Warriors Add Jordan Bell To Camp Roster
SEPTEMBER 26: Bell has officially signed with the Warriors, per RealGM’s transactions log.
SEPTEMBER 24: The Warriors are bringing back big man Jordan Bell for training camp, according to Marc J. Spears of the Undefeated (Twitter link). The addition of Bell – along with the reported deals for Langston Galloway and Avery Bradley – will bring Golden State’s roster to the preseason maximum of 20 players.
Bell, 26, began his career in Golden State after being selected with the 38th overall pick in the 2017 draft. He was part of the rotation for his first two professional seasons and won a title with the team in 2018, but departed in free agency in 2019 and has bounced around a little since then, playing for the Timberwolves, Grizzlies, and Wizards before returning to the Dubs during the last week of the 2020/21 campaign.
In 160 total regular season games, Bell has averaged 3.7 PPG and 3.1 RPG in 12.1 minutes per contest. It looked as recently as last weekend as if he might be headed overseas for the 2021/22 season, but he’ll at least get a chance to make an NBA roster this fall.
Although Bell will be in the mix for Golden State’s 15th roster spot for the regular season, he’s probably the least likely of the five candidates to make the team, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic, who suggests the Warriors are more likely to keep someone from a group of guards that includes Gary Payton II, Mychal Mulder, Galloway, and Bradley. Slater identified Payton and Bradley as the favorites, given their talents on defense.
Bell is also ineligible for a two-way contract, so if he doesn’t make the Warriors’ regular season roster and doesn’t catch on with another NBA team, he may have to turn to the G League or an international league.
Spurs Hire Manu Ginobili As Special Advisor
Within a press release announcing more than a dozen additions and promotions within their basketball operations department, the Spurs confirmed today that they’ve hired former star player Manu Ginobili as a special advisor to basketball operations.
Ginobili’s role with the franchise was first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who hears that the four-time NBA champion will work closely with Spurs players, focusing on their development both on and off the court.
According to Wojnarowski, the Spurs have been persistent in trying to get Ginobili to accept a position with the organization since he retired as a player in 2018. Head coach Gregg Popovich, CEO R.C. Buford, and general manager Brian Wright believe Ginobili can help pass on the Spurs’ culture to the next generation of players and staffers, Woj adds.
The 44-year-old spent 16 seasons with the Spurs, earning two All-NBA nods and a Sixth Man of the Year award in addition to his four championships with the club. He also won an Olympic gold medal with Argentina in 2004.
Sixers Sign Second-Rounder Charles Bassey
2:25pm: The Sixers have officially announced their deal with Bassey, issuing a press release to confirm the signing.
11:42am: Charles Bassey has agreed to a three-year contract with the Sixers, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The deal, which provides a full guarantee in the first year and a partial guarantee in the second, was confirmed by his agents, Adie von Gontard and Daveed Cohen.
The 20-year-old center out of Western Kentucky is one of the last players taken in this year’s draft to sign a contract. He was selected with the No. 53 pick, which Philadelphia acquired from the Pelicans for $2MM in a draft-night trade.
The delay in signing reportedly stemmed from Bassey’s desire to get two years of fully guaranteed money, which is unusual for a player drafted that low. A report last month indicated he may sign his non-guaranteed one-year tender rather than agreeing to a multiyear deal, but it sounds like the two sides were able to reach a compromise.
The deal will come out of Philadelphia’s mid-level exception.
Bassey was named Conference USA Player of the Year last season as a junior with the Hilltoppers after averaging 17.6 points, 11.6 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game. He was also selected as a third-team All-American by the U.S. Basketball Writers.
Patrick Williams To Miss 4-To-6 Weeks With Ankle Sprain
12:27pm: The timeline for Williams’ recovery is based on the date he was injured, which was September 15, tweets Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago. That should put his return sometime between October 13-27.
11:09am: Bulls forward Patrick Williams may miss the start of the regular season after suffering a severe sprain to his left ankle, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
The team confirmed the news (via Twitter), stating that the injury happened during an optional individual workout and Williams is expected to be sidelined for four-to-six weeks. Chicago opens its season October 20 against the Pistons.
Williams is coming off a strong rookie season in which he started all 71 games that he played and averaged 9.2 points and 4.6 rebounds per night. He also gave the Bulls a strong defensive presence on the perimeter.
In the same tweet, the team provided an injury update on guard Coby White, who underwent surgery on his left shoulder in June. The Bulls say White has made “steady progress” and is expected to be ready to play in November.
