D-League Notes: Harris, Dekker, Patterson
The Raptors‘ D-League affiliate has added swingman Nick Wiggins and power forward Ronald Roberts to its roster, Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca relays (via Twitter). Wiggins, a native Canadian, was waived by the Wolves during the preseason, and later by the Idaho Stampede, Utah’s affiliate. Roberts was among the final cuts made by Toronto this year. Both players will still remain free to sign with any interested NBA team.
Here’s more news from out of the D-League:
- The Cavaliers assigned Joe Harris to the Canton Charge, their D-League affiliate, the team announced. This will be the first D-League assignment of the season for both the player and the team. Harris’ assignment was first reported by Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer (Twitter link).
- Rookie combo forward Sam Dekker has been assigned to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the Rockets‘ affiliate, Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle tweets. This is Dekker’s first D-League assignment of the young season.
- The Hawks have assigned Lamar Patterson to the D-League, and he will report to the Austin Spurs as part of the flexible assignment process, Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution relays. This will be Patterson’s first jaunt to the D-League this season.
- The Raptors have assigned Lucas Nogueira and Bruno Caboclo to the Raptors 905, their D-League affiliate, the team announced.
- Hornets coach Steve Clifford said that the team is open to sending Aaron Harrison to the D-League at some point this season, but added that Harrison was currently needed with the main squad for Charlotte’s practice sessions, Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer tweets.
- You can keep track off all the D-League assignments and recalls made throughout the season here.
Northwest Notes: Taylor, Leonard, Mudiay, Huestis
The idea that Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor is looking to sell a minority interest in the team is “old news,” as Taylor put it in a comment to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities, confirming that he’s had contact with Steve Kaplan, with whom he’s reportedly engaged in serious talks (All four Twitter links). Taylor said he’s also spoken to others, but some of them want to move the team and Kaplan doesn’t, Wolfson points out. Kevin Garnett is interested in someday owning the Wolves, but Taylor refused comment on any potential involvement for KG, Wolfson relays. Kaplan would really prefer to become a majority owner, but with few teams on the market, it makes sense that he would buy a smaller stake and position himself to purchase the controlling interest later, observes Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press (on Twitter). See more from the Northwest Division:
- The dislocated shoulder that Meyers Leonard suffered in Wednesday’s game will probably sideline him for at least four weeks, and it’s conceivable that he ends up having surgery that would knock him out for the season, an orthopedic surgeon without ties to Leonard or the Trail Blazers told Jason Quick of CSNNW.com. The Blazers have yet to release an official timetable for the big man, who recently turned down a “considerable” extension offer to set up restricted free agency next summer.
- Bucks coach and one-time legendary point guard Jason Kidd believes the Nuggets scored with their pick of Emmanuel Mudiay at No. 7 in this year’s draft, predicting that Mudiay will be better than he was, notes Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. “He’s better already,” Kidd said. “Being able to run an NBA team at 19 is not easy. You look at some of the greats — Magic [Johnson] was able to do it. And you’re looking at this kid Mudiay, who has the opportunity to do something special. So, I would encourage him to be better than me, and I think he will be at the end of the day.”
- The Thunder have assigned Josh Huestis to the D-League, the team announced. Huestis spent last season in the D-League in an unusual draft-and-stash arrangement, but this time, he’ll continue to draw NBA paychecks while in the D-League after signing with the Thunder on a rookie scale contract this past summer.
And-Ones: D-League, Printezis, Taylor
NBA D-League president Malcolm Turner says the NBA is moving closer to a 30-for-30 model that would provide each NBA team with its own D-League affiliate, and Turner believes that it is a goal that could be realized within the next five years, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today writes. “All those NBA teams who currently don’t have a D-League team, we’re in active conversations with all of them,” Turner said. “Each team is at varying stages in terms of interest, and we’re trying to prioritize actionable interest and opportunities we can act on now. We’re already working on the pipeline of opportunities for 2017/18 and beyond. One of the reasons we’re focused on them so far in advance is 30-for-30 is our No. 1 initiative and we feel like we’re now within striking distance of achieving that goal.”
Turner also acknowledged that increasing player salaries in the D-League to be more competitive with overseas clubs is an important part of allowing the league to grow, Zillgitt adds. “As we grow, we obviously have additional player rosters to fill,” Turner continued. “We want to make sure we’re adding more and better talent to the league rather than less. We are taking a look at any and all opportunities to enhance our value proposition for talent. We’re in the market for top talent to fill our rosters and assessing our overall business accordingly. We have a bright future, and we’re working very hard to realize those opportunities.”
Here’s more from around the league:
- Wolves owner Glen Taylor is engaged in serious talks to sell approximately 20% ownership of the franchise to a group led by Grizzlies minority partner Steve Kaplan, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reports. The group’s motivation for purchasing a minority share is that it hopes to position itself to buy the majority stake if Taylor decides to sell the franchise in the future, Wojnarowski adds.
