Marques Bolden

Cavaliers Sign Marques Bolden To 10-Day Contract

The Cavaliers have signed rookie big man Marques Bolden to a 10-day contract, the team announced today in a press release. Cleveland opened up a roster spot overnight when Tyler Cook‘s second 10-day deal expired.

[RELATED: Hoops Rumors’ 10-Day Contract Tracker]

Bolden, who went undrafted out of Duke in 2019, joined the Cavaliers for training camp and was a candidate to be converted to a two-way contract at the end of the preseason. Ironically, it was Cook – having just been claimed off waivers – who beat out Bolden for the team’s second two-way slot in October. Now, Bolden is replacing Cook on the 15-man roster.

After being cut in the fall, Bolden joined the Cavs’ G League affiliate, the Canton Charge. In 28 games at the NBAGL level this season, he has averaged 9.0 PPG, 6.3 RPG, and 1.4 BPG in 18.4 minutes per contest.

Cleveland’s 15-man roster currently consists of 13 players on fully guaranteed contracts, along with two – Bolden and Alfonzo McKinnie – on 10-day pacts. McKinnie’s second 10-day deal with the club will expire this weekend, at which point the Cavs could open up the 15th spot on their roster if they don’t re-sign the swingman to a rest-of-season contract.

Bolden will earn $50,752 on his 10-day contract, which will run through February 8.

Cavaliers Waive Marques Bolden

The Cavaliers have waived former Duke big man Marques Bolden, tweets Kelsey Russo of The Athletic. Bolden had been in training camp with Cleveland on an Exhibit 10 deal.

Bolden, 21, appeared in four preseason games for the Cavaliers and had a generally strong performance. He averaged 4.0 PPG and 2.8 RPG while shooting nearly 80 percent from the field.

Bolden spent three seasons at Duke but didn’t see a lot of playing time during his first two seasons. He averaged a mere 19.0 minutes per game as a junior.

While it’s not necessarily set in stone yet, waiving Bolden clears the path for Jarell Martin to be Cavs’ 14th man and for the recently-claimed Tyler Cook to be the team’s second two-way player.

Cavs Claim Tyler Cook From Nuggets

The Cavaliers have claimed rookie forward Tyler Cook off waivers, Chris Fedor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer tweets.

Cook was on a two-way deal with the Nuggets before Denver cut ties with him on Wednesday. The Cavaliers will now decide by Saturday afternoon whether to retain Cook or training camp invitee Marques Bolden with their second two-way contract, according to Fedor. Power forward Dean Wade has the other two-way contract.

Cook entered the draft this spring after his junior year at Iowa, where he averaged 14.5 PPG, 7.6 RPG, and 2.4 APG in 33 games (30.8 MPG) last season while shooting 51.9% from the field. After recovering from a high ankle sprain suffered during a pre-draft workout, the 22-year-old joined Denver for Summer League action and then for training camp, playing limited minutes in two preseason games.

Cavaliers Waive Four Players

The Cavaliers have made a series of roster cuts, announcing tonight in a press release that they’ve waived guards Daniel Hamilton, Sindarius Thornwell, and J.P. Macura, as well as forward Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot. The club now has 16 players under contract.

Hamilton, Thornwell, Macura, and Luwawu-Cabarrot were all on non-guaranteed contracts in Cleveland, so releasing them won’t have an impact on the team’s cap. According to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, the Cavaliers are hopeful that Hamilton and Macura, in particular, will end up joining the Canton Charge, Cleveland’s G League affiliate.

All four players have some NBA experience, with Thornwell and Luwawu-Cabarrot seeing the most action in 2018/19. Thornwell, 24, appeared in 64 games for the Clippers, while Luwawu-Cabarrot, a former first-round pick, played in 50 contests for the Thunder and Bulls.

The Cavs are currently carrying 13 players with guaranteed salaries and one player on a two-way contract, so there are at least two openings available on the roster to start the regular season — one two-way deal and at least one spot on the 15-man roster (teams are permitted to carry just 14 players on standard contracts).

