Juwan Staten

NBA Teams Designate Affiliate Players

NBA teams cut as much as 25% of their rosters at the end of the preseason, but franchises that have D-League affiliates have a way to maintain ties to many of the players they release from the NBA roster. An NBA team can claim the D-League rights to up to four of the players it waives, as long as the players clear waivers, consent to join the D-League, and don’t already have their D-League rights owned by another team. These are known as affiliate players, as our Hoops Rumors Glossary entry details.

NBA teams allocated 46 affiliate players to the D-League at the beginning of the season last year, and this year, that number has risen to 56, according to the list the D-League announced today. These players are going directly to the D-League affiliate of the NBA team that cut them and weren’t eligible for the D-League draft that took place Saturday. Teams that designated fewer than the maximum four affiliate players retain the ability to snag the D-League rights of players they waive during the regular season, but for now, this is the complete list:

Boston Celtics (Maine Red Claws)

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)

Los Angeles Lakers (Los Angeles D-Fenders)

Memphis Grizzlies (Iowa Energy)

Miami Heat (Sioux Falls Skyforce)

New York Knicks (Westchester Knicks)

Oklahoma City Thunder (Oklahoma City Blue)

Orlando Magic (Erie BayHawks)

Philadelphia 76ers (Delaware 87ers)

Phoenix Suns (Bakersfield Jam)

Sacramento Kings (Reno Bighorns)

San Antonio Spurs (Austin Spurs)

Toronto Raptors (Raptors 905)

Utah Jazz (Idaho Stampede)

Also, several players who were on NBA preseason rosters are on D-League rosters through means other than the affiliate player rule. Most of them played under D-League contracts at some point within the last two years, meaning their D-League teams have returning player rights to them. Others entered through last weekend’s D-League draft, while others saw their D-League rights conveyed via trade. Most of these players aren’t with the D-League affiliate of the NBA team they were with last month, with a few exceptions.

Roster information from Adam Johnson of D-League Digest, Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor and freelancer and Hoops Rumors contributor Mark Porcaro was used in the creation of this post.

Pacific Notes: Staten, Murray, Henderson, Kerr

Juwan Staten, who was waived by the Warriors earlier today, will sign with Golden State’s D-League affiliate in Santa Cruz, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports reports (Twitter link). Colin Bryant, Staten’s agent, confirmed the news to Adam Johnson of D-League Digest (on Twitter). NBA teams can retain the D-League rights to up to four players they waive. Here’s more from the Pacific Division:

  • The Lakers have officially signed Tracy Murray for the remainder of the season as the team’s shooting coach, Los Angeles announced.  “I’ve known Tracy a long time, and he was one of the purest shooters I’ve ever seen,” said coach Byron Scott. “I think he’ll be a benefit to our players, especially our young guys, and I look forward to working with him as a member of our staff.” Murray appeared in 659 games during his 12 year NBA career.
  • The Kings have offered point guard Marshall Henderson a spot on their D-League affiliate, the Reno Bighorns, Spears relays (via Twitter). The 24-year-old, who was waived by Sacramento on Thursday, is also garnering interest from teams overseas, the Yahoo scribe adds.
  • Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who took a leave of absence from the team after experiencing complications related to back surgery he had undergone in July, is expected to return to the team soon, Ethan Sherwood Strauss of ESPN.com relays. Of Kerr’s impending return, interim coach Luke Walton said, “I think it’s great. Obviously Steve’s one of those guys just having him around makes everything better, so he wouldn’t be coming down with us at all if he was still as bad as he was. So I think it shows signs of improvement. I don’t think it means he’ll be back within the next two days, but all we can ask for is that he keeps getting better.

Warriors Cut Juwan Staten

Golden State waived point guard Juwan Staten at the end of their preseason win over the Rockets late Thursday, the Warriors announced. The undrafted rookie from West Virginia was in camp on a non-guaranteed deal and made his preseason debut in that game against the Rockets, scoring two points in 10 minutes of action. The move drops the Warriors roster to 17 players, 13 of whom have fully guaranteed pacts.