- Greek power forward Giorgos Printezis, whose draft rights went from the Hawks to San Antonio in July as part of the Tiago Splitter trade, is on the Spurs‘ radar, though at 30 years old he is running out of time if he wishes to make the jump stateside, Aris Barkas of Eurohoops.net writes. “It was good to meet with Giorgos. We traded for his rights last summer and this was the first time I got to spend some time with him. I have never met him before,” said Spurs GM R.C.Buford, who recently scouted the player in Athens. Printezis’ contract with Olympiacos runs through the summer of 2017, according to Barkas. As for the chances of seeing the forward in San Antonio at that point, Buford told Barkas, “I think that a part of this decision belongs to him. For sure we will be following him and if our needs fit his needs, then we will see what happens.”
- The Bucks, who are currently without their own affiliate, are willing to invest in a D-League team, and the franchise will meet later this month to discuss the possibilities, Zillgitt tweets.
Pacific Notes: Murphy, Russell, Livingston
The Warriors announced today that Chris Murphy has been named team president of the Santa Cruz Warriors, Golden State’s D-League affiliate. “We’re extremely pleased to have Chris in position to lead our business efforts with the Santa Cruz Warriors,” said Golden State team president Rick Welts. “He’s done a terrific job of enhancing our ticket sales initiatives with the Warriors in recent years and he’s ready for a bigger challenge and an opportunity to expand his role within our organization. We truly view our Santa Cruz partnership as the perfect training ground for not only our players and coaches, but for front office personnel such as Chris. This is a great example of that synergy within the organization and a move that will benefit both the Warriors and Chris as we move forward.”
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Despite receiving criticism for not playing rookie point guard D’Angelo Russell, Lakers coach Byron Scott says that he won’t rush the young playmaker’s development along, writes Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times. “I’m not just going to put him out there to put him out there. If I do that and he’s not prepared and he’s not learning, then I’m preparing him to fail,” Scott said. “And I’m not going to do that. I think this kid is too valuable to us. His learning process is getting better and better. Our coaches are spending more time with him. So I’m pretty confident that he’ll be better in a week or so, that he’ll understand exactly what we need from him on a night to night basis.“
- Warriors guard Shaun Livingston credits the late Flip Saunders for reviving his career back in 2010 when both were with the Wizards, Diamond Leung of The Bay Area News Group writes. “After playing the season with him, I just felt like I understood the NBA game, and that was the first time I really understood it,” Livingston said of Saunders. “I always had a high IQ, but just as far as time and score and just as a pro, he was a guard’s coach. He gave me the opportunity to implant me back into the NBA. Just to be somewhat relevant again…he gave me an opportunity. He blessed me an opportunity and allowed me to a chance to make the most of it.”
- Xavier Henry, who suffered a season-ending Achilles tear while with the Lakers last season, said he was glad to join the Warriors‘ D-League team as an affiliate player this season because of the reputation of the team’s training staff, who are lauded for their ability to rehab players from serious injuries, Adam Johnson of D-League Digest relays. Henry also told Johnson that the current timetable for his return to action is anywhere from one to two months. “I can’t really tell you exactly, could be better in three weeks, it could be better in two and a half months, but the things that I’ve done already that I have in place I feel like all I need is more strength, more structure,” Henry said. “And from then on as long as everything’s great, strength and your form’s good then it’s all about repetition, repetition, repetition before you can really do it full speed, every day on the court.”
Henry Sims, Lorenzo Brown Join Pistons D-League
The D-League affiliate of the Pistons has added center Henry Sims and point guard Lorenzo Brown to the roster, Peter J. Wallner of MLive.com reports. The Grand Rapids Drive already held Brown’s D-League rights, so they signed him directly. Sims signed with the D-League at large and was subject to the league’s waiver process, and Grand Rapids filed a successful claim that allowed the team to acquire the big man. Both players are still free to sign with any NBA team that expresses interest this season.
Brown, 25, has made a total of 55 appearances in two NBA seasons, averaging 3.4 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 2.4 assists to go along with a slash line of .375/.155/.656. He was in training camp with the Timberwolves this year, but Minnesota waived him prior to the regular season. Brown’s deal with the Wolves included a $75K partial guarantee, giving the player some breathing room financially this season.
Sims, who is also 25, made 73 appearances for the Sixers last season, including 32 starts. He averaged 8.0 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 19.2 minutes per contest. His career numbers through three NBA campaigns are 7.8 PPG, 4.9 RPG, and 1.1 APG to go along with a slash line of .475/.174/.760. Philadelphia didn’t tender a qualifying offer to the big man this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent. The big man, who was in Suns camp on a non-guaranteed contract, was waived during the preseason.