Pistons Sign Luka Garza To Two-Year Contract
12:16pm: The move is official, the Pistons announced (via Twitter).
11:03am: Rookie Pistons center Luka Garza will have his two-way deal converted to a standard NBA contract that will cover two years, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The news was confirmed by Garza’s agents, Mike Kneisley and Odell Witherspoon.
Garza, who was named Player of the Year as a senior at Iowa, was taken with the 52nd pick in this year’s draft and signed the two-way contract in August. He had a strong Summer League showing, averaging 15 points and 9.6 rebounds per game.
The move gives Detroit 15 guaranteed contracts heading into camp and opens up one of the team’s two-way slots. The Pistons currently have 18 players under contract, along with reported deals for Derrick Walton Jr. and Cassius Stanley.
Grizzlies Waive Carsen Edwards, Daniel Oturu
The Grizzlies have waived guard Carsen Edwards and big man Daniel Oturu while adding Shaq Buchanan and Sean McDermott to their camp roster, the team tweets.
Edwards was acquired from the Celtics earlier this month. Oturu was among the players acquired from the Clippers in the deal that sent Eric Bledsoe to Los Angeles. Edwards had a salary of $1.78MM, while Oturu’s salary for the upcoming season was $1.52MM.
Memphis had other motives for making those deals and obviously wasn’t interested in retaining either player.
By waiving the duo, Memphis is now down to 16 guaranteed contracts, one over the limit for the regular season, Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets.
Buchanan has played for Memphis’ G League team. He was in Grizzlies camp last season but was waived prior to opening night.
McDermott appeared in 18 games with Memphis as a two-way player last season, averaging 2.2 PPG in 8.8 MPG. Memphis waived McDermott in August.
Ryan Arcidiacono Signs Camp Deal With Celtics
SEPTEMBER 27: Arcidiacono’s deal with the Celtics is now official, per RealGM’s transactions log.
SEPTEMBER 23: Ryan Arcidiacono has agreed to a training camp deal with the Celtics, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.
Arcidiacono, 27, has spent the last four seasons with the Bulls, averaging 4.8 PPG, 2.2 APG, and 2.0 RPG with a .431/.373/.807 shooting line across 207 total games (17.6 MPG). He signed a two-way deal with the team in 2017, a one-year contract in 2018, and a three-year pact in 2019.
Chicago turned down Arcidiacono’s third-year team option in July, making him an unrestricted free agent. The free agent guard recently worked out for the Warriors.
The addition of Arcidiacono will give Boston a full 20-man camp roster. With 14 players on fully guaranteed deals, Arcidiacono has a shot to make the final roster with an impressive camp showing. The club traded guards Kris Dunn and Carsen Edwards to Memphis this month.
Haralabos Voulgaris No Longer With Mavericks
The Mavericks have parted ways with Haralabos Voulgaris, a well-known sports gambler who was hired by the team in 2018 as the director of quantitative research and development, reports Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News.
As Townsend explains, Voulgaris wasn’t fired by the Mavs. His contract expired at the end of the 2020/21 season and the club simply opted not to re-sign him to a new one.
Although Voulgaris was never Dallas’ head of basketball operations, his departure from the organization is worth highlighting, since he had reportedly gained an outsized influence in the front office in recent years.
A report in June stated that Voulgaris had either initiated or approved nearly all of the Mavs’ roster moves for the last two seasons and suggested that his influence was virtually on par with that of president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson. While Mavericks owner Mark Cuban disputed The Athletic’s portrayal of how much power Voulgaris had, the executive’s abrasive personality was reportedly a source of some tension in the front office and he was said to have a “strained” relationship with star guard Luka Doncic.
Now, three months after that report was published, neither Nelson nor Voulgaris are part of Dallas’ front office, which was overhauled this offseason. Nico Harrison is the team’s new general manager and president of basketball operations.
Details On Timberwolves’ Dismissal Of Gersson Rosas
The Timberwolves‘ dismissal of president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas was made for “performance reasons,” a high-ranking team source told Jon Krawczynski and Shams Charania of The Athletic. The team’s lack of success during Rosas’ tenure was a key factor in the decision, and complaints from staffers about Rosas’ leadership also played a part, per The Athletic’s duo.
However, another issue that factored into the timing of the move was the fact that the Wolves recently learned that Rosas – who is married – had a “consensual intimate relationship” with a member of the organization, according to Krawczysnki and Charania, who suggest that the relationship made several people within the franchise uncomfortable.
