news out of New York:

  • Randle is examining his options, but Hornacek would like to see him join the Knicks’ D-League affiliate in Westchester, Berman relays in the same piece. Randle is recovering from an orbital fracture and is expected to be sidelined for another month. He has a $100K guarantee, and it’s possible that he could be brought back to the roster when he’s healthy in place of Ron Baker. “He’s done a great job for us,’’ Hornacek said of Randle. “We hope all these guys get other jobs and another team picks them up, but our hope is if he doesn’t go to another team, he stays with our organization. We really like what he did for us.”
  • Derrick Rose rejoined the Knicks Saturday after missing nine practices and five preseason games because of a sexual assault civil trial in Los Angeles, Berman writes in another story. Rose, who played in just one preseason game, is excited to be able to concentrate solely on basketball. “I’ve been preparing for this for a long time,” he said. “Ever since I didn’t make the playoffs last year, I’m still chasing something right now. I just want to hoop and let my game speak for itself.”
  • New York’s frontcourt depth worked against veteran Lou Amundson, who was among five players waived Friday, according to Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. The 33-year-old power forward has been in the league for 10 years and spent most of the past two seasons with the Knicks. New York decided to part ways with Amundson even though he is guaranteed more than $1.5MM for this season. “Lou, it came down to a matter of how many bigs we have,” Hornacek said. “We have a lot of bigs on the team. So that was a tough one.”

Knicks Cut Chasson Randle, Lou Amundson, Others

The Knicks have waived point guard Chasson Randle, according to multiple reports, including one from Shams Charania of The Vertical (via Twitter). In addition to parting ways with Randle, the team has also cut big man Lou Amundson and shooting guard J.P. Tokoto, reports Ian Begley of ESPN.com (via Twitter). The team confirmed those three cuts and announced two more, tweeting that small forwards Cleanthony Early and Damien Inglis have also been released.

New York had been carrying 15 guaranteed salaries on its roster, along with five non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed deals, so its roster decisions had looked fairly simple on the surface. However, Randle and Ron Baker – two players without guaranteed deals – had impressed the team in training camp, complicating those decisions. The Knicks also had to weigh the fact that Randle is set to miss the next few weeks due to a left orbital fracture.

Marc Berman of The New York Post had speculated earlier today that Randle and Baker would both make the cut for the 15-man roster, with the Knicks cutting a pair of guaranteed salaries – Amundson and Maurice Ndour – along with Tokoto. While the team did eat Amundson’s guaranteed contract, it appears Ndour is safe, given Randle’s release. The Knicks are down to 15 players, so their regular-season roster seems set.

Among today’s cuts, Tokoto and Randle each had partial guarantees of $100K on their contracts, so the Knicks will carry that money on their cap. Both players are candidates to join the D-League’s Westchester Knicks, as are Early and Inglis. Randle may also receive consideration to re-sign with the Knicks when he gets healthy — Baker’s salary won’t become fully guaranteed until January 10, so the club will have some flexibility with that final roster spot.

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: Bulls, Knicks, Kings, Mavericks

The three camp invitees recently signed by the Bulls got one-year, non-guaranteed summer contracts, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, Vince Hunter, and J.J. Avila are therefore probably unlikely to make Chicago’s roster, though they could eventually be ticketed for the team’s new D-League affiliate, the Windy City Bulls.

In addition to providing the contract details for those three Chicago signings, Pincus passes along a few more contract notes from around the NBA, so let’s round them up…

  • As expected, Lou Amundson‘s new one-year deal with the Knicks will pay him $1.55MM+ while counting for just $980K against the team’s cap. Amundson’s contract is fully guaranteed, and will give him the opportunity to veto trades, Pincus notes (via Twitter).
  • Despite his extensive NBA experience, Jordan Farmar didn’t get any guaranteed money from the Kings, signing a minimum-salary summer contract with the team, according to Pincus. Farmar and Ty Lawson essentially have the same non-guaranteed one-year deal with Sacramento, so the team will likely end up carrying just one of those two players into the regular season.
  • C.J. Williams, the Mavericks‘ 20th man, got a non-guaranteed, one-year summer contract from the club, per Pincus. Williams, a 6’5″ guard, could end up playing for Dallas’ D-League squad, the Texas Legends.

Knicks Re-Sign Lou Amundson

The Knicks are bringing a familiar face with them to training camp next week, announcing today (via Twitter) that they’ve re-signed free agent big man Lou Amundson to a new contract. Ian Begley of ESPN.com (Twitter link) hears from a source that the deal is fully guaranteed, while Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops tweets that it’s for one year. It will be worth the minimum, since New York has already used all of its cap space and its room exception.

Amundson, 33, spent most of the last two seasons with the Knicks, though after averaging 20.9 MPG in 41 games (35 starts) with the club in 2014/15, he saw his playing time significantly reduced last season. In 2015/16, Amundson averaged just 1.8 PPG and 1.7 RPG in 7.0 minutes per contest (29 games).

