Dwight Buycks Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Dwight Buycks To Play In China

September 23rd, 2015 at 1:29pm CST by Chuck Myron

SEPTEMBER 23RD, 1:29pm: Buycks has signed with Fujian, Pick hears (Twitter link). That team featured Al Harrington, John Lucas III and DJ White last season.

SEPTEMBER 7TH, 9:59am: Former Raptors and Lakers point guard Dwight Buycks has turned down multiple non-guaranteed offers from NBA teams to agree to play in China instead, a source tells international journalist David Pick (Twitter link). The Lakers apparently had interest in re-signing him earlier this summer, as Pick reported in June. It’s unclear which Chinese team Buycks will be joining, nor is it known how much he’ll make.

Buycks was a late addition to the Lakers this past season, signing a 10-day contract in early April. He saw a decent chunk of playing time for the injury-hit purple-and-gold and averaged 8.7 points, 2.3 assists and 2.0 turnovers in 20.5 minutes per game across six appearances, but the broken hand he suffered on the final night of his 10-day deal scuttled the team’s plan to sign him for at least the rest of the season. The 26-year-old managed only 0.5 PPG in 10.5 MPG for the Lakers summer league squad in July.

His lack of summer league success was surprising, given his track record in that venue. Buycks averaged 19.7 PPG in 29.9 MPG for the summer Raptors in July 2014, a year after Toronto had signed him to a deal that gave him a guaranteed salary for his rookie season. However, he saw action in only 14 games for the Raptors in that 2013/14 season, and the team waived him last July in spite of his strong summer performance.

The Chris Patrick client is no stranger to turning down NBA offers to go overseas. He reportedly did so last summer to sign with Valencia of Spain, though he and the club parted ways early last season as NBA teams showed renewed interest. Buycks also saw action with China’s Tianjin Steel and the Thunder’s D-League affiliate.

Do you think Buycks belongs in the NBA? Leave a comment to share your opinion.

Western Notes: Barton, Buycks, Blazers

June 23rd, 2015 at 10:49pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Nuggets have tendered Will Barton a qualifying offer worth $1,181,348, making the guard a restricted free agent this offseason, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). The move was expected since both sides have previously expressed a desire for the player to return to Denver next season. The 24-year-old saw sparse playing time with the Blazers over his first two and a half seasons in the league, but the deadline trade that sent him to Denver this February provided him with more opportunities to get on the court. He averaged 11.0 points in 24.4 minutes per game over 28 appearances for the Nuggets.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

The Warriors are exploring options regarding trading up from the No. 30 overall pick in the draft, Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com tweets. Which player the team could be targeting with such a move is unknown, Howard-Cooper adds.
The chances that the Lakers will select Duke big man Jahlil Okafor with the No. 2 overall pick have increased since last week, Chad Ford of ESPN.com relays (on Twitter). Ford pegged the odds at 70% last Friday, and now has them at 80% that Los Angeles nabs Okafor on Thursday night.
The Lakers have informed free agent guard Dwight Buycks that they are interested in re-signing him for next season, David Pick of Eurobasket.com tweets. Buycks, who inked a single 10-day deal with the team this past season, was reportedly set to be signed for the remainder of the 2014/15 campaign before a hand injury knocked him out for the remainder of the team’s contests.
The Blazers will work out UNLV shooting guard Rashad Vaughn on Wednesday, reports Gery Woelfel of the Journal Times.
Woelfel adds the Warriors to the list of teams that have worked out UNLV big man Christian Wood.
Working out for Portland today were Darion Atkins (Virginia), Javonte Green (Radford), Charles Jackson (Tennessee Tech), Jordan Railey (Washington State), Satnam Singh (India), and Gary Bell Jr. (Gonzaga), the Blazers announced.
Virginia swingman Justin Anderson is scheduled to work out for the Grizzlies on Wednesday, Chris Vernon of ESPN 92.9 FM relays (Twitter links). Vernon also dispels the notion that Memphis made a draft promise to LSU big man Jarell Martin, and says that Martin shut down scheduling any further workouts for other reasons.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Lakers Planned To Re-Sign Buycks Before Injury

April 13th, 2015 at 10:35am CST by Chuck Myron

Point guard Dwight Buycks will be unavailable for the rest of the regular season thanks to a broken right hand he suffered in Sunday’s game, tweets Mike Trudell of Lakers.com, and the timing of the injury was especially unfortunate for Buycks. The Lakers were about to re-sign him, as his 10-day contract expired overnight, according to Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). Coach Byron Scott said before Sunday’s game that he expected the team to re-up with Buycks for the final two games of the season.