Staten, 23, was one of many in Warriors camp with strong outside shooting capability, as he made three-pointers with 37% accuracy over the final two years of his college career. That covered a fairly small sample size of only 73 attempts, however. Many of his numbers fell from his junior season to his senior year. He put up 12.1 points, 5.8 assists and 2.1 turnovers in 37.3 minutes per game as a junior and 14.2 PPG, 4.6 APG and 2.0 TOPG in 31.3 MPG this past season.

The Warriors still have a few more decisions to make before opening night. They’re a taxpaying team and under no obligation to carry more than 13 players to start the season, though every team started last season with at least 14 players last year. Coach Steve Kerr likes James Michael McAdoo, who has a $100K partial guarantee, so he seems in strong position to stick. Ian Clark, Chris Babb and Jarell Eddie are the Warriors with non-guaranteed contracts.

Who do you think will get the last spot on the Warriors regular season roster, assuming they start the season with 15 players? Leave a comment to tell us.

Pacific Notes: Johnson, Morris, Barnes, Collison

Wesley Johnson grew tired of the individualism on the Lakers last season and sought a change this summer, as Janis Carr of the Orange County Register details. Johnson signed with the Clippers, citing the persistence of the front office that took a similar tack in its pursuit of Josh Smith, and the swingman praised the clear set of expectations that Doc Rivers has laid out for him, contrasting it to what he thought was a disjointed Lakers offense, Carr observes.

“You would go out there and want to play the right way, but everyone wanted to prove themselves,” Johnson said, according to Carr. “So nobody really knew what was going on. Nobody ever knew, so it was hard for anyone to come in and get into a good rhythm or flow. Nobody was playing together.”

See more from the Pacific Division:

Warriors Officially Add Four For Camp

The Warriors have officially signed free agent guards Ian Clark and Juwan Staten along with free agent forwards Tony Mitchell and Jarell Eddie, the team announced via a press release. Clark and Eddie will receive approximately half of their salaries if they make the Warriors’ opening night roster, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders noted. Clark would receive $474K on the contract he signed, while Eddie would make $423K. The length and terms of the pacts for Staten and Mitchell have not yet been relayed. Golden State has a roster count of 19 players, including 13 possessing full guarantees.

Clark, 24, had hoped the Nuggets would re-sign him after his summer league performance, in which he averaged 13.4 points per game and made 12 of 24 total three-point attempts, but Denver renounced its rights to him to clear cap room. The guard’s career NBA averages through 53 contests are 2.4 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 0.5 assists to accompany a slash line of .369/.344/.875.

Staten, 23, was the 81st-best draft prospect this year in Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider rankings, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress had him at No. 98 about a week before the draft. His playing time shrunk this past season as a senior compared to his junior year, when he averaged six more minutes per game. The 5’11” Ohio native put up 14.2 points, 4.6 assists and 2.0 turnovers in 31.3 minutes per contest for the Mountaineers this year.

Mitchell has yet to make his mark at the NBA level.  In 2013/14, the forward saw just 3.8 minutes per game for the Pistons with averages of 1.0 PPG and 1.2 RPG.  This past season, Mitchell did not see a single second of NBA action as Pistons coach/exec Stan Van Gundy kept him in the D-League for seasoning to start the year.  A late December trade sent Mitchell to the Suns, but he dropped from the roster early on in the New Year.  In February, Mitchell signed on with a Puerto Rican club when there was apparently little or no NBA interest.

Eddie, who turns 24 in October, made his mark as a three-point shooter while in the D-League for most of last season, nailing 127 of his 281 in-game attempts, a sizzling 45.2%, for the affiliate of the Spurs. He averaged 12.9 points in 26.2 minutes per game, but nonetheless made only 18 starts in 44 appearances for that team and didn’t receive a call-up to San Antonio. The Spurs and the Pacers both had him on their summer league squads last month, and he continued his sharpshooting, connecting on 46.3% of his 67 shots from behind the arc.

