Thunder Sign Reggie Williams To 10-Day Deal
12:03pm: The Thunder has officially announced the signing, via press release.
7:58am: Four-year NBA veteran Reggie Williams is headed to the Thunder on a 10-day contract, reports Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman. The 27-year-old swingman has been with the Thunder’s D-League affiliate since December following NBA interest from the Bulls and Grizzlies. The official announcement of the signing should take place this morning, according to Mayberry.
Williams spent the past four seasons in the NBA with the Warriors and Bobcats. His sophomore campaign, in which he shot 42.3% from three-point range, helped him earn a two-year, $5.1MM deal with Charlotte after the lockout in 2011. He nonetheless shot just 30.7% from behind the arc over the duration of that contract, and wound up on just a partially guaranteed minimum-salary deal this past summer with the Rockets, who cut him prior to opening night.
The 27-year-old rediscovered his stroke in the D-League, knocking down 38.2% of his three-pointers as he averaged 20.6 points per game over 20 appearances. The Interperformances client will fill Oklahoma City’s lone remaining open roster spot.
Nets Sign Jorge Gutierrez To 10-Day Deal
The Nets have signed Jorge Gutierrez to a 10-day contract, the team announced via Twitter. The move had appeared likely last night after Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported that the Nets preferred Gutierrez to Darius Johnson-Odom as they sought a 15th player. Brooklyn had been keeping an open roster spot, with 13 guaranteed contracts and Jason Collins on his second 10-day deal.
Gutierrez, who’s set to become the fourth Mexican-born player to take part in an official NBA game, was with the Nets during the preseason. Though he saw limited action in exhibition games, his performance during camp was key in the team’s decision to bring him back. The 25-year-old has spent time the past two seasons with the D-League affiliate of the Cavs, and he’s averaged 13.9 points and 6.9 assists in 32.7 minutes per game so far this year.
The 6’3″ Gutierrez went undrafted in 2012 out of Cal, where he received Pac-12 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors. He’s seen short minutes in summer league with the Nuggets and Kings the past two offseasons.
D-League Notes: Byars, Karasev, Buycks
Derrick Byars has been acquired as a returning player by the Bakersfield Jam, according to Gino Pilato of D-League Digest. Byars’ last NBA action came during a call up by the Spurs during the 2011/2012 season. He attended training camp with the Grizzlies this season, and most recently had signed with the Russian club Krasny Oktybr, but left the team prior to ever playing in a game.
More from the D-League:
- Former Knicks and Erie Bayhawks guard Chris Smith tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv (Twitter link) that he left Erie for “personal reasons” and intends to catch on with a team during the Summer League.
- The Cavaliers have assigned Sergey Karasev to the Canton Charge of the D-League they announced via press release. Karasev has appeared in 12 games for the Charge and has averaged 13.1 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 2.4 APG, and 1.2 SPG while logging 30 MPG.
- The Raptors have reassigned Dwight Buycks to the Bakersfield Jam of the D-League (Twitter link). Buycks has appeared in 13 games for the Raptors this year, averaging 3.2 PPG, 1.5 RPG, and 0.8 APG in 9.5 minutes per game.
Draft Notes: Pittman, Melvin, Exum
Here are a few draft-related links worth passing along tonight:
- Recent Marshall basketball standout Elijah Pittman has entered the NBDL player pool, according to Gino Pilato of DLeagueDigest.com. Pilato adds that the 6’9 forward is eligible for the 2014 NBA Draft and will look for an opportunity to impress NBA executives via a stint in the D-League.
- Former DePaul star Cleveland Melvin has been claimed from the NBDL player pool by the BayHawks, which serves as the Knicks’ D-League affiliate (Keith Schlosser of Ridiculous Upside reports). Like Pittman, Melvin will also be eligible for the 2014 NBA Draft.
- ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla offered his thoughts on Dante Exum during a recent interview with John Ireland of ESPN 710 and surely turned a few heads (hat tip to Jabari Davis of Basketball Insiders): “He reminds me of a young, 1982 circa North Carolina Michael Jordan…He’s not going to be as great, obviously, unless I’m wrong… but he kind of reminds you of a young colt that’s just about to run his first claimer race, and you’re looking at him (thinking), ‘This guy could win the Kentucky Derby someday.”