While Jarell Martin and Marques Bolden are the two camp invitees who remain under contract, that doesn’t mean they’re assured spots on the Cavs’ final roster, sources tell Fedor. With a ton of cuts expected across the NBA over the next several days, Cleveland will continue to monitor the rest of the league for potential roster additions, Fedor adds.

Cavs Officially Sign Four Players, Waive Two

The Cavaliers have finalized a series of roster moves, according to RealGM’s log of official NBA transactions. Cleveland released a pair of players on non-guaranteed contracts, then signed four players to training camp deals, filling their 20-man offseason roster. Here’s a breakdown of the moves made by the Cavs:

Signed:

Waived:

Newman and Randolph signed with the Cavs nearly a month ago, but didn’t stick with the team long enough to attend training camp. Both players spent last season with the Canton Charge, Cleveland’s G League affiliate, and look like good bets to return to Canton in 2019/20. Their Exhibit 10 deals will entitle them to bonuses worth up to $50K if they spend at least two months with the Charge this season.

As for Bolden, Hamilton, Macura, and Thornwell, we provided more details on all four players in our previous stories on their deals with the Cavs, as linked above. They’ll fill out the team’s 20-man roster and will get an opportunity to compete in camp for a spot on the 15-man regular season roster or a two-way contract.

Currently, Cleveland is carrying 13 players with guaranteed salaries and one on a two-way deal. The newly-signed quartet will join Alex Robinson and Jarell Martin as non-guaranteed camp invitees who will look to make a positive impression in the preseason.

Cavaliers To Sign Marques Bolden To Exhibit 10 Deal

The Cavaliers will sign Marques Bolden, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (Twitter link). The arrangement will be an Exhibit 10 deal.

Cleveland’s agreement with Bolden was previously reported, though there was no word on what type of deal is was going to be when the news broke shortly after the draft. The Duke big man was rumored to be a candidate for a two-way deal.

While Bolden will get an Exhibit 10 contract for now, it can be converted into a two-way pact down the road, so he could still be an option for the Cavs’ second slot.

Bolden will join the Cavs for training camp with the hope of making the roster. The 6’11” center spent three seasons at Duke, though he didn’t see much playing time during his first two years at the University and averaged just 19.0 minutes per game as a junior. Bolden was RSCI’s 11th-ranked prospect coming out of high school.

Cavaliers Notes: Love, Smith, Iguodala, Bolden

The Cavaliers aren’t making an effort to deal Kevin Love, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. On the surface, Love appears to be a prime trade candidate. He’s nearly 31 on a rebuilding team, is coming off toe surgery that limited him to 22 games last season and has a four-year, $120MM extension that’s about to kick in.

However, Cleveland doesn’t view Love’s contract as burdensome. A five-time All-Star, he’s easily the team’s best player if he can stay healthy and provides a positive role model for a young roster. New coach John Beilein wants to keep Love around because he’ll take pressure off his teammates to develop quickly.

Cavs management will listen to offers for Love, but it would take a formidable deal to move him anytime soon. Fedor sees the Heat as a possibility because they are searching for a second star to team with Jimmy Butler and have both young players such as Tyler Herro, Meyers Leonard, Bam Adebayo and Justise Winslow who would interest Cleveland, plus big contracts in James Johnson, Goran Dragic and Dion Waiters to help match Love’s $28.9MM salary. Fedor expects the front office to hold onto Love for a while and reassess its options closer to the trade deadline.

There’s more out of Cleveland, all courtesy of Fedor:

