Dionte Christmas Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Suns Waive Dionte Christmas

July 24th, 2014 at 3:48pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Suns have waived guard Dionte Christmas, the team announced (on Twitter). His non-guaranteed minimum salary was to have become fully guaranteed if Phoenix hadn’t waived him by the end of the month.

Christmas was a favorite of Suns GM Ryan McDonough, who’d worked with the 27-year-old when they were together with the Celtics. Phoenix signed to a deal that included a partial guarantee for last season even though the team had an abundance of other guaranteed deals, and the unbalanced Marcin Gortat trade helped create an opportunity for him to stick around for the regular season.

The former Temple Owl saw limited playing time this past season, the first in which he saw any regular season NBA action. He averaged 2.3 points in 6.4 minutes per game across 31 appearances.

Contract Details: Sixers, Price, Stone, Christmas

November 5th, 2013 at 8:47am CST by Luke Adams

Mark Deeks of ShamSports.com has updated his salary database to account for every NBA team’s opening night roster, and in the process has provided several contract details that had previously been unreported. Let’s round up Deeks’ new info, which has now been incorporated into our list of non-guaranteed salaries and our schedule of guarantee dates….

Daniel Orton and Brandon Davies were late additions to the Sixers‘ roster, but they received the same kind of deals that many of the team’s other offseason signees did: Non-guaranteed four-year pacts. Hollis Thompson, meanwhile, landed a $35K guarantee for this season on his four-year contract.
When Chuck Myron of Hoops Rumors listed the camp cuts who had been owed guaranteed money, he noted that the guarantees for Vander Blue, Khalif Wyatt, and Richard Howell were still unknown. Deeks fills in those amounts, reporting that the Sixers paid Blue $55K and Wyatt $35K. Howell received $50K from the Trail Blazers.
Unlike most players on non-guaranteed contracts, A.J. Price won’t have to wait until the new year for his salary to become fully guaranteed. He’ll get his full minimum salary as long as he’s not waived by the Timberwolves on or before December 8th.
Julyan Stone‘s two-year contract with the Raptors was initially guaranteed for $50K, but that amount was bumped up to $100K when he earned a spot on the regular season roster.
Dionte Christmas (Suns) and Henry Sims (Cavaliers) both received partial guarantees worth $50K.
The Hawks‘ agreement with Cartier Martin is just for one year, for a fully non-guaranteed minimum salary.

Older NBA Rookies: Datome & Christmas

September 14th, 2013 at 6:42pm CST by Spencer Lund

The Suns signed Dionte Christmas this year after former Celtics assistant general manager Ryan McDonough became the Suns GM earlier this summer. Christmas has been playing professionally overseas for a number of years after going undrafted out of Temple in 2009.

The 26-year-old was one of the last cuts during the Celtics' training camp last fall, and Jessica Camerato spoke with him for CSNNE.com about how his connection with McDonough helped him choose Phoenix after he'd received numerous NBA camp offers and overseas deals.

"I think (my relationship with McDonough) played a big role because he knows what type of guy I am," Christmas told her by phone on Friday. "He knows that I work hard. I come in every day, I'm going to give it 110 percent."

Another rookie who has been playing professionally for a number of years before moving to the NBA this summer is Italian import Luigi "Gigi" Datome who signed a two-year, $3.5MM deal with the Pistons in June.

Datome spoke with Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype about what he's expecting during his first season outside Italy. When asked which current player he would compare himself too, Datome mentioned the Heat's Shane Battier in terms of his shooting and all-around contributions to make the team better.

With the Pistons signing unrestricted free agent Josh Smith this summer to team with Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe in their front court, a shooter like Datome will be valuable. Gigi shot 51.5 percent from the floor with Virtus Roma last year and nearly 40 percent from three-point territory when he was named Italian League MVP.

Gigi's marksmanship will help space the floor when the 6'8" shooter replaces Monroe or Smith at either forward spot. Smith, Drummond and Monroe will be drawing the majority of their opponents' attention toward a crowded paint, and none of the three possess much accuracy outside of ten feet, so Datome's accuracy behind the arc should open up driving lanes for another new Pistons acquisition this summer, Brandon Jennings.

Suns Sign Dionte Christmas

September 13th, 2013 at 7:22pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Suns have signed Dionte Christmas, the team has announced on its website. The 6'5" guard averaged double figures in points for Phoenix's summer league team this year, and a report shortly thereafter indicated the Suns had interest in bringing the former Temple Owl aboard. It's a multi-year deal with a "small" guarantee for this season, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic.

Christmas has yet to play in a regular season NBA game after going to camp with the Sixers in 2009 and the Celtics last year. He had a two-year contract that was 50% guaranteed for the first season with the C's, and with former Boston executive Ryan McDonough on board as the new Phoenix GM, Christmas is again getting more than the standard non-guaranteed training camp deal.