Warriors, Juwan Staten Agree To Deal

The Warriors and undrafted West Virginia point guard Juwan Staten have agreed to a one-year deal, agent Colin Bryant tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Staten was with the Kings for summer league. Golden State has been carrying 17 deals, at least 13 of which are fully guaranteed.

Staten, 23, was the 81st-best draft prospect this year in Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider rankings, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress had him at No. 98 about a week before the draft. His playing time shrunk this past season as a senior compared to his junior year, when he averaged six more minutes per game. The 5’11” Ohio native put up 14.2 points, 4.6 assists and 2.0 turnovers in 31.3 minutes per contest for the Mountaineers this year.

A sore left knee curtailed Staten’s summer league experience, as he appeared in just one game. The Warriors are short on traditional point guards behind Stephen Curry, with Shaun Livingston and Leandro Barbosa the backups, so Staten will try to make his case for the regular season as a more conventional insurance option. If he doesn’t make it to opening night, the Warriors can retain the D-League rights to him and as many as three other camp cuts.

Do you think Staten can win a place on the Warriors regular season roster? Leave a comment to let us know.

Pacific Notes: Stephenson, Kings, Towns

The Clippers‘ newly acquired swingman Lance Stephenson is well aware of his negative locker room reputation around the league, and he intends to change that perception this season, Arash Markazi of ESPN.com writes. “I’m going to work hard this season to get those rumors out,” Stephenson said. “That’s not the issue. I’m very good in the locker room. You can ask all the players that I’ve played with. You can ask the coaches. I’m very good in the locker room. When I’m on the court I got that type of energy where it looks like I’m yelling at somebody. But when I talk to my teammates it amps them and makes them work harder. I want to take that [negative] title off my name because that’s not me. I’m a good locker room guy.” Stephenson also indicated that he would be fine with coming off the bench, something that coach/executive Doc Rivers has suggested would be the case.

Here’s more from the Pacific Division:

  • The Kings will host workouts on Monday for Askia Booker (Colorado), Frank Kaminsky (Wisconsin), T.J. McConnell (Arizona), and Brad Wadlow (St. Mary’s), the team announced. On Tuesday, the team will bring in Mike Caffey (Long Beach State), Sam Dekker (Wisconsin), Duje Dukan (Wisconsin), Rondae-Hollis Jefferson (Arizona), and Juwan Staten (West Virginia). Finally, Wednesday will see Willie Cauley-Stein (Kentucky) and Cameron Payne (Murray State) displaying their wares for Sacramento.
  • The Lakers have been unsuccessful thus far in getting Kentucky big man Karl-Anthony Towns in for a workout, and the team is doubtful that will change prior to the draft, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News tweets. This resistance from Towns to meet with the Lakers could be due to a draft promise from the Timberwolves, though that is merely my speculation.
  • The Lakers brought in Michael Frazier (Florida) as part of a group workout held today, Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops relays (Twitter link). Also part of today’s workout were Terry Rozier (Louisville), Andrew Harrison (Kentucky), Marcus Thornton (Georgia), Larry Nance Jr. (Wyoming), and Sir’Dominic Pointer (St. John’s), Eric Pincus of The Los Angeles Times notes.

Pacific Notes: Clippers, Lakers, Stephenson

The Clippers‘ roster could have been a markedly different one from today’s if not for former team owner Donald Sterling nixing a number of potential franchise-altering deals, James Herbert of CBSSports.com writes. “This is really only my third year but you can make a case this is our second year if you know what I’m saying,” coach/executive Doc Rivers told Beast 980’s Fred Roggin during a radio appearance. “If I someday wrote a book and told you a couple of the trades we had in the first year that we didn’t do because of other reasons, you would fall off your chair.” While Clippers fans ponder what might have been, here’s more from the NBA’s Pacific Division:

  • The Kings are bringing in Sam Dekker (Wisconsin), Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (Arizona), Mike Caffey (Long Beach State), Duje Dukan (Wisconsin), and Juwan Staten (West Virginia) for a group workout this Sunday, the team announced.
  • The Lakers brought in Emmanuel Mudiay (Guangdong) today for a second workout, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News relays (Twitter link).
  • The Lakers also have second workouts scheduled for Jahlil Okafor (Duke) on Friday, and D’Angelo Russell (Ohio State) on Saturday, Chad Ford of ESPN.com relays (on Twitter).
  • Lance Stephenson‘s failure in Charlotte should make him hungry to rebuild his value while with the Clippers, and trading for Stephenson was a wise move for the team since its salary cap situation makes adding impact players extremely difficult, Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report writes. Ding also notes that there is only one fully guaranteed year left on Stephenson’s deal, which will dampen any financial risk, as well as provide added motivation for the mercurial swingman to perform. Stephenson’s contract includes a team option worth $9.405MM for 2016/17.

Western Notes: Hornacek, Aldridge, Lakers

Steve Kauffman, who is Suns coach Jeff Hornacek‘s agent, denied the reports that his client declined to interview for the coaching vacancy at Iowa State, Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com writes. A source confirmed to Parrish that it was Kauffman who posted on a message board linked to the initial report, “We represent Jeff Hornacek. Rarely do I post but I will simply say this story is inaccurate. Jeff loves his alma mater and the facts are simply wrong here. Under contract is the key. School knew they had to request permission in a certain manner from the Phoenix Suns. I do not wish to allocate the blame as to the parties at fault here. But it’s a shame.” Iowa State hopes to have a replacement in place for Fred Hoiberg, who was recently named coach of the Bulls, by next week, Parrish adds.

Here’s more doings from around the Western Conference:

  • The Suns held workouts Wednesday for Sam Dekker (Wisconsin), Rakeem Christmas (Syracuse), Brandon Ashley (Arizona), Juwan Staten (West Virginia), Bo Barnes (Arizona State), and Daniel Bejarano (Colorado State), Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops tweets.
  • Scheduled to work out for the Suns today are Frank Kaminsky (Wisconsin), Trey Lyles (Kentucky), Kelly Oubre (Kansas), Daniel Mullings (New Mexico State), Keifer Sykes (Wisconsin-Green Bay), and Greg Whittington (Georgetown), Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic relays (Twitter link).
  • The Lakers held workouts on Wednesday for Aaron Thomas (Florida State), Tyler Haws (BYU), Rashad Vaughn (UNLV), Sykes, Richaun Holmes (Bowling Green), and Chris Walker (Florida), the team announced (on Twitter).
  • Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge has put his Portland area home up for sale, Amy Schwartz of 750 The Game tweets. Aldridge is set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason, and while his real estate dealings could be strictly a coincidence, they could also be interpreted as a harbinger of the 29-year-old’s intent to sign elsewhere this summer.
  • LSU forward Jarell Martin is scheduled to work out for the Blazers today, Scotto relays (Twitter link).

Eastern Notes: Skiles, Wizards, Varejao

The big news of the day is the Magic‘s hiring of Scott Skiles as the team’s new head coach. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports previously reported that Skiles’ arrangement with the team was for four years, and Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link) adds that the fourth year (2018/19) is a team option. Robbins also tweets that Skiles said he would like to keep former interim coach James Borrego on his coaching staff.

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

  • The Wizards have workouts scheduled for this Monday with Jerian Grant (Notre Dame), Darian Hooker (New York Institute of Technology), Cady Lalanne (UMass), Stefan Nastic (Stanford), Juwan Staten (West Virginia), and Delon Wright (Utah), Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post reports (via Twitter).
  • Cavs big man Anderson Varejao, who has been out of action since suffering a torn left Achilles tendon, could be activated for the NBA Finals if something were to “go bad” for Cleveland, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com said in an appearance on ESPN Cleveland radio (Twitter link).
  • Former Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau didn’t deserve the shots he took on the way out the door from the franchise, but he did deserve to be fired because of the team’s lack of offensive creativity and production despite having a potent roster and rotation, Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo! Sports opines.
  • Working out for the Sixers today were T.J. McConnell (Arizona), Chasson Randle (Stanford), Jarvis Threatt (Delaware), K.T. Harrell (Auburn), and Gabe Olaseni (Iowa), Jake Fischer of LibertyBallers.com relays (Twitter link).