The Lakers are down to eight healthy players, notes Bill Oram of the Orange County Register, who confirms that the team planned to re-sign Buycks before his injury. The team only has two healthy guards and no healthy small forwards, Pincus tweets, so it seems doubtful the Lakers would use up roster room on another injured player. The Lakers have a full 15-man roster, so the notion that the team was to re-sign Buycks signaled that the league was ready to once more grant the Lakers an extra roster spot via the hardship provision, given their multitude of injuries. Conceivably, the Lakers will seek to sign a different player using the hardship exception, though it’s unclear if they indeed plan to do so.

Pincus raised the possibility that the Lakers would have signed Buycks to a deal that included next season (Twitter link), a move they couldn’t have used the hardship exception to make, as Pincus pointed out earlier (on Twitter). The Lakers would have had to waive a player to accommodate any deal for Buycks that went beyond this season.

Buycks spent last year with the Raptors, but he’s been well-traveled this season, spending time in China, Spain, and with the Thunder’s D-League affiliate before signing his 10-day deal with the Lakers. The 26-year-old averaged 8.7 points in 20.5 minutes per game in six appearances for the purple-and-gold.

Western Notes: Hill, Buycks, Wolves

April 12th, 2015 at 8:24pm CST by Will Joseph

Lakers coach Byron Scott believes Jordan Hill, who will enter the final year of his contract with the team next season, needs to change his offseason preparation to avoid crashing at the end of the season like he did this year, Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News writes. Hill, 27, is averaging career-bests in points per game (11.9), rebounds per game (eight) and minutes played per game (26.8) in his sixth NBA season. But Hill’s statistics have declined since February and he has averaged only four PPG in April.

“I don’t know what he does in the summer time to get ready for the season,” Scott said. “But whatever it is, you have to up it. He’s got to up it. Then you have to look at what he’s eating and change eating habits as well. There’s a lot that goes into it when you’re trying to get ready for the NBA season.”

Here’s more from the Lakers and the Western Conference:

Scott said he expects the Lakers to bring back Dwight Buycks for the team’s final two games, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets. Buycks’ 10-day deal expires after tonight’s game against the Mavericks. The team can keep Buycks for the rest of the season without waiving anyone, Pincus adds (on Twitter). Buycks has made seven of nine three-pointers in five games with the Lakers.
The Timberwolves got a glimpse of how bright the future could be when rookies Zach LaVine and Andrew Wiggins each had big games Saturday as the dreadful season, from Minnesota’s perspective, comes to an end, Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune writes. LaVine had 37 points and nine rebounds, both career-bests, and Wiggins added a career-high nine assists in Saturday’s loss against the Warriors.

Lakers Sign Dwight Buycks To 10-Day Contract

April 3rd, 2015 at 7:54pm CST by Chuck Myron

7:54pm: The Lakers have officially signed Buycks, the team announced.

1:47pm: Scott specified that it’s a D-Leaguer the team is close to signing, as Medina notes in a full story. So that’s seemingly further indication that Buycks is the guy, though it appears we’ll soon find out definitively one way or the other.

FRIDAY, 1:41pm: The Lakers are close to signing a player, according to coach Byron Scott, though he didn’t say who, Medina tweets. The Lakers announced Thursday that Ellington will miss the remainder of the season, so that’ll help the team’s case for a hardship exception.

THURSDAY, 2:05pm: The Lakers are waiting for approval from the NBA for a hardship exception, according to Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times, who argues that it should be an open-and-shut case with Bryant, Randle, Young and Price all out of action (Twitter link). Wayne Ellington was also scheduled to undergo an MRI on his right shoulder, to which he suffered a mild separation during Wednesday’s game, according to Pincus and Medina (Twitter links).

12:46pm: There’s “nothing definitive” about any potential Lakers signing, according to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Twitter link).

11:21am: The Lakers are signing point guard Dwight Buycks to a 10-day contract, a league source tells Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). Charania’s tweet indicates that the signing has already taken place, though the team has yet to make a formal announcement. The team already has 15 players under contract, but there’s a chance the Lakers won’t have to clear another player to sign Buycks thanks to the hardship provision. The league had earlier granted the team an extra roster spot via hardship to carry Jabari Brown on a pair of 10-day deals. The Lakers couldn’t use that temporary roster relief to sign Brown to his two-year deal Wednesday, so the team waived Steve Nash to make room. Even without Nash, the Lakers have four players who’ve been out at least three games and who are seemingly expected to miss significantly more time, so the hardship remains a possibility.

Kobe Bryant and Julius Randle are done for the season, and there’s a decent chance that’s the case for Ronnie Price, too. Nick Young hasn’t played since February 22nd with a small fracture on his left kneecap. The Lakers are thin at the point with Jordan Clarkson and Jeremy Lin the team’s only healthy players at the position.

Buycks has been on the Lakers’ radar for the while, having reportedly worked out for the team in November in a head-to-head audition with Gal Mekel. The 26-year-old Buycks has since played for China’s Tianjin Steel and has been with the Thunder’s D-League affiliate for the past month. He’s a one-year NBA veteran thanks to having spent last season with the Raptors, though he played in only 14 games for Toronto, averaging 3.1 points and 0.7 assists in 10.4 minutes per contest. The 6’3″ Buycks, who went undrafted out of Marquette in 2011, has shown an all-around game in the D-League the past few weeks, adding 6.8 rebounds per game to go with averages of 18.2 PPG and 6.2 APG in 34.4 MPG. He was a scoring force in China, producing 26.9 PPG, 5.4 RPG and 5.1 APG in 37.4 MPG.

Dwight Buycks Joins Thunder’s D-League Team

March 4th, 2015 at 10:24am CST by Dana Gauruder

WEDNESDAY, 10:24am: The addition of Buycks is official, the Thunder’s affiliate announced (on Twitter).

MONDAY, 8:27pm: Dwight Buycks has signed with the Thunder’s D-League team, as his agent, Chris Patrick, tells David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). The 25-year-old point guard became a free agent when the season ended for the Chinese team he had been playing with.

Buycks appeared in 14 games with the Raptors last season, averaging 3.1 points and 0.7 assists in 10.4 minutes per night. He was waived by Toronto in July and drew interest from multiple teams shortly thereafter, including the Thunder. Still, Buycks spurned his NBA suitors to strike a deal overseas.

This won’t mark Buycks’ first trip to the D-League, as the Marquette product has spent parts of two seasons in the NBA’s minor league, appearing in 36 games. The Relativity Sports client will still be free to sign with any NBA team, although Oklahoma City will certainly have a scouting advantage over other clubs who might have interest.

Charlie Adams contributed to this post.

Dwight Buycks To Play In China

December 16th, 2014 at 9:06am CST by Chuck Myron

TUESDAY, 9:06am: Buycks is joining the Tianjin Steel, a source tells Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia (Twitter link).

MONDAY, 10:25am: Former Raptors point guard and recent Lakers workout participant Dwight Buycks has struck a deal with a Chinese team, reports David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). The identity of the team is unclear. It’s the second time since Toronto waived him in July that he’s decided to take a deal to play overseas, though there appears to have been persistent interest from NBA clubs.

The Relativity Sports client has been a free agent since engineering a buyout from Valencia of Spain, the team that had signed him to a one-year deal over the summer. The Lakers and Clippers had non-guaranteed contracts on the table for Buycks when he went to Spain, Pick reported then, telling Hoops Rumors that Buycks and the Nuggets had been close to a deal. Sportando’s Enea Trapani identified the Suns as an interested party in July. Buycks was in talks with the Thunder in November, and the Grizzlies reportedly gave him a look around that time, though a source told Pick even then that there was a strong chance that the 25-year-old would end up in China. Still, the Lakers worked him out twice, both times head-to-head against Gal Mekel, though neither landed a deal with the purple-and-gold.

Last season was the first in the NBA for Buycks, who put up 3.1 points in 10.4 minutes per game across just 14 appearances, even though he was on Toronto’s roster all season. The Raptors let him go this summer just days before his non-guaranteed minimum salary would have become fully guaranteed for the season.

Lakers To Work Out Gal Mekel, Jordan Hamilton

November 20th, 2014 at 1:33pm CST by Chuck Myron

1:33pm: The Lakers remain fond of Price, as Charania notes in a full story. Price and Ellington are the only Lakers without fully guaranteed contracts, as we noted below, and Ellington is expected back Friday from the leave of absence he took to mourn the murder of his father, as Mike Trudell of Lakers.com notes via Twitter.

THURSDAY, 12:59pm: Mekel will work out a second time for the Lakers on Friday, and he’ll again be matched up against Buycks, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link).

WEDNESDAY, 11:35am: The Lakers are set to audition Gal Mekel this week, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com, while Jordan Hamilton is scheduled to work out for the team Thursday, reports David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). They’re just two of several players the 2-9 Lakers are eyeing, joining Dwight Buycks, Quincy Miller and Tyrus Thomas among those trying out for the purple-and-gold. John Lucas III also reportedly had a workout scheduled with the team before taking a deal to play in China instead. Mekel will audition head-to-head against Buycks, according to Pick (Twitter link).

Visa issues scuttled a deal that Mekel was set to sign earlier this month with the injury-hit Pacers, who inked A.J. Price instead rather than wait an extra day for the problem to be resolved. There’s reportedly been widespread interest in Mekel, the 26-year-old former Mavs point guard, whom Dallas waived shortly after opening night in spite of his guaranteed contract to accommodate the signing of J.J. Barea.

Hamilton opened the season with the Jazz after they claimed him off waivers from Toronto, where he had an impressive preseason showing for the Raptors. The 26th overall pick from 2011 nonetheless lasted only about a week in Utah before the team let him go. He’s spent most of his NBA career with the Nuggets, who traded him to the Rockets at the deadline in February.

The Lakers are at the 15-man roster maximum, so they’d have to unload a player to bring someone aboard. They have partially guaranteed salary out to Ronnie Price and Wayne Ellington and fully guaranteed pacts with their other 13 players, though Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding suggested this week that Xavier Henry was the most likely cut if the team were to ink Miller.

Lakers To Work Out Dwight Buycks

November 19th, 2014 at 8:05am CST by Chuck Myron

NOVEMBER 19TH: Buycks is set to work out for the Lakers, among other clubs, Pick reports (on Twitter).

NOVEMBER 12TH: There’s a strong chance that Buycks ends up in China, a source tells Pick (Twitter link).

NOVEMBER 9TH, 7:20pm: Buycks is also under consideration by the Grizzlies, who waived guard Kalin Lucas earlier today, David Pick of Eurobasket reports (Twitter link). No signing is imminent, Pick adds.

5:28pm: Buycks had attempted to get out of his contract with Valencia last week in order to land a deal with the Thunder or Pacers, Pick reports (Twitter links). Pick also adds that Buycks is talking with a few NBA teams, but the Lakers aren’t currently one of them.

1:54pm: Buycks and Valencia have officially parted ways, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi).

NOVEMBER 7TH, 12:48pm: Dwight Buycks and his camp have reached a buyout agreement Valencia of Spain and are in discussions with the Lakers and Thunder, reports Shams Charania of RealGM. The Lakers had reportedly invited Buycks to training camp before he accepted a one-year deal with Valencia in July.

The 25-year-old point guard has put up 12.0 and 2.0 assists in a little more than 20 minutes per game in three Euroleague competition contests and 7.6 PPG and 1.4 APG in 16.6 MPG across all eight of Valencia’s games so far. Buycks earned a deal with the Raptors for last season after a breakout performance in the 2013 summer league, as Charania notes, but he made only 14 appearances, and Toronto waived him in July rather than guarantee his salary for another year.

The Thunder just signed Ish Smith to a non-guaranteed deal to become the club’s 16th player, an allowance the NBA has given them to offset their multitude of injuries. Oklahoma City is reportedly poised to seek a 17th player if Perry Jones III is to miss significant time, so perhaps Buycks is whom they’re targeting for that would-be opening.

Point guard is also an apparent need for the Lakers, who are without Steve Nash for the season. Ronnie Price has been seeing backup minutes on his non-guaranteed deal, but that deal becomes partially guaranteed if the Lakers don’t waive him by the end of November 15th. The Lakers have a similar arrangement with shooting guard Wayne Ellington, but all the rest of their contracts are guaranteed, and they haven’t received an allowance for a 16th player.

Buycks Spurns NBA Offers To Play In Spain

July 25th, 2014 at 8:42am CST by Chuck Myron

Former Raptors point guard Dwight Buycks has signed with Valencia of Spain, the Spanish ACB league’s website announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). It’s a one-year deal, as Euroleague.net reveals. The Lakers and Clippers extended non-guaranteed invitations to Buycks for preseason camp, according to David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link), and he was close to signing with the Nuggets before they instead came to terms with Erick Green, as Pick tells Hoops Rumors. The Suns were also reportedly interested in him.

The Relativity Sports client drew offers from multiple teams overseas, but Valencia bid highest among those clubs, Pick reports (All Twitter links). It’s likely he’s receiving guaranteed salary to play in Spain, which would explain why he’s passing up a shot at continuing his NBA career. Toronto waived him this past weekend rather than guarantee his NBA minimum salary for the coming season.

Buycks saw action in just 14 games this past season, his first official NBA experience. He averaged 3.1 points and 0.7 assists in 10.4 minutes per contest for Toronto.