NBA G League Rumors | Hoops Rumors

NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 10/28/19

October 28th, 2019 at 9:46pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Every night during the NBA G League season, Hoops Rumors provides the assignments and recalls by each team. With training camps now open, here are Monday’s assignments and recalls from around the G League:

Bulls swingman Chandler Hutchison was assigned to the Windy City Bulls, the Bulls’ PR department tweets. Hutchison, who recently had his contract option for the 2020/21 season picked up, is working his way back from a hamstring injury.
As expected, the Grizzlies assigned former lottery pick Josh Jackson to the Memphis Hustle, the Grizzlies’ PR department tweets. That was the plan all along when Memphis acquired the former Suns forward this offseason and he attempts to jump-start his career.
Undrafted rookie guard Jalen Lecque was assigned to Northern Arizona by the Suns, according to the team’s Twitter feed.
The Jazz assigned Miye Oni to the Salt Lake City Stars, Tony Jones of The Athletic tweets. The rookie guard out of Yale was selected with the 58th overall pick in June.
The Timberwolves assigned forward Keita Bates-Diop, guard Jaylen Nowell and center Naz Reid to their Iowa affiliate, according to a team press release. Bates-Diop was a second-round selection last year, while Nowell was chosen in the second round this June. Reid is an undrafted rookie out of LSU.
The Mavericks assigned rookie forward Isaiah Roby to the Texas Legends, Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News tweets. Roby, who played at Nebraska, was chosen in the second round in June and acquired in a draft-night deal.
The Sixers assigned swingman Zhaire Smith to the Delaware Blue Coats, the team’s PR department tweets. Smith, a 2018 first-round selection, recently had his 2020/21 contract option picked up by Philadelphia even though he missed most of his rookie campaign due to injuries.
The Hornets assigned rookie forward Jalen McDaniels to the Greensboro Swarm, according to a team press release. McDaniels, a second-round pick, made his NBA debut on Friday.

NBA G League Affiliate Players For 2019/20

October 28th, 2019 at 2:44pm CST by Luke Adams

Throughout the offseason and preseason, NBA teams are permitted to carry 20 players, but that total must be cut down to 15 (plus a pair of two-way players) in advance of opening night. However, up to four players waived by teams prior to the season can be designated as “affiliate players” and assigned to their G League squads.

As we explain in our glossary entry on the subject, if a player’s NBA team has designated him as an affiliate player and he signs a G League contract, he is automatically assigned to that team’s NBAGL roster.

Here are the 100 NBA G League affiliate players for the 28 NBAGL squads to start the 2019/20 season, per the league’s official site:

Atlanta Hawks (College Park Skyhawks):

Boston Celtics (Maine Red Claws):

Brooklyn Nets (Long Island Nets):

Charlotte Hornets (Greensboro Swarm):

Chicago Bulls (Windy City Bulls):

Cleveland Cavaliers (Canton Charge):

Dallas Mavericks (Texas Legends):

Detroit Pistons (Grand Rapids Drive):

Golden State Warriors (Santa Cruz Warriors):

Houston Rockets (Rio Grande Valley Vipers):

Indiana Pacers (Fort Wayne Mad Ants):

Jakeenan Gant
C.J. Wilcox

Los Angeles Clippers (Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario):

Los Angeles Lakers (South Bay Lakers):

Memphis Grizzlies (Memphis Hustle):

Miami Heat (Sioux Falls Skyforce):

Milwaukee Bucks (Wisconsin Herd):

Minnesota Timberwolves (Iowa Wolves):

New Orleans Pelicans (Erie BayHawks):

New York Knicks (Westchester Knicks):

Oklahoma City Thunder (Oklahoma City Blue):

Orlando Magic (Lakeland Magic):

Philadelphia 76ers (Delaware Blue Coats):

Phoenix Suns (Northern Arizona Suns):

Sacramento Kings (Stockton Kings):

San Antonio Spurs (Austin Spurs):

Daulton Hommes
Dedric Lawson
Kavion Pippen
- Note: The Spurs are permitted to carry five affiliate players because Pippen – a Warriors affiliate player – was acquired in a trade over the weekend.
Galen Robinson Jr.
Kenny Williams

Toronto Raptors (Raptors 905):

Utah Jazz (Salt Lake City Stars):

Washington Wizards (Capital City Go-Go):

45-Day NBA Clock Begins Ticking For Two-Way Players

October 28th, 2019 at 11:05am CST by Luke Adams

NBA G League training camps open on Monday, which means that today is the first day the 45-day NBA clock for two-way players begins to tick.

Players on two-way contracts are only eligible to spend 45 days per season with their NBA team. However, the days before G League training camps begin and after the NBAGL regular season ends on March 28 don’t count toward that limit. That gives two-way players up to extra 24 days at the NBA level at the start and end of the season.

If a two-way player remains with his NBA team today and isn’t transferred to his G League team at all, he could reach his 45-day NBA limit as early as December 11.

As cap expert Albert Nahmad has noted (via Twitter), a player who spends the entire 2019/20 season on a two-way contract can earn up to a maximum of $410,706.

In order to maximize his salary, a two-way player would have to spend the next 11 days with his NBA team up until the G League regular season begins on November 8, then have his remaining 34 NBA days used during the NBAGL season. In that scenario, the player could earn the following salaries at the two levels:

$350,189 in the NBA (a prorated portion of $898,310 for 69 days).
$60,517 in the G League (a prorated portion of $79,568 for 108 days).

The full list of current two-way players around the NBA can be found right here.

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NBA G League

Rockets Notes: House, D’Antoni, Blossomgame, Shabazz

October 27th, 2019 at 10:23am CST by Arthur Hill

Danuel House credits Rockets assistant coach John Lucas for helping him to stay focused when it appeared his NBA dream may not work out, writes Sean Deveney for Forbes. House reached out to Lucas after being waived by the Wizards in March of 2017. A broken wrist had sidelined him for more than two months and he had gotten into just one game – less than a minute of playing time – with his first NBA team.

“Shut your mouth,” said Lucas, who first met House at age 13 at a Houston basketball camp. “Shut your mouth and get ready for your next opportunity.”

That came the following year with the Suns, but House found a more permanent home last season with the Rockets. He spent most of the year as a two-way player, but started 13 NBA games and eventually earned a three-year contract.

“I also told him he would be an NBA player,” Lucas recalled. “You could see he was good enough for that. I just never imagined we’d be together with the same team.”

There’s more from Houston:

Mike D’Antoni was among the first coaches to successfully challenge a call, but he doesn’t believe teams should keep their right to challenge if they’re correct, relays Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. Under the newly adopted rule, coaches get to use the challenge once per game, whether they’re right or wrong. “Then you could have 20 or 30 challenges a game,” D’Antoni said. “I could see why they don’t do it.”
The Rockets’ G League affiliate has traded for Jaron Blossomgame, who was with Houston during the preseason. Blossomgame’s returning player rights were held by the Canton Charge, who agreed to give him up in exchange for Gary Payton II. Blossomgame impressed Rockets coaches during camp, and he was considered as a candidate for one of the team’s two-way slots.
The Rockets weren’t able to hold onto Ronshad Shabazz after signing and waiving him last weekend. Shabazz was selected by College Park, the Hawks‘ affiliate, with the 13th pick in Saturday’s G League draft.

2019 NBA G League Draft Recap

October 26th, 2019 at 4:06pm CST by Arthur Hill

Former Miami Hurricanes star Anthony Lawrence II was selected by Northern Arizona with the first pick in today’s G League draft. A combo forward, Lawrence spent four years in college, averaging 12.5 points and 6.6 rebounds last season. He was signed and waived by the Jazz last Saturday.

Lawrence played for the Cavaliers during Summer League, then signed with Hapoel Be’er Sheva in Israel. However, he parted ways with the team earlier this month after one preseason game.

Some other notable selections include:

No. 2 overall – Sioux Falls – Trey Mourning
No. 5 overall – Iowa – Trevon Duval
No. 8 overall – South Bay – Sheldon Mac
No. 18 overall – Fort Wayne – Hasheem Thabeet

Mourning, who spent four years at Georgetown, is the son of Hall of Fame center Alonzo Mourning. He played for the Heat during Summer League. Duval, once a highly touted point guard at Duke, was a two-way player for the Bucks for most of last season and appeared in three NBA games.

Mac, formerly known as Sheldon McClellan, got into 30 games for the Wizards during the 2016/17 season. Thabeet, the second player chosen in the 2009 NBA Draft, worked out extensively with the Knicks this summer and is hoping to return to the NBA at age 32.

Other prominent draftees include former Celtics and Lakers guard Vander Blue, the 13th pick in the second round by Santa Cruz, and Trey Phills, son of former NBA player Bobby Phills, who went to Windy City with the 18th pick in the fourth round.

The full results of this year’s draft can be found here.