Eastern Notes: Porzingis, Whiteside, Durant
Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis arrived in the NBA with questions regarding whether or not his thin frame could endure the nightly beatings administered by the league’s other big men, but the Latvian has shown that he can hold his own thus far, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com writes. “As you can see, I’m still skinny, I’m still light. But I fight hard and I can’t back down to anybody,” said Porzingis. “So that’s been my game; a lot of people didn’t know my game. So that’s why they thought, ‘Skinny white guy, he’s not going to be physical.’ But I still fight for those rebounds and try to do my job on the court.”
While the 20-year-old has gotten off to a solid start, averaging 11.6 points and 9.0 rebounds per contest, the coaching staff cautions against placing too high an expectation on what Porzingis will be able to accomplish this season, Begley relays. “I don’t think we could anticipate that he’d be as good as he’s been. There probably will be a stretch for two weeks where he looks bad and everybody is questioning whether we should have drafted him and all the stuff that comes with that,” coach Derek Fisher said. “He’s a rookie and there’s a lot to learn. His ceiling is a long way from wherever he is now.”
Here’s more from out of the Eastern Conference:
- The Celtics have once again assigned swingman James Young and power forward Jordan Mickey to the Maine Red Claws, their D-League affiliate, the team announced. This will mark Young’s fourth jaunt to Maine of the young season, and Mickey’s third, as our tracker shows.
- One executive who spoke with Chris Mannix of SI.com said he wouldn’t sign 2016 free agent Hassan Whiteside for more than $10MM a year, which Mannix connects to the Heat big man’s track record of maturity issues.
- Kevin Durant‘s relationship with the Wizards and their fanbase will never quite be the same after making what could be his last appearance at the Verizon Center as a visiting player on Tuesday night, writes Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post. If Durant signs with Washington next offseason when he becomes an unrestricted free agent, he will arrive with a massive set of expectations attached. But if he instead elects not to play for his hometown squad, there will be a palpable sense of disappointment present every time he plays in D.C., Steinberg opines.
- Bucks point guard Tyler Ennis credits his time spent with the Suns during the early half of the 2014/15 season for helping his development as a player along, Charles F. Gardner of The Journal-Sentinel writes. “In the long run, it helped me a lot,” Ennis said of his time in Phoenix. “Competing against those guys [Goran Dragic, Eric Bledsoe and Isaiah Thomas] in practice is not something every rookie gets to do. I learned a lot from them.” The second year player has been forced into a starting role for Milwaukee thanks to an injury to Michael Carter-Williams.
D-League Notes: Bulls, Hawks, Celtics, Sixers
GM Gar Forman said the Bulls haven’t used the D-League that frequently because they wanted the players “in our culture,” K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune passes along via Twitter. Earlier today, the Bulls formally announced that they will have their own D-League team starting in the 2016/17 season, so that concern will no longer be an issue.
Here’s more D-League news to pass along:
- Edy Tavares is headed to the D-League affiliate of the Spurs, the Hawks announced today, confirming Tuesday’s report from Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Atlanta was sending the rookie on assignment. The Hawks don’t have a D-League affiliate, so it wasn’t initially clear where he’d end up, though it’s no surprise to see him head to the Austin Spurs, given the ties between the Atlanta and San Antonio organizations.
- The Sixers sent point guards Kendall Marshall and Tony Wroten to their D-League affiliate, the Delaware 87ers, the team announced via press release. The duo aren’t expected to play in any D-League games, but they will work out with the team as they recover from their respective injuries, per John Finger of CSNPhilly.com. These are the first D-League assignments of the season for Philadelphia.
- The Celtics assigned James Young to the Maine Red Claws, their D-League affiliate, and later recalled both him and Jordan Mickey, the team announced (Twitter links). Both players were sent to Maine to log more practice time. It was the third D-League assignment of the season for Young, and the second for Mickey, as our assignment and recall tracker shows.
- The Rockets have assigned swingman K.J. McDaniels to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, their D-League affiliate, the team announced. This is the first D-League assignment of the 2015/16 season for both the player and team.
Eddie Scarito contributed to this post
D-League Formally Adds Bulls Affiliate For 2016/17
The D-League will expand to add a one-to-one affiliate of the Bulls for the 2016/17 season, the league and the Bulls formally announced via press release. The Bulls will own the team outright, running its basketball operations as well as the business side. The affiliate will be based at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. The team is the third that’s set to join the D-League for next season, when the minor league is poised to swell to 22 teams, all of which will be affiliated directly with an NBA parent club. The Hornets and Nets are the other NBA teams starting up their own D-League affiliates next season.