- More from Fraschilla on Exum: “He’s got great basketball instincts…He’ll drive in, and when you think he’s going to use his right hand, he’ll switch to the left hand at the last minute. He’ll take off about a half step earlier than you think he should, but then he’ll hang in the air and bank it off the glass…Getting your own shot in the league is a skill…If I had to pick today, it would be in some order of Joel Embiid, Jabari Parker and (Exum).”
- On ESPN’s Mike and Mike Show, the unquestionably outspoken Charles Barkley offered his solution to the issue of tanking: give every lottery team one ping pong ball instead of rewarding teams with the worst record (hat tip to Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv).
Odds & Ends: Arthur, Murphy, Mekel
Darrell Arthur isn’t completely sold on exercising his player option for next season, worth more than $3.457MM, but he’s strongly leaning toward picking it up and remaining with the Nuggets, as Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post observes.
“I’m just going to wait until the season is over with and talk to (Nuggets GM) Tim (Connelly) and see what’s up and go from there,” Arthur said. “But I’m looking forward to coming back here. I like it here. I feel like when we’re healthy, we have a great team to build with, and I want to be a part of it.”
Here’s more from around the NBA:
- Former Jazz swingman Kevin Murphy received multiple NBA training camp invitations this past offseason, but he didn’t think any of them gave him a fighting chance to make an opening night roster, as he tells Cameron Schott of RealGM. Murphy has instead split the season between a French team and the D-League, where he’s putting up impressive numbers for the Idaho Stampede.
- The Mavericks have sent Gal Mekel to the D-League, the team announced. It’s a rehab assignment, notes Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The rookie point guard has missed the past 21 games for Dallas after having surgery on his right knee.
- Bucks 10-day signee Tony Mitchell admits he has a “strange game,” but coach Larry Drew explains how it fits what the team was looking for. Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the details.
- Even if Canisius point guard Billy Baron goes undrafted, several NBA teams say they’d invite him to training camp for next season, as Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher writes.
Knicks D-League Affiliate Waives Chris Smith
1:48pm: Smith was upset over his playing time and left the team several days ago, a source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).
1:22pm: Smith had several run-ins with Erie’s coaches, precipitating the decision to let him go, tweets Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com.
1:00pm: The BayHawks have officially waived Smith, the team announced.
8:42am: The D-League affiliate of the Knicks has decided to waive former Knicks guard Chris Smith, a source tells Gino Pilato of D-League Digest. The Erie BayHawks have yet to make an official announcement, but it appears one of the most controversial additions to an NBA roster this season is about to find himself without a home in the D-League, much less the NBA.
The Knicks signed Smith, the brother of J.R. Smith, in the offseason to a minimum-salary contract that became fully guaranteed if he made the team out of camp, and he did so, sticking with New York for the first two months of the season. This was despite the reported belief of some Knicks coaches who thought Chris Smith wasn’t even qualified to play in the the D-League. The Knicks waived him in December, irking his brother, and Chris Smith wound up heading to play in the D-League, where the BayHawks grabbed his rights.
Chris Smith averaged 8.1 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 20.8 minutes per game for Erie, though some of his 23 appearances came on assignment while still under contract with the Knicks. The 26-year-old hasn’t played since a five-minute cameo on February 22nd. The Knicks are still on the hook for the Leon Rose client‘s full NBA salary for this season, which is compounded because of luxury tax penalties.
Both Smith brothers signed new contracts with the Knicks this summer, though it appeared that the one the team gave to Chris was in deference to J.R., who won the Sixth Man of the Year award last season. Rose, the agent for both Smiths, is with the Creative Artists Agency, which has close ties to Knicks management. Rose also represents Carmelo Anthony, who plans to opt out of his deal with New York and become a free agent this summer.
Bobcats Sign Justin Hamilton To 10-Day Pact
TUESDAY, 11:31am: Hamilton’s signing is official, the team announced via press release.
SUNDAY, 12:59pm: The Bobcats intend to sign 7-footer Justin Hamilton to a 10-day contract on Tuesday, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Hamilton is currently playing for the Sioux Fall Skyforce in the NBA D-League. Hamilton was profiled here as the next possible candidate to be signed from the D-League.