And-Ones: Duval, G League Draft, NBA Rosters, Williamson

October 25th, 2019 at 8:29pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Trevon Duval has signed a G League contract and is eligible for this Saturday’s draft, Adam Johnson of 2 Ways & 10 Days tweets. Duval was a two-way player for the Rockets last season and became a free agent when the team didn’t give him a qualifying offer this summer. He was claimed by Houston in March after the Bucks waived him. The former Duke guard made three cameo appearances with Milwaukee.

We have more from around the basketball world:

Journeyman center Hasheem Thabeet, former Lakers guard Vander Blue, and forward Trey Mourning, son of Alonzo Mourning, are some of the more interesting names on the list of players eligible for the G League draft, according to a league press release. The Northern Arizona Suns have the first pick.
There are 108 international players from 38 countries and territories on current NBA rosters, according to a league press release. The most-represented countries among the 108 international players on opening-night rosters are Canada (16 players), Australia (nine players), France (eight players), Croatia (seven players) and Serbia (six players). The Mavericks lead the league with seven international players.
Zion Williamson‘s knee injury created disappointment for the NBA’s TV partners, as Joe Vardon of The Athletic explains. TNT and ESPN wanted nationally-televised games featuring the Pelicans during the opening week of the season to showcase Williamson. They were stuck showing the Pelicans without the top pick in the draft on the court because it was too late to make a change. Vardon goes in-depth on how the national TV schedule is designed and notes that the Lakers play 21 of their 30 nationally -televised games after New Year’s Day because the networks wanted to feature LeBron James and Anthony Davis during the team’s playoff push.
Amida Brimah, the former UConn center who was in training camp with the Pacers, has suffered a torn right ACL, Scott Agness of The Athletic tweets. He was slated to join Indiana’s G League team, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. Brimah will undergo surgery next week, Agness adds.

Rockets Signed, Waived Ronshad Shabazz

October 23rd, 2019 at 4:24pm CST by Luke Adams

4:24pm: Agent Cam Brennick of RBA Sports confirms to JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors (Twitter link) that Shabazz will enter the G League draft, since the Rockets won’t hold his affiliate rights.

While Houston can’t designate Shabazz as an affiliate player, it’s probably safe to assume the Rio Grande Valley Vipers will target him in the NBAGL draft.

3:30pm: The Rockets were one of many NBA teams that signed and immediately waived a player before the regular season, doing so with undrafted rookie guard Ronshad Shabazz, according to RealGM’s transactions log.

In his senior season in 2018/19, Shabazz averaged 18.3 PPG, 3.3 RPG, and 2.3 APG with a shooting line of .496/.376/.815 in 32 games (32.2 MPG).

These sign-and-waive transactions are always G League-related. They’re designed to either make a player eligible to be designated as a G League “affiliate player” or to ensure that a returning-rights G League player receives an Exhibit 10 bonus.

However, the Rockets’ deal with Shabazz was a little different than every other sign-and-waive maneuver completed this fall. Rather than signing the former Appalachian State standout to an Exhibit 10 contract, Houston inked him a two-way contract before releasing him. The moves occurred on Monday, before the club officially converted Chris Clemons‘ contract to a two-way deal.

On the surface, it looks as if the Rockets were trying to secure Shabazz’s G League rights without adding any dead money to their cap. If Shabazz had signed an Exhibit 10 contract on Monday and been cut right away, he wouldn’t have cleared waivers until the second day of the regular season, meaning the tax-conscious Rockets would have been on the hook for about $10K in dead money ($18K for tax purposes) — two days’ worth of his salary.

According to Adam Johnson of 2 Ways & Days, however, NBA teams don’t retain affiliate rights for waived two-way players. That would seem to make Shabazz ineligible to be designated as an affiliate player.

General manager Daryl Morey and the Rockets are pretty savvy with their roster moves, so it’s possible they’ve found a loophole here, or perhaps there’s another motivation for the signing. The official list of 2019 affiliate players should be released next week when G League training camps open, so we’ll see at that point whether or not Shabazz shows up on the Rio Grande Valley Vipers’ roster.

Lakers Notes: Opening Night, LeBron, Kawhi, Jones

October 22nd, 2019 at 5:28pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Kyle Kuzma is not playing for the Lakers tonight against the Clippers as he recovers from a stress reaction in his left foot. According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com, it’s not clear how long Kuzma will remain sidelined.

“He’s on no-contact, half-court now,” coach Frank Vogel said of Kuzma. “I’m sure we’ll build up to no-contact, full-court with sprinting or potentially half-court with contact. I’m not sure which direction they’re going to take it next, but there will be a progression this week building him up.”