  • Tomorrow is the new guarantee date for J.R. Smith, but it can be pushed back to August 1 if the Cavs can’t work out a trade. The original date had been June 30, but Smith agreed to an extension last month in exchange for an increase in guaranteed money from $3.9MM to $4.37MM. Smith’s trade value can be counted at the full $15.68MM because he signed his contract before that rule was changed, but Cleveland hasn’t been able to find any takers for the 33-year-old guard. Management has been surprised by the lack of interest in Smith, Fedor adds, believing its offers in salary-dump situations were better than the ones that were accepted. The Cavs have also been “shocked” by some of the bad contracts teams are trying to get them to take.
  • The Cavaliers tried to obtain Andre Iguodala from the Warriors, and sources tell Fedor they asked for less than the future first-rounder and cash that Memphis received for taking on Iguodala’s $17.1MM contract. However, Golden State wanted to create a large trade exception and saw that as more valuable than the cap relief Smith would have provided. Cleveland was also involved in talks to facilitate the Butler trade by taking Maurice Harkless from the Trail Blazers, but he wound up with the Clippers, who received a 2023 first-rounder from Miami.
  • Former Duke big man Marques Bolden is receiving strong consideration for a two-way contract. The Cavaliers believe he never got a full chance to display his talents in college and can develop into an effective NBA center. “In college you don’t have space,” said Summer League head coach Antonio Lang. “Here you have space and he can create space if he continues to roll hard. Everything you look for in a big he has, he just has to be more efficient with his footwork and learn the game more. That comes with practice and time. He’s more suited for the NBA game.”

Cavs Sign Dean Wade To Two-Way Contract

JULY 2: The Cavaliers have formally signed Wade to his two-way deal, per RealGM’s log of official NBA transactions.

JUNE 21: The Cavaliers have reached an agreement to sign undrafted rookie free agent Dean Wade to a two-way contract, reports Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter).

Wade, a 6’10” forward, has the ability to stretch the floor, having knocked down 38.6% of his three-point attempts over the course of four college seasons. The Kansas State standout recorded 12.9 PPG, 6.2 RPG, and 2.8 APG in 25 games during his senior year.

A foot injury sidelined Wade at the end of his college career, keeping him out of action for the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments. However, he recently told Bryan Kalbrosky of HoopsHype that he’s “100% healthy.”

The Cavaliers have also agreed to a deal with Duke big man Marques Bolden, a source tells Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype (Twitter link). Kennedy’s tweet doesn’t offer any further details, so it’s not entirely clear if Bolden is just joining Cleveland for Summer League or if he’ll get a spot on the team’s 20-man offseason roster.

Bolden played a part-time role for the Blue Devils in 2018/19, averaging 5.3 PPG, 4.5 RPG, and 1.7 BPG in 35 games (19.0 MPG) as a junior.

Southeast Draft Notes: Hornets, Heat, Magic, Hawks

The Hornets have looked into the possibility of moving up in the draft from their current spot in the lottery at No. 12, tweets Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. Bonnell acknowledges that it may be difficult for Charlotte to put together the sort of trade capital necessary to make a deal happen, but says GM Mitch Kupchak is active.

Meanwhile, the Hornets will continue to explore their draft options by bringing in six more prospects for workouts tomorrow, according to the team. Marques Bolden (Duke), Tacko Fall (UCF), Jaylen Hoard (Wake Forest), Jalen Hudson (Florida), and Luka Asceric (Mega Bemax) are among the players set to participate.

Here are a few more draft-related items from around the Southeast:

Wizards Notes: Brown, Workouts, GM Search

Ben Standig of NBC Sports Washington sat down with Wizards rookie Troy Brown Jr. to discuss his first year in the NBA, which began with an overwhelming welcome at the combine and finished with Brown becoming a calmer, wiser, 19-year-old man.

“I wouldn’t say I was lost (in regard to the 2018 NBA Combine), but I didn’t know what to expect,” Brown said. “I was just kind of going about things, trying to do everything the best I could. …I knew I was going to get drafted, but it was more about the work that I put in. Is it going to happen? I want to go this number (in the draft). There’s a lot of stuff running through your brain.”

Immediate expectations for Brown’s rookie season were not very high, as Washington came into the season with playoff aspirations and more. But after a disappointing 2018/19 campaign, Brown may be the most important player on the roster long term after All-Star shooting guard Bradley Beal.

“It’s definitely weird not knowing who is going to be back and knowing our whole roster (might) be different… (but) (a)t the same time, you know it’s a business… I’m kind of use to it now. I had 24 teammates in one year.”

There’s more out of D.C. tonight: