Earl Clark Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Southwest Notes: Marion, Gentile, Clark

September 17th, 2014 at 5:59pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Shawn Marion said it was difficult to decide where to sign this summer and cited his continued longtime friendship with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, but he also told KRLD-FM in Dallas that the presence of his newborn son, who lives in Chicago, influenced his choice. “It wasn’t about the money,” Marion said, as the Dallas Morning News transcribes. “I got offered more money from different teams. It’s with just a matter of what I’m comfortable with. And also, from Cleveland to Chicago is not that far. It’s driveable and a quick flight.”

Here’s more from the Southwest:

Alessandro Gentile isn’t interested in playing in the NBA for now, and he’s uncertain that he’ll ever do so, as he told the Italian newspaper Leggo, according to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia. The Rockets acquired the NBA rights to the Italian-born small forward, this year’s 53rd overall pick, in a draft-night swap, but he signed a new deal with Italy’s Olimpia Milano in July.
The pact between the Grizzlies and Earl Clark is non-guaranteed, as Eric Pincus writes for the Los Angeles Times.
A member of the Spurs staff will be shadowing Livio Jean-Charles, last year’s 28th overall pick, throughout the season as he plays for ASVEL Villeurbanne in France, as Jean-Charles tells Frédéric Dussidour of BeBasket (translation via Jesus Gomez of Pounding the Rock). It continues San Antonio’s practice of keeping close tabs on its draft-and-stash prospects, as Gomez examines.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Grizzlies Sign Earl Clark To Camp Deal

September 16th, 2014 at 9:08pm CST by Eddie Scarito

SEPTEMBER 25TH: The deal is official, the team announced.

SEPTEMBER 16TH: The signing has taken place, according to the RealGM transactions log, though the team has yet to make an official announcement.

SEPTEMBER 14TH: Earl Clark has agreed to a training camp deal with the Grizzlies, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). This brings Memphis’ roster count up to 17, with 14 of those deals being guaranteed. The combo forward will compete for a roster spot with Jon Leuer, Jarnell Stokes, and Quincy Pondexter. The Spurs had also shown interest in the 6’10”, 26 year-old forward out of Louisville, and had him in for a workout almost two weeks ago.

Clark appeared in 45 games for the Cavs last season, averaging 5.2 PPG and 2.8 RPG. He was traded back in February to the Sixers in the the Spencer Hawes deal, and was promptly waived by Philadelphia. Clark was then picked up by the Knicks, but wasn’t re-signed after his back-to-back 10-day deals expired. In nine games for New York, Clark averaged 2.6 PPG and 1.8 RPG.

In his free agent stock watch entry for Clark, our own Chuck Myron noted that Clark performs best in an up-tempo attack, and that the player has struggled on the defensive end, as well as when paired with a strong inside presence like Dwight Howard. How he fits into a Memphis team that features Marc Gasol and a slower-paced, half-court brand of basketball that emphasizes defense remains to be seen.

Free Agent Stock Watch: Earl Clark

September 5th, 2014 at 1:51pm CST by Chuck Myron

Cleveland’s ill-fated addition of Andrew Bynum last summer and the return of LeBron James this year have overshadowed another significant miss from last season’s free agent haul for the Cavs. Earl Clark signed with the team a year ago for two years and $8.5MM, and while only the first season’s salary of $4.25MM was guaranteed, GM David Griffin wasted little time in divesting the team of the deal that former GM Chris Grant had signed with the combo forward. Griffin made the best of the Clark contract, shipping it to the Sixers as part of the deadline deal that netted Spencer Hawes, a major contributor for Cleveland in the season’s second half. The Sixers promptly waived Clark and after a pair of 10-day contracts with the Knicks, the 14th overall pick spent the rest of the season out of the league.

It quickly became apparent that the Cavs misjudged Clark last summer, but it nonetheless seems like a similar market overreaction that the 26-year-old has remained without a contract for so long. The Lakers gave him consistent playing time during a 22-game stretch in the 2012/13 season, when Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol were injured, and Clark showed why the Suns made him a lottery pick in 2009. He averaged 11.6 points and 9.2 rebounds in those 22 games, and the career 33.1% three-point shooter lifted his accuracy to 37.8% during that hot streak. That performance over a small sample size helped him earn his contract with Cleveland, even though he tailed off in his final days with the Lakers once Gasol and Howard returned. Still, a regression to the mean might not be the only explanation for why Clark didn’t pan out with the Cavs.

The former Louisville standout took a total of 15 three-point shots over his first three seasons in the league, but with the Lakers, he turned the three-pointer into a significant part of his game, as 104 of his 386 field goal attempts came from behind the arc. Still, he shot more often from three feet and in than any other range on the court that season, according to his Basketball-Reference profile. In Cleveland, three-pointers constituted nearly half his shot attempts, and he took just 16.3 percent of his shots as a Cav from three feet and in. He made threes at a 34.5% clip for the Cavs, but overall, he was inefficient, posting a woeful 8.6 PER in wine-and-gold, down from the 12.4 PER he recorded over his full season with the Lakers. The three-pointer that once served as the missing piece of his game became far too much a part of it.

The Spurs certainly seem wise enough to diagnose the problem, and they were reportedly set to work out the Kevin Bradbury client this week. Clark said earlier this summer that he had fielded interest from a few teams, but otherwise it’s been quite a reversal from last year, when Clark and the Cavs struck agreement during the first week of free agency. He’s proven effective in the right system, and perhaps the key is finding an up-tempo approach that gives Clark chances to go to the basket in transition, like the Mike D’Antoni-led Lakers attack he thrived in, and doesn’t leave him too many opportunities to stand around behind the arc. Clark struggled playing for the defensive-minded Mike Brown in Cleveland and failed to find his way with the Magic when they were focused on pounding the ball inside to Howard. There is irony in that he merely passed through Philadelphia, where the Sixers were the league’s fastest-paced team last season, and never suited up. Still, the Sixers easily could have kept him if they wanted him, so he seems unlikely to end up with Philadelphia again. The Rockets and the Suns loom as other teams that run go-go offenses and possess fewer than 15 guaranteed contracts, though neither Houston nor Phoenix has been linked to Clark this summer.

The Spurs didn’t play at a particularly speedy tempo last season, finishing 12th in possessions per 48 minutes, according to NBA.com. GM R.C. Buford and his staff are reportedly working out a handful of others, so Clark still has much to overcome. Yet mere interest from the Spurs stands to drive up Clark’s value, given the respect around the league for San Antonio’s continued ability to turn lightly regarded players into key contributors. It wouldn’t be surprising to see other teams jump into the mix soon as long as the Spurs don’t reach a deal with him. There aren’t many available former lottery picks who stand 6’10” and are less than two years removed from having played effectively in the NBA. Clark probably won’t validate his draft position, but he can provide depth of the sort that helped the Lakers sneak into the playoffs in 2013. Clark would no doubt like to see guaranteed money if he were to sign, but should he open himself to accepting a non-guaranteed camp invitation, it seems he’d still be in strong position to stick on the roster all season.

Spurs Audition Earl Clark

September 2nd, 2014 at 1:15pm CST by Chuck Myron

Free agent forward Earl Clark is in San Antonio to work out for the Spurs this week, a source tells Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. He’ll join Hakim Warrick and Julyan Stone, both of whom have reportedly been set to audition for the defending champs.

There hasn’t been much chatter surrounding Clark this offseason, and he said in late July that while he’d heard from a few times, it seemed as though his free agency was “going in slow motion.” Clark has been out of the NBA since the second of back-to-back 10-day deals with the Knicks expired in March during a comedown season for the 14th overall pick from 2009. Agent Kevin Bradbury helped him snag a two-year, $8.5MM deal with the Cavs last summer, but Clark failed to duplicate a hot stretch he enjoyed with the Lakers the year before, prompting Cleveland to trade him to the Sixers. Philadelphia waived him the next day, eating the remaining guaranteed salary on his contract.

San Antonio has also cast its eyes toward Ray Allen and Gustavo Ayon of late, even as the team continues to pursue a new deal with Aron Baynes, a restricted free agent. The Spurs already have 14 fully guaranteed pacts and three that include partial guarantees, as our roster counts show, so space is getting tight, and Clark would have to beat out a wide array of competition to make it to opening night with the team.

Atlantic Notes: 76ers, Celtics, Love, Clark

July 27th, 2014 at 4:34pm CST by Zachary Links

Philadelphia sports fans are notoriously impatient, but Tom Moore of The Intelligencer has found that many are taking a glass-half-full view of things with the Sixers under GM Sam Hinkie. “There is no guaranteed path to a title,” one fan said to Moore. “But I like that they have a plan and are sticking to it. I choose optimism.” Here’s more out of the Atlantic..

The Celtics could get in the mix for Kevin Love or another superstar, but they won’t make a deal that they don’t feel is worth it, writes Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald. “Danny [Ainge] has been very disciplined,” Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca said. “He could have made a lot of deals by now, but not for the kind of player we want.” And while C’s owner Wyc Grousbeck famously predicted that there would be “fireworks,” Pagliuca says that refers more to Ainge’s tireless efforts to improve rather than a guarantee of a blockbuster deal.
Because the Celtics are in rebuilding mode, Ainge can now afford to bring in players with either soiled reputations, tradeable contracts, or the ability to blossom. That thinking has led the C’s to Evan Turner, who should be a strong fit for Boston, writes Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe. Agent David Falk believes that Turner and coach Brad Stevens will be a particularly solid match.
Earl Clark has received interest from a number of teams since free agency started three weeks ago, but he continues to weigh his options, writes Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. “I’ve been hearing from a few teams, but it’s not anything that I’m jumping at right now,” said Clark, who spent last season with the Knicks and Cavs. “It’s been different, man. I’ve been a free agent a few times and this summer seems like it’s going in slow motion. I’m just giving it time and going through the process. I just want the right situation and the opportunity to play. That’s all I want – the opportunity to get out there, play, help the team and prove myself again.”

Knicks Sign Shannon Brown For Rest Of Season

March 20th, 2014 at 2:09pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Knicks have signed Shannon Brown for the rest of the season, the team announced via Twitter. The tweet notes that the team’s latest deal with Earl Clark has expired. The Knicks inked Clark to a pair of 10-day contracts at the same time they did so with Brown, so presumably that means New York doesn’t plan to re-sign Clark. The Knicks now have 14 guaranteed contracts, so they can add another player to replace Clark if they choose.

Brown first joined the Knicks late last month after the team waived Metta World Peace and Beno Udrih. The eighth-year veteran guard saw fewer minutes for New York than Clark did, but neither received significant playing time. Clark played a total of 70 minutes in nine games, averaging 2.6 points per contest. Brown has only seen the floor for 57 minutes across nine games, notching 1.8 PPG. Still, it appears the Knicks prefer to keep an extra guard instead of a forward like Clark.

It’s the first player personnel decision for the Knicks since Phil Jackson came aboard as team president. Brown played for then-coach Jackson for parts of three seasons with the Lakers, winning two championships. Clark also played for the Lakers, but that was after Jackson had stepped down as coach.

Brown has spent much of this season out of the league after the Wizards waived him shortly before the start of the season. He was with the Spurs in February on a pair of 10-day contracts, but San Antonio elected not to keep him for the season. New York’s decision to commit to Brown is a slight boon for the Wizards, who can defray a tiny amount of their remaining debt to the Mark Bartelstein client via set-off rights. Washington released Brown in spite of his $3.5MM guaranteed salary before the season to get down to 15 players after the unbalanced Marcin Gortat trade.

Knicks Sign Earl Clark To Second 10-Day Deal

March 10th, 2014 at 3:50pm CST by Eddie Scarito

MONDAY, 3:50pm: The signing is official, the Knicks announced on Twitter.

SATURDAY, 1:32pm: The Knicks are expected to sign Earl Clark to a second 10-day contract after tonight’s game in Cleveland, reports Marc Berman of The New York Post (Twitter link). Clark was signed by the team last week after the Knicks cleared roster space by waiving Beno Udrih and Metta World Peace. Clark can play either forward position for the team. It looks to be another prorated minimum-salary pact for the Kevin Bradbury client.

The 14th overall pick in the 2009 draft had some of the best performances of his career during the 2012/2013 season he spent with the Lakers. He then regressed after signing a two-year, $8.5MM deal with the Cavs during the summer. Cleveland then traded him to the Sixers at the deadline, who waived him less than 24 hours later.

In five games with the Knicks, Clark has averaged 2.63 PPG, 1.8 RPG, 0.4 BPG in 7.8 minutes per contest. There is still no word on the status of Shannon Brown, who also signed a 10-day contract with the team on the same day.

Knicks Sign Earl Clark To 10-Day Contract

February 27th, 2014 at 9:35am CST by Chuck Myron

THURSDAY, 9:35am: The signing is official, the team announced via Twitter.

TUESDAY, 8:57pm: Clark’s deal with New York is a 10-day contract, according to Chris Broussard of ESPN (Twitter link).

3:58pm: The Knicks and free agent forward Earl Clark are finalizing an agreement on a new deal, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. It’s unclear whether it’ll be a 10-day contract or an arrangement that covers the rest of the season. Wojnarowski first reported earlier this afternoon that the team was in pursuit, and Frank Isola of the New York Daily News noted a deal was a strong possibility after Clark met with coach Mike Woodson and GM Steve Mills.

New York has been linked to Ike Diogu, Lester Hudson, Tiny Gallon, Dahntay Jones and Jimmer Fredette in the past two days as the team has sought to fill a pair of roster spots opened via buyout agreements with Metta World Peace and Beno Udrih. Clark has played both forward positions over the past couple of seasons. The 14th overall pick in the 2009 draft had some of the best performances of his career last year with the Lakers, but he regressed after signing a two-year, $8.5MM deal with Cleveland in the summer. The Cavs traded him to the Sixers at the deadline, who waived him less than 24 hours later.

It’ll be a prorated minimum-salary pact for the Kevin Bradbury client, since the Knicks can’t offer anything else, but New York is in line to pay 3.25 times the amount of his cap hit in luxury taxes on the deal. Clark will likely forfeit a tiny portion of his $4.25MM guaranteed salary from the Cavs, thanks to Cleveland’s set-off rights.

Odds & Ends: Shaw, Vesely, Singleton

February 25th, 2014 at 6:45pm CST by Ryan Raroque

Nuggets coach Brian Shaw refuted the idea that he hates his roster and vice-versa, writes Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post. Dempsey says that the potentially harmful narrative arose out of a few radio interviews that the rookie head coach had done earlier this week. Shaw addressed the topic earlier today:

“I can’t remember who it was that asked me yesterday; he said ‘Would you have taken this job with the roster, if it was just the guys who are healthy and playing right now would you have taken this job?’…I said ‘Yeah, I most likely would have taken it.’ But the expectation and everything else would have been different, knowing if there wasn’t going to be (Danilo Gallinari, JaVale McGee, and Nate Robinson) for half the season and the situation be what it is…I don’t hate the roster. What I hate is having to beg guys to play. That simple. That shouldn’t be a part of what coaching should be. And circumstances are what they are. None of us asked for it.”

Here are some more miscellaneous news and notes to pass along this evening:

Forward Jan Vesely intends to continue playing in the NBA rather than returning to Europe after his rookie scale contract runs out at season’s end, agent Alex Raskovic tweets.
Chris Singleton will hit unrestricted free agency after the Wizards declined his fourth-year option before the season, so he knows his next contract is at stake as he attempts to fill in for an injured Nene Hilario, as J. Michael of CSNWashington.com examines.
The Thunder were prepared to give up their own 2014 first-rounder in a deadline deal, but Zach Lowe of Grantland hasn’t heard any suggestion that they were ready to part with the first-rounder the Mavericks owe them. That Dallas pick will likely come higher in the draft order.
Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown was complimentary about Earl Clark, who is reportedly finalizing a contract to join the Knicks: “He’s a good player…He’s going to help (New York), especially in that system playing pick-and-roll and spreading the floor.”

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Knicks Pursuing Earl Clark

February 25th, 2014 at 3:44pm CST by Chuck Myron

3:44pm: Knicks coach Mike Woodson and GM Steve Mills have spoken with Clark, sources tell Frank Isola of the New York Daily News, who says there’s a “strong possibility” that Clark signs with the team (Twitter link).

2:18pm: The Knicks are going after the recently waived Earl Clark, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. It’s the latest of a string of reports connecting the Knicks to free agents. The Knicks have considered signing Ike Diogu, have been monitoring Lester Hudson, and they’re interested in Tiny Gallon. Today they auditioned Dahntay Jones. The Knicks won’t rule out a pursuit of Jimmer Fredette, either, and while the team would like to add shooting, its primary focus appears to be strengthening its defense, which isn’t Fredette’s strong suit.

Clark became a free agent this weekend after the Sixers waived him Friday, less than 24 hours after acquiring him via trade from the Cavaliers. He averaged 5.2 points and 2.8 rebounds in 15.5 minutes per game this season in the first of a two-year, $8.5MM deal he signed with Cleveland this past summer. The Cavs are on the hook for only half of that money, since the second season was non-guaranteed. The former 14th overall pick had a strong midseason stretch for the Lakers last year, but he’s otherwise failed to live up to expectations.

The Knicks created two roster openings Monday when they waived Metta World Peace and Beno Udrih in buyout arrangements. They can offer only the minimum salary, and since they’re about $17MM into the tax, they’re set to pay $3.25 in tax for each dollar they spend on filling their two open spots.