Vogel added that Kuzma has been “impatient” with his injury but is “on board with the plan” that the team has to get him back at full strength.

Here’s more from Los Angeles:

LeBron James could envision a world where Kawhi Leonard was also on the Lakers, but he isn’t sure why the reigning Finals MVP picked the Clippers in free agency, as McMenamin relays in a separate piece. “Man, how the hell can I answer that? I don’t [expletive] know,” James said jocularly when asked what convinced Leonard to sign elsewhere. “I don’t know. I don’t know. Ask Kawhi.”
Anthony Davis said he had a role in attempting to recruit Leonard. “It was fun just to go through it, for me, with a player like Kawhi, trying to recruit him to come here. It was fun,” Davis said (via McMenamin in the same article). “We had one conversation, and I think he came out with a statement, or his uncle or something … somebody said he don’t really like all the recruitment and all that stuff, so I felt like I overstepped my boundaries…But it was a fun process. I would do it all over.”
The South Bay Lakers have traded the G League rights of Jemerrio Jones to the Wisconsin Herd (Bucks‘ affiliate), per a team press release. The Lakers’ affiliate will receive the No. 8 overall pick in the upcoming G League draft and the Herd’s 2020 first-rounder for Jones, who was recently waived by the Wizards and signed by Bucks on an Exhibit 10 deal.

Atlantic Notes: Ntilikina, Miller, Brown, Tatum, Kurucs

October 21st, 2019 at 10:53pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Knicks still haven’t settled on a starting point guard but Frank Ntilikina is “motivated” by the franchise’s decision to pick up his contract option for next season, as he told Marc Berman of the New York Post and other reporters. The Knicks took a cap hit of $6,176,578 to retain Ntilikina through the 2020/21 season. “It’s great here in New York to be part of this situation,” he said. “It’s motivation and a big excitement. It makes me willing to give even more on the court on a daily basis.”

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

Malcolm Miller has made an NBA roster at the start of a season for the first time and he’s breathing a sigh of relief, Blake Murphy of The Athletic relays. The 26-year-old forward won a training camp battle for a spot on the Raptors’ roster. “Like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. Like a huge exhale,” Miller said. “Two years of back and forth, but now it’s finally official. I feel like I’ve laid two years of groundwork, so I’m more than ready to attack it at full speed.”
Miller’s G League rights were traded to the Northern Arizona Suns along with the 21st pick in the G League draft for guard Jawun Evans, Murphy tweets. However, this won’t affect Miller’s status with the Raptors. They can still assign him to Raptors 905 despite not holding his G League rights because he’s on the 15-man roster.
The incentives on Jaylen Brown’s four-year extension include $8MM if he wins the MVP, Defensive Player of the Year award or makes one of three All-NBA teams, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports tweets. The Celtics and Brown reached an extension agreement on Monday. Another $4MM in more reachable incentives includes playing 65 or more games, the team winning 49 or more games and reaching the second round of the playoffs. As previously noted, the total guaranteed money in the deal is $103MM, but it could be worth up to $115MM.
The Celtics’ decision to give Brown a huge extension sends a clear signal that they’ll do the same for Jayson Tatum next year, A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston writes. That will give Boston a dynamic duo who will both be 23 years old or younger and have ample playoff experience, Blakely notes.
Nets forward Rodions Kurucs made a brief court appearance on Monday regarding a domestic assault charge, Andrew Denney of the New York Post reports. Kurucs was arrested in September over the June 27 incident in which he allegedly choked his ex-girlfriend. He was ordered back to court Nov. 19.

Hasheem Thabeet Signs G League Contract

October 15th, 2019 at 2:43pm CST by Luke Adams

Former No. 2 overall pick Hasheem Thabeet will head to the G League as he looks to make his way back to the NBA, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that the veteran center has signed an NBAGL contract.

Thabeet, 32, hasn’t appeared in a regular season NBA game since the 2013/14 season, when he saw the court 23 times for the Thunder. However, he has been working hard to get back into the league this year, auditioning for the Nuggets, Bucks, and Knicks in recent months.

Thabeet played a full season for the Grand Rapids Drive, Detroit’s G League affiliate, in 2014/15. Because NBAGL teams only hold a player’s returning rights for two years though, the Drive will no longer have first dibs on the 7’2″ center. Thabeet will be eligible for the G League draft, as Adam Johnson of 2 Ways & 10 Days notes (via Twitter).