Hamilton’s stats in 37 games with the Skyforce were averages of 19.3 PPG, 9.2 RPG, 1.5 APG, and 2 BPG in 35.2 MPG.
Hamilton was drafted in the second-round in 2012 by the Sixers. He was subsequently traded to the Heat for the rights to Arnett Moultrie. The Heat then waived Hamilton back in October of 2013.
Bucks Sign Tony Mitchell To 10-Day Contract
TUESDAY, 10:58am: The team officially announced the move, via Twitter.
MONDAY, 5:30pm: The Bucks are set to sign forward Tony Mitchell to a 10-day contract, sources tell Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter). Mitchell has been with the D-League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
Mitchell is putting up averages of 19.4 points and 5.4 rebounds in 21 games with Fort Wayne this season. It’s an encore of his 2012/13 campaign in which he put up 21.9 points and 6.4 rebounds per contest over 48 games. Mitchell, 24, was in camp with the Kings over the offseason but was unable to survive the final cut.
The 6’6″ forward is not to be confused with the Pistons’ 6’9″ forward of the same name. The Bucks’ Mitchell was a standout at Alabama while the Pistons forward made his name at North Texas.
Pacific Rumors: Nash, Granger, Warriors
Steve Nash, who’s likely out for the season, doesn’t think GM Mitch Kupchak‘s recent comment that it would be “unethical” for the team not to let the point guard determine his own future with the club is a guarantee he won’t be waived. Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News has more. “You never know what the case is in a month or two weeks physically from a club standpoint and from my standpoint,” Nash said. “When you’re looking at potentially the last few months of your career, I didn’t want that to slide by without getting back on the court. It motivated me. Who knows now.” More from around the Pacific Division..
- Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (via Twitter) confirms that Danny Granger‘s deal with the Clippers is a one-year pact for the prorated minimum. It was widely assumed that this was the case after Granger and the Sixers agreed to a buyout, springing him loose for the rest of the season and postseason.
- Warriors veteran Jermaine O’Neal is taking one last shot at winning a ring, writes Diamond Leung of the Mercury News. The Warriors big man says he can envision a scenario this offseason in which he can’t get into the proper frame of mind to start training for another season.
- The Warriors and the San Francisco Giants could team up to get a new basketball arena built near AT&T Park, write Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross of the San Francisco Chronicle. The W’s say they’re still going “full steam ahead” with the Piers 30-32 project, but they’re also considering fallback options.
- The Warriors announced that they have assigned Nemanja Nedovic to their D-League affiliate in Santa Cruz. Nedovic has appeared in five games (all starts) for Santa Cruz this season, compiling averages of 19.0 points, 3.6 assists, 2.2 rebounds and 1.60 steals in 29.2 minutes.
Odds & Ends: Wade, Colangelo, Deng
The Heat seem to be chief in Dwyane Wade‘s mind as he eyes his early termination option this summer, but the decision won’t necessarily be straightforward, as he tells TNT’s David Aldridge, who shared Wade’s thoughts in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com.
“Well, I want to be here,” Wade said. “I think that’s always the things I’ve always said and I’ve always expressed. And after that, I want to win. I don’t want to be in a situation where I’m starting over and I’m rebuilding. I want to win. And I want to be on a team that has an opportunity to do that, and feel like I’m a big part of that. This is where I want to be. But as players, [having] options is good. Because you don’t know what is to happen or what is to come. So for us, I think we’re in a great situation. Guys have options as players, and they can exercise those options. Who knows what that means? But right now, for us, we’re on a very good team. We enjoy each other. We enjoy this city and we enjoy playing for this organization, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”
Here’s more from Aldridge’s piece and other news from around the league:
- Bryan Colangelo spoke with Aldridge and attempted to walk back his comments from Friday in which he said he tried to tank as GM of the Raptors in 2011/12.
- The Pacers reportedly spoke with the Cavs about Luol Deng before the trade deadline, but Andrew Perna of RealGM hears Indiana had no interest in the soon-to-be free agent (Twitter link).
- The Rockets have recalled Troy Daniels from the D-League, the team announced via Twitter. Daniels had been with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers before the Rockets signed him last month. Houston immediately assigned him back there after inking the deal, which is for the minimum salary, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders notes in an update to the team’s salary page.