The move furthers a roster logjam for the Suns, who already had 16 players on fully guaranteed contracts. Still, it's the first free agent deal of the offseason for McDonough and company, who've instead concentrated on swinging three trades since July 1st.

Christmas notched 10.1 points in 20.8 minutes per game for the summer league Suns after splitting the 2012/13 regular season between Montepaschi Siena of Italy and CSKA Moscow in Russia. He put up just 5.5 PPG for his overseas teams last year after he was his league's leading scorer for Rethymno of Greece in 2011/12.

Western Notes: Wolves, Gomes, Mavs, Clark

July 23rd, 2013 at 11:49am CST by Luke Adams

Grantland's Zach Lowe wrote earlier today that there's about a "99.9999%" chance that the Timberwolves work out a deal to bring back Nikola Pekovic. Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune also suggests that it's just a matter of time, tweeting that he thinks a deal will be completed next week. Whether or not the Wolves re-sign Pekovic, and it seems like a lock that they will, don't expect the team to have any interest in Greg Oden, says Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (via Twitter). According to Wolfson, David Kahn had interest in Oden, but Flip Saunders is passing on the former first overall pick.

Here are a few more items from out of the Western Conference:

Ryan Gomes, who says he hopes to be a coach one day, has worked out for the Thunder and Spurs as he weighs his options for the upcoming season, he tells Nick Greene of the Hartford Courant.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban appeared on KESN-FM in Dallas to follow up on his comments about the team potentially being better off without Dwight Howard, and the Dallas Morning News has the details.
Undrafted free agent guard Ian Clark put up 33 points in the Warriors' championship win at the Las Vegas Summer League, and is drawing interest from NBA teams, as Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today writes. Zillgitt names the Warriors, Trail Blazers, and Jazz as clubs eyeing Clark.
A strong Summer League performance also has NBA teams eyeing Dionte Christmas, according to Shams Charania of RealGM.com. The Suns are among the clubs with interest.

Celtics Rumors: Pierce, Garnett, Christmas

April 10th, 2013 at 7:25pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Knicks have ended the Celtics' five-year reign as Atlantic Division champs, but it's looking increasingly like Boston will have a chance for revenge in the first round of the playoffs. The Celtics are a game and a half behind the Hawks for the sixth spot in the East, but otherwise they and the Knicks appear locked into the seventh and second seeds, respectively. While we wait to see if that matchup becomes reality, the Knicks are set to make a roster move, and there's plenty of news on the C's as well.

Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports speculated last night that the Clippers and Celtics, who explored a Kevin Garnett trade before the deadline, could revisit talks in the summer, this time centering around Paul Pierce (video link). Ben Rohrbach of WEEI.com has a partial transcription of the video. Teams may be wary of trading for Garnett, who has a no-trade clause, because they fear he might retire rather than play anywhere but Boston, as Garnett has suggested.
Bradford Doolittle of ESPN.com runs the numbers to examine the potential impact a Garnett trade could have had on the Clippers, concluding that the move would have given L.A. a better shot at the title (Insider only).
Dionte Christmas, a training camp invitee with the Celtics last fall, has officially signed to play in Italy with Montepaschi Siena, according to the Italian team (translation via Sportando). Christmas tweeted the news of his signing over the weekend.

Atlantic Notes: Wilcox, Collins, Christmas, Bynum

April 7th, 2013 at 12:42pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Knicks' magic number to clinch the Atlantic Division title is down to two, and while that number might not get any lower with a stern test against the Thunder this afternoon, it seems like New York will soon claim its first division crown since 1993/94. That year just about everything went right for the Knicks, save for an off night from John Starks that kept the team from beating the Rockets in Game 7 of the Finals. Knicks fans wouldn't mind a repeat of all but the final act of that season, and while we wait to see what the rest of 2012/13 holds for the team, here's more on a few of their division rivals:

The Celtics were going to include Chris Wilcox in the Jordan Crawford swap at the deadline, but wound up sending Jason Collins to Washington instead after Wilcox invoked his right to veto any trade this season, reports Michael Lee of the Washington Post. Collins went from contributing to a playoff team to appearing in just five games thus far for the Wizards, but the 34-year-old center is convinced he has plenty left, and has no plans of retiring.
Dionte Christmas, who was in training camp with the Celtics this fall, confirmed via Twitter that he's signed to play the rest of the season in Italy with Montepaschi Siena. Il Corriere dello Sport first reported the agreement (translation via Sportando). The deal includes an option for next season as well, though it's not clear whether that's a team or player option, or whether it includes an out should Christmas get another NBA opportunity.
Tom Moore of PhillyBurbs.com thinks the Sixers are likely to let Bynum walk this offseason, but Moore believes that the team should consider re-signing the balky-kneed big man to a one-year deal with clauses that could reduce his salary if he misses too many games.
Despite whispers earlier this season that the Sixers might force out Doug Collins, the coach appears to be in control of his own fate. John Mitchell of the Philadelphia Inquirer argues that Collins should be allowed to keep his job.
Doug Smith of the Toronto Star answers reader questions about the Raptors and other NBA issues.

Odds & Ends: Harden, Gay, Wolves, Mavs, Gibson

October 30th, 2012 at 3:05pm CST by Luke Adams

We're a few days removed from the Rockets' acquisition of James Harden, but that doesn't mean that reaction pieces or additional details have stopped rolling in. Today, Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel wonders if the Thunder got as much for Harden as the Magic did for Dwight Howard, and DeMar DeRozan talks to Eric Koreen of the National Post about how he, Harden, and other members of the 2009 draft class approach their contract situations. Meanwhile, Ric Bucher of 95.7 The Game hears from one GM that Sam Presti didn't canvass the entire league for the best deal for Harden, presumably since Presti didn't want to create an avalanche of rumors (Twitter link). And finally, Bill Simmons of Grantland adds that Harden and his agent were seeking a 15% trade kicker as part of extension talks with the Thunder.

Now that we've rounded up today's Harden-related links, let's turn to the afternoon's non-Harden notes:

Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld examines a few players who could be trade candidates between now and the deadline, including Rudy Gay, who Kennedy says would be open to a move.
The Timberwolves have inquired on the recently-waived JaJuan Johnson, but don't figure to be a match, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities.
Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star Telegram spoke to Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson about a number of topics, including the team's chemistry with so many new players on board.
Extension talks between Taj Gibson and the Bulls are ongoing and are expected to push up against tomorrow's 11:00pm CT deadline, says Ken Berger of CBS Sports (Twitter links).
Scottie Pippen is interesting in eventually becoming a head coach in the NBA, as he told The Waddle & Silvy Show on ESPN 1000 in Chicago (ESPNChicago.com has the details and quotes).
Mark Deeks of ShamSports tweets the details on a pair of contract buyouts: Jordan Williams will receive $420K from Atlanta after being waived by the Hawks, while Keyon Dooling will receive $400K from the Celtics following his retirement.
Dionte Christmas, who was released by the Celtics this month, appears headed for CSKA Moscow, according to Eurohoops.net (hat tip to Sportando).
A Spurs' second-round pick in 2009, Jack McClinton is hoping to earn a spot in the D-League this year and eventually receive an NBA call-up, writes David Pick at Eurobasket.com.

Odds & Ends: Harrington, Heat, Celtics, Christmas

October 24th, 2012 at 1:07pm CST by Luke Adams

Six days from today, we'll be gearing up for an opening night that includes a showdown in Miami between the two odds-on favorites in the Eastern Conference. As we continue to count down the days until the 2012/13 regular season tips off, let's round up a few links from around the NBA, including some Heat and Celtics notes….

Al Harrington probably doesn't fit into the Magic's long-term plans, but his recovery from knee surgery is important for Orlando, since the team likely wants to showcase him in advance of the trade deadline, writes Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel.
Chris Tomasson of FOX Sports Florida spoke to a few former Celtics stars about Ray Allen's decision to leave Boston for the Heat.
While the decisions at the back of the roster may be difficult, the Heat are unlikely to cut a player with a guaranteed contract to make room for a non-guaranteed player, says Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe takes a look at the acclimation process for the Celtics' offseason acquisitions.
Dionte Christmas, recently released by the Celtics, is drawing interest from Greek team Olympiacos, according to a Sports24.gr report (translation via Sportando).
At ESPN.com, David Thorpe makes his picks for the NBA's top five most potent duos (Insider link), while Kevin Arnovitz examines five teams he believes are at a crossroads.

Celtics Waive Dionte Christmas, Jamar Smith

October 16th, 2012 at 4:18pm CST by Luke Adams

4:18pm: The Celtics have officially waived Christmas and Smith, according to a press release from the team.

3:43pm: The Celtics have decided to release camp invitees Dionte Christmas and Jamar Smith, reports Peter Yannopoulos of TSN Radio 690 Montreal (via Twitter). While no official announcement has been made yet, Gary Tanguay of CSNNE.com confirms the report, citing an NBA source. With Christmas and Smith no longer on the roster, the Celtics will be keeping Kris Joseph, according to Yannopoulos.

The Celtics' moves are a little surprising, since half of Christmas' contract was guaranteed, and Smith had a $25K guarantee on his deal as well. With 13 players on fully guaranteed deals for Boston, it was expected that at least one of Christmas and Smith would earn one of the final two roster spots. Joseph will be the Celtics' 14th man, and it appears the club will keep an open 15th spot, since invitees Rob Kurz and Micah Downs are unlikely to survive cuts.

When the Celtics officially place Christmas and Smith on waivers, they'll have committed money to three players that won't be on their regular-season roster. Boston is expected to still be on the hook for Keyon Dooling's minimum-salary deal after the veteran retired last month.