The Athletic’s deep dive into the situation in Minnesota’s front office uncovered sources who said Rosas worked his staffers long hours without giving them much input into personnel decisions. Some members of the front office took issue with those decisions, such as the one to include such light protections (top-three) on the first-round pick the Wolves sent Golden State in the D’Angelo Russell trade.
Rosas did have backers within the organization, including some who reached out to The Athletic in recent weeks to defend the way things were going, per Krawczynski and Charania. Some of Rosas’ defenders believe the pandemic and the change of ownership were factors that contributed to tension in the front office, while Rosas himself “vehemently disputed” that there were any significant problems with the team’s culture.
Still, many of The Athletic’s sources described Rosas’ tenure as dysfunctional, and when those complaints reached ownership, Glen Taylor, Alex Rodriguez, and Marc Lore decided the situation was untenable and a move needed to be made sooner rather than later.
“It’s hard,” said one staffer who followed Rosas to Minnesota after he was hired in 2019. “He’s not who I thought he was.”
The report from Krawczynski and Charania is worth checking out in full if you’re an Athletic subscriber. Here are some of the other highlights:
- New interim head of basketball operations Sachin Gupta is well-regarded by team officials and is expected to get a chance to earn the permanent job, sources tell The Athletic. However, Krawczynski and Charania note that Gupta did “butt heads” with Rosas this summer when Gupta sought to make a lateral move to the Rockets for a similar job with higher pay, and Rosas blocked him. Rosas defended the decision by saying that the move wouldn’t have been a promotion, and it was too close to the draft and free agency to let a top executive with so much knowledge of Minnesota’s plans leave to join a rival. According to The Athletic, Rosas “banished” Gupta from the team’s offices in August and allowed him to seek employment elsewhere at that point, but Gupta decided to stay with the Wolves after ownership got involved.
- Some player agents had issues with Rosas’ negotiating tactics, according to Krawczynski and Charania, who point to the team’s recent contract talks with Jordan McLaughlin as one example. A source tells The Athletic that Rosas reneged on promises about the role McLaughlin would have going forward after Patrick Beverley was acquired. Although agents recognized Rosas’ primary allegiance was to the organization, they expected better treatment in certain scenarios, according to The Athletic’s duo. “Rosas was the cause of mishaps and pulled his promises,” the source said of the McLaughlin negotiations.
- Rosas’ decision to replace head coach Ryan Saunders with Chris Finch during the season without considering any other candidates – including minority candidates – wasn’t popular with some staffers, and neither was the decision to part with veteran scout Zarko Durisic last year, per Krawczysnki and Charania. Some people believed those moves flew in the face of Rosas’ portrayal of the organization as a “family.”
- Krawczynski and Charania say Rosas was “working feverishly” this offseason to try to acquire Ben Simmons, who was viewed by some people in the organization as the roster’s missing piece. It’s unclear if Gupta will have the same level of interest in the Sixers star.
- A report from Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report confirms and adds some details to many of the issues reported by The Athletic, including the recent discovery of Rosas’ “consensual extramarital affair” with a team staffer.
Tamika Tremaglio Chosen To Succeed Roberts As NBPA Exec. Director
6:49pm: The NBPA confirms the hiring of Tremaglio in a press release, adding that Roberts will retire at the end of the year.
McCollum said of the new executive director: “Tamika has been by our side for many years, advising us on the best practices and policies needed for our organization to operate more like a successful business. Given Michele’s strong leadership and guidance that have brought us to where we are today, we were looking for a next-generation leader, who has the skills, vision, and credibility to pick up where Michele will leave off and to elevate our Union to even greater heights. Tamika’s well-rounded experience in collective bargaining, staff management, revenue creation, wealth preservation and culture building, undoubtedly will put our players in the best position to succeed.”
6:25pm: Deloitte lawyer Tamika Tremaglio has been chosen as the NBA Players Association’s new executive director, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.
Substack’s Marc Stein was first to report that Tremaglio had emerged as a leading candidate (Twitter link).
The Players Association has searched for months for a successor to Michele Roberts, who announced this summer she was retiring from her post.
Tremaglio is retiring as the Managing Principal of Deloitte’s Greater Washington practice to become the full-time director of the NBPA, Wojnarowski adds in another tweet. She has familiarity with the role she’ll be taking — she’s been a consultant for the league’s union for the past nine years.
This is the first significant decision made the Players’ Association since Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum became president. The current collective bargaining agreement runs through the 2023/24 and Tremaglio will now take the lead in negotiating the next CBA.