“We’re extremely excited for the valuable investment the Bulls are making by owning and operating an NBA D-League franchise,” Bulls executive VP of basketball operations John Paxson said in the team’s statement. “While it will ingrain our brand more deeply in the surrounding communities, it will also strengthen our team on the court. Our younger players will have a place close to home to grow and mature while playing within a developmental platform that is consistent with Bulls basketball.”
Formal news about a D-League team in Chicago has been expected since the team acknowledged its plans late last month, as Eric Peterson of the Daily Herald detailed. The team won local government approval in Hoffman Estates this week, though a lease agreement still must be finalized.
Still, the Bulls seemed an unlikely candidate to jump into the D-League game before news of their plans emerged. They haven’t made any D-League assignments since 2013, when they twice sent Marquis Teague to the affiliate they used to share with multiple other NBA teams. Before that, their last D-League assignment took place in 2010. The addition of the Bulls affiliate leaves the Hawks, Nuggets, Clippers, Bucks, Timberwolves, Pelicans, Trail Blazers and Wizards as the only NBA franchises without D-League teams that are either already in operation or in place for next season.
And-Ones: Tavares, King, Chalmers
The Nets, who are off to an 0-7 start to the 2015/16 campaign, are interested in reworking the roster through the trade market, though GM Billy King doesn’t anticipate anything drastic occurring, Tim Bontemps of The New York Post relays. With Brooklyn set to have in the neighborhood of $40MM in available cap space next summer, the team doesn’t want to make a short-sighted move, Bontemps adds. “We can trade now and eat all that space up, get to 30-something wins and make the playoffs in the eighth spot,” King said. “[But] then, where’s the future now? So it’s about adding the right pieces and being patient. We didn’t get here overnight, and we are not going to get out of it overnight. That’s reality. There is not something where it’s, ‘OK, this is the magic wand and we are going to do this and it’s going to change overnight. We knew that going in, we knew that when we made those decisions and it didn’t work, and so now we’ve got to gradually, systematically dig yourself out of it.”
Here’s more from around the league:
- The Hawks have assigned center Edy Tavares to the D-League, Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Since Atlanta is without its own affiliate, Tavares will be subject to the league’s flexible assignment process to determine the team he’ll report to, Vivlamore adds. This is the first D-League assignment of the year for Atlanta.
- The Euroleague’s new alignment and format opens the door to the possibility of a future partnership with the NBA, and a possible “Euro Conference,” international journalist David Pick tweets. Euroleague Basketball A-Licence Clubs and IMG have agreed to a 10 year partnership wherein the two parties will oversee the commercial operation and the management of all global rights covering both media and marketing, according to the official release.
- The Heat created a trade exception worth approximately $2.1MM as a result of dealing Mario Chalmers to the Grizzlies earlier today, Ethan J. Skolnick of The Miami Herald notes (via Twitter). The precise figure is $2,129,535, the difference between the salaries of Chalmers and Beno Udrih.
Eastern Notes: Nets, Beal, Durant, Young
Nets GM Billy King has made exploratory trade calls in response to the team’s 0-7 start, as he told reporters today, including Newsday’s Roderick Boone (Twitter link). It would be tough for Brooklyn to engineer a deal before December 15th, the date most of the players signed this past offseason become eligible to be traded, but the GM isn’t hiding from the blame even as he conceded a quick fix is unlikely, Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com relays (ESPN Now link).
“I’m not sitting in here shirking accountability,” King said. “… It stops at me. I’m the GM. You make decisions along the way, and it’s my job now to figure it out and turn it around. … It doesn’t happen overnight. We knew when we traded [the first-round] picks and went down this road that if it doesn’t go well you have to dig yourself out of it, and that’s what we’re doing now.”
See more from the Eastern Conference:
- Kevin Durant called the less-than-subtle affection that surrounded him during the Thunder’s game at the Wizards last season “disrespectful,” and Bradley Beal concurs, notes J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic.com. “It is disrespectful because he plays for Oklahoma City,” Beal said. “He doesn’t play for Washington.” The Wizards have made no secret of their desire to attract Durant, a D.C. native, to Washington, and, for what it’s worth, Durant’s friend John Wall said he and the former MVP worked out together over the summer, notes Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post (on Twitter).
- Beal echoed many of the sentiments of Joakim Noah in praising Billy Donovan, their former college coach who’s now the bench boss for the Thunder, as The Oklahoman’s Anthony Slater observes. “He’s always been like a second Dad to me,” Beal said of Donovan. “He’s a family first guy and granted me a lot of freedom. We talk a lot.” Noah and Beal are both poised for free agency in the summer, but the Wizards can match offers for Beal, who’s said he has no desire to leave Washington.
- The Celtics have recalled James Young from the D-League, the team announced (Twitter link). Young’s assignment, already his second on the season, lasted just one day. Rookie Jordan Mickey, whom the team sent to Maine with Young, remains with the D-League club.