Given his lack of role on the team last season, Amundson did well to earn a guaranteed salary from the Knicks. New York already had 14 players on guaranteed contracts, with J.P. Tokoto, Chasson Randle, and Ron Baker on non-guaranteed deals. Amundson’s deal suggests that he’s a good bet to be on the regular-season roster, with those younger players likely on the outside looking in.

Over the course of the last decade, Amundson has played for 10 different teams, never averaging more minutes per game for any of those clubs than he has for New York during the last two seasons (15.2). In 428 regular-season contests, the UNLV product has posted 3.7 PPG, 3.6 RPG, and a shooting line of .474/.000/.444.

Knicks Notes: Williams, Noah, Vujacic

The Knicks officially renounced their rights to free agents Derrick Williams, Kevin Seraphin, Lou Amundson and Cleanthony Early, and as a result, the quartet no longer count against the team’s salary cap figure, Ian Begley of ESPN.com relays (ESPN Now link). The team can still re-sign any of the players using cap space, save Williams, who agreed to a one-year pact with the Heat earlier this evening.

Here’s more from the Big Apple:

  • Joining the Knicks was a dream of Joakim Noah‘s for a long time, who relishes the challenge of playing in New York, Marc Berman of The New York Post writes. “I’m not taking this opportunity for granted,’’ said Noah. “This has been a dream of mine since I was 5 years old. We’re proud to be from New York. My parents are divorced, but my father is a proud New Yorker. We all are. Fortunately, his son is playing for the New York Knicks now. This means everything to me. I’m going to do everything to make this special.
  • With Langston Galloway on his way to the Pelicans, the Knicks may turn to a familiar face to bolster their backcourt — Sasha Vujacic, Berman relays in a separate piece. New York can offer little more than the veteran’s minimum to the 32-year-old, who may be able to find more lucrative offers overseas, the scribe adds. Vujacic made 61 appearances for the Knicks in 2015/16 and averaged 4.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 14.9 minutes per contest.
  • You can view the Knicks’ current roster and depth chart here.

Knicks Rumors: Early, Fisher, Porzingis

Knicks forward Cleanthony Early, who was wounded in a December 30th shooting, probably won’t return to the court until after the All-Star break, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post. The second-year player was shot once in his right knee during a robbery. Team president Phil Jackson and GM Steve Mills haven’t made any public comment on the incident, but an unidentified friend of Early’s told Berman that the recovery is progressing well. “He’s feeling better and he’s going to be fine,’’ the friend said. “It was the best possible outcome, and it’s not going to have any effect on his career. There was no structural damage and no infection, so he didn’t need surgery. That was the beautiful thing, not needing surgery. Thank God — his knee could’ve been blown out.’’

With an opening already on the roster, Early’s absence has left the Knicks with just 13 available players, and Berman writes that the team is “exploring several options” to add someone via a 10-day contract. The Knicks are examining the players waived because of this week’s deadline for guaranteed contracts and were keeping an eye on the D-League showcase that ends today. Jimmer Fredette, part of the Knicks’ D-League franchise in Westchester, was considered, but coach Derek Fisher wants a better defender, according to Berman.

There’s more this morning from the Big Apple:

  • The Knicks’ near-miss Friday in San Antonio and their overall competitiveness during a challenging stretch shows that Fisher has developed an effective combination, Berman writes in a separate piece. Their recent success, Berman notes, coincides with Fisher’s decision to cut his rotation to nine players and limit the playing time of Kyle O’Quinn, Kevin Seraphin, Sasha Vujacic and Lou Amundson.
  • Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had good things to say about rookie Kristaps Porzingis, according to Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. Porzingis is averaging 13.2 points and 7.9 rebounds per game halfway through his first NBA season. “They were very astute in figuring out what he might be down the road,” Popovich said. “His agility, his sense of the game, his skills, are quite significant. I think he’s going to be a great player.”
  • New York’s best opportunity for improvement next season will come through free agency, contends Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News. The Knicks will have approximately $20MM in cap space this summer and won’t have their first-round pick because of the 2013 Andrea Bargnani trade.

Knicks Notes: Bargnani, Carmelo, Amundson

Andrea Bargnani “was and still is” a big tease who seemed like a “malingerer,” Knicks team president Phil Jackson told friend Charley Rosen, whose latest interview with the Zen Master appears today on ESPN.com. Jackson didn’t like the way he refused to engage in non-contact activities while he was recovering from an injury, nor his on-court intensity. Still, Jackson believed his offensive game was “perfectly suited” to the triangle offense. Bargnani left the Knicks for the Nets this summer on a two-year deal for the minimum salary. Jackson evaluated each member of New York’s season-ending roster, coach Derek Fisher, and even himself as part of his conversation with Rosen, which is certainly worth a read. We’ll pass along a couple of other highlights from the piece here amid the latest on the Knicks: