Kings Sign Vince Hunter
SEPTEMBER 9TH, 10:53pm: Hunter has signed with the Kings, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets. The pact is a one-year, minimum salary arrangement that includes a partial guarantee of $35K, Pincus notes. No official announcement has been made by the team.
AUGUST 13TH, 3:53pm: The Kings have reached a contract agreement with undrafted forward Vince Hunter, Shams Charania of RealGM reports (Twitter link). The length and terms of the pact are not yet known, but Charania notes that the deal includes a partial guarantee. Hunter was ranked as the No. 56 overall prospect in the 2015 NBA Draft according to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, while ESPN’s Chad Ford slotted him at 42nd overall.
The addition of Hunter will bring Sacramento’s roster count to 16 players, 14 of whom possess fully guaranteed contracts, making Hunter a longshot to make the opening night roster. The Kings may have designs on the 6’8″ forward spending the 2015/16 season with their D-League affiliate in Reno, though that is merely my speculation. Hunter is an excellent athlete who is a solid rebounder, and he is an exciting finisher around the rim, but his lack of a reliable perimeter game will hurt his chances to earn a regular spot in the NBA.
The 21-year old made 33 appearances for UTEP during the 2014/15 campaign, averaging 14.9 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in 28.5 minutes per contest, and he owned a slash line of .526/.400/.602. Hunter played for the Sixers’ squad in the Las Vegas Summer League, logging averages of 7.0 PPG and 5.5 RPG in four appearances.
Western Notes: Thunder, Kings, Clippers
Despite occasional displays of frustration between Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, the two stars have learned to co-exist and stick together with the Thunder, Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman writes. A lot of that, Mayberry adds, can be attributed to Durant’s efficiency: Durant has learned how to do more with less so Westbrook could be better with more. Of course, the relationship will be tested when Durant is set to hit free agency next summer.
Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- With several seemingly combustible elements and a few more characters added, there’s a decent shot that the Kings could have a chaotic season. At the same time, it’s also just as likely that because of those personalities and the players’ level of skill, Sacramento can experience a winning season, Shaun Powell of NBA.com writes in a 30 teams in 30 days series.With the saga between DeMarcus Cousins and coach George Karl appearing to have come to an end, the Kings seem like they’re in good position to shed the notion of a dysfunctional franchise, Powell adds. Adding Willie Cauley-Stein and Rajon Rondo will also likely help the franchise move forward, Powell writes.
- Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders believes Paul Pierce is in line to see a drop in production with the Clippers this season. Although he provided a key veteran presence for the Wizards last season, Pierce averaged a career-low 11.9 points per game and should see that average drop with a loaded Clippers team, Greene writes. Pierce signed a three-year deal with the Clippers in July.
Pacific Notes: Morris, Clarkson, Sims, Koufos
Markieff Morris demanded a trade last month, but the Suns are giving no outward appearances of a rift, going so far as to tweet birthday greetings with an illustration of the now 26-year-old, which strikes an awkward tone in light of the power forward’s recent comments. The Suns “need and want” Morris, Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic wrote last week, so it would appear the team is making its best to attempt to patch up the relationship before the start of training camp at month’s end. Morris wasn’t planning a verbal offensive when he came across Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, to whom he expressed his demand, Coro notes, though John Gambadoro had heard a week before Morris made the demand that the former 13th overall pick wanted out of Phoenix. See more on the Suns amid the latest from the Pacific Division:
- The Excel Sports Management agency has ended its relationship with Lakers point guard Jordan Clarkson, reports Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press. It’s an unusual move, since players typically make the call to change agents, and not the other way around. Clarkson, the 46th overall pick from last year’s draft who far outstripped expectations as a rookie, is set for restricted free agency next summer. Agent Mike George had been Clarkson’s primary representative.
- Suns camp signee Henry Sims is determined to prove his production for the Sixers wasn’t merely a product of playing for an inferior team, as he tells tells Coro for a separate piece. The three-year NBA vet saw inconsistent playing time in his season and a half in Philadelphia, though he doesn’t begrudge the chances the Sixers gave him when they did put him on the floor, Coro notes. “Being gritty is how I made my name,” Sims said to Coro. “It’s how I earned my way. But getting up and down like they do here is something I can do. Here, the talent is off the chart. Even though they’re young guys, they’ve been in the league a while. You’ve got the head of the snake, Eric Bledsoe, making it easier — he and B-[Brandon] Knight. I’ve still got tons to prove.”
- Kosta Koufos left an elite Western Conference team when he departed the Grizzlies for Sacramento this summer, but he believes the Kings can make the playoffs, and he has enduring respect for George Karl, who once coached him on the Nuggets, as Koufos expressed on SiriusXM NBA Radio (Twitter links; full audio here).
Pacific Rumors: Bryant, Kings, Rivers
Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant addressed their previous feuds as Lakers teammates and made it clear they now have an amicable relationship during a podcast hosted by O’Neal and his co-host John Kincade, with the transcript posted on the team’s website. O’Neal declared that his disagreements with Bryant gave both of them motivation to play their best. “I just want to clear the air and let everyone know that: No, I don’t hate you,” O’Neal said. “We had a lot of disagreements. We had a lot of arguments. But I think it fueled us.” Bryant reflected that his issues with O’Neal made him understand how to handle future problems with teammates. “To me, the most important thing was really to just keep your mouth shut. You don’t need to go to the press with stuff,” he said. “You keep it internal. We have our arguments and our disagreements, but I think having our debates within the press was something I wish would have been avoided. … But I enjoyed playing with him. I had a great, great, great time playing with him, and I appreciate it to this day.”
In other news around the Pacific Division:
- The Lakers will “probably” sign one to three more players before training camp, a league source told Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. That will apparently include Marcelo Huertas, who agreed to a one-year deal with the club on Monday. Metta World Peace has also discussed a contract with the team, Medina adds.
- Vlade Divac has been named Vice President of Basketball Operations and General Manager of the Kings amid a number of front office personnel moves announced by the club via the team’s website. Divac had been hired in March as the club’s VP of Basketball and Franchise Operations. Mike Bratz has been named Assistant GM, Roland Beech was hired as VP of Basketball Strategy and Data Science and former Kings player Peja Stojakovic was announced as Director of Player Personnel and Development.
- Austin Rivers has signed with ASM Sports, according to Liz Mullen of the Sports Business Journal (Twitter link). Andy Miller and Andrew Vye will represent the Clippers guard. Earlier in the day, Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times reported that Clippers teammate DeAndre Jordan had dropped Relativity Sports agents Dan Fegan and Jarinn Akana as his representatives.
And-Ones: Rubio, Hornets, Kidd-Gilchrist
Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher (video link) buys the idea that the Timberwolves will move Ricky Rubio and mentioned the Kings and Mavs. Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities, however, tweets that although both teams have tried in the past to obtain Rubio, Timberwolves’ head coach and president Flip Saunders isn’t shopping. There were conflicting reports in May regarding whether or not Rubio’s camp was making a push for a trade.
Here’s more from around the basketball world:
- Hornets coach Steve Clifford believes the offseason roster changes have made his squad more skilled than last season and especially believes in the idea that Jeremy Lin and Kemba Walker can make the offense more dynamic, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer reports in a Q&A with the coach. “It’s always good to have two pick-and-roll players on the floor,” Clifford said. “That way you can put pressure on the defense at one side, then switch it to the other.”
- Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who recently signed a four-year, $52MM extension with the Hornets, said the deal has not put any pressure on him and instead has added fuel to his fire, Scott Fowler of The Charlotte Observer reports in a Q&A with the small forward.
Pistons Favorites To Sign Eric Moreland
Free agent Eric Moreland will soon decide between the Pistons, Lakers and Kings, with Detroit being the front-runner, league sources tell Shams Charania of RealGM. Details on any offers are not yet known.
There’s a strong chance Moreland would make the roster on any of the three teams. The Lakers and Kings have openings with 12 and 14 fully guaranteed contracts, respectively, as Charania points out. While the Pistons appear to be the favorite, they have a roster that provides much less flexibility. Detroit is carrying 17 fully guaranteed contracts, as our own Chuck Myron examined.
The Lakers worked out Moreland earlier this summer. The Kings waived Moreland in July because, reportedly, his playing style was too similar to that of No. 6 pick Willie Cauley-Stein. If the Kings had not released Moreland, his salary would have became guaranteed. Sacramento, however, is interested in re-signing Moreland, according to vice president of basketball and franchise operations Vlade Divac.
Moreland, 23, had a labral tear in his left shoulder end his rookie year prematurely after he’d made it into only three games this past season.
Pacific Notes: Morris, Rondo, Russell, Davis
Markieff Morris was notably absent as Suns players began gathering for voluntary workouts this week, writes Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic. Morris, unhappy since his twin brother Marcus was traded to the Pistons July 9th, isn’t expected to attend the sessions. Markieff Morris was irate about the deal and asked the Suns to trade him as well, but Coro notes that it would be nearly impossible for Phoenix to get equal value at this point and the team has no one on the roster to fill his role. The twins are angry because they contend they gave the Suns a break on the extensions they signed last year in hopes of remaining together.
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- The Kings‘ Rajon Rondo tops Yahoo Sports’ Ben Rohrbach’s list of players facing make-or-break seasons in 2015/16. Rondo, who signed a one-year, $9.5MM deal with Sacramento last month, is trying to rebuild his reputation after being shut down early during the playoffs by the Mavericks. Ty Lawson, who was traded to the Rockets July 20th, is second on Rohrbach’s list, followed by Miami’s Hassan Whiteside, Boston’s Jared Sullinger and Oklahoma City’s Dion Waiters.
- The addition of D’Angelo Russell has Lakers‘ part-owner Jim Buss excited about the upcoming season, according to Eric Pincus of The Los Angeles Times. The Lakers took a risk by drafting Russell second overall, ahead of Duke’s Jahlil Okafor, and Buss said the front office had about 30 meetings before making its final decision. “It was a long, long process that we decided to go with Russell,” Buss said. “He’s just very impressive. We saw an upside of being a potential superstar in the league.”
- Free agent Glen Davis, who has spent the last season and a half with the Clippers, has to convince a team that he can still be an effective scorer, writes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Nearing age 30, Davis has evolved into an energy player in recent years, averaging just 4.0 points per game last season, down from a career-high 15.1 in 2012/13. Washburn also notes that the Clippers are being selective in possible deals involving Jamal Crawford. They are willing to part with the 35-year-old, but only for the “right return.”
Pacific Notes: Kobe, Buss, Casspi, Suns
Lakers Executive VP of basketball operations Jim Buss believes Kobe Bryant is worth his league-high $25MM salary this season after all he’s done for the franchise and said that while the team is operating on the premise that Bryant will retire at season’s end, he’d welcome him back with open arms if he’s willing to accept a role that fits his age and ability. Buss made his comments as part of an interview with Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times, adding that he “feels like we’ve righted the ship” with coach Byron Scott and a new cast of key players, even if the team didn’t sign a star free agent this summer.
“It’s just that it takes time to build a core that guys want to play with,” Buss said to Pincus. “I understand a superstar doesn’t want to come in and say, ‘Oh, we still have two or three years of rebuilding.’ I think with Jordan Clarkson, [D’Angelo] Russell, [Julius] Randle, even [Roy] Hibbert … we’re getting a core of seven or eight players.”
See more on the Lakers amid the latest from around the Pacific Division:
- Buss, also a part-owner of the team, has no regrets about pledging in April 2014 to resign from his basketball operations position if he couldn’t restore the Lakers to contention in three or four years, as he said to Pincus for the same piece. Buss’ sister Jeanie, the primary owner of the franchise, has said she’ll hold him to that pledge if the Lakers aren’t back in the Western Conference Finals by the spring of 2017. Still, the top goal for this season, Jim Buss said to Pincus, is identifying core players for the future, and not necessarily making the playoffs.
- Omri Casspi cited DeMarcus Cousins, calling him the best center in the league in an interview with James Herbert of CBSSports.com, among the reasons why he decided to re-sign with the Kings this summer.
- The Suns officially named Chris Jent the head coach of their one-to-one D-League affiliate, the franchise announced Thursday. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported earlier this month that the sides were finalizing a deal. Jent had been Michael Malone‘s lead assistant with the Kings.
Wizards, Kings, Clippers Interested In Ryan Hollins
2:55pm: The Wizards and Kings have also had conversations with the Hollins camp, Turner clarifies, citing a source (Twitter link).
2:41pm: The Clippers and representatives for Hollins spoke today, though a deal isn’t happening, Turner tweets. Presumably, Turner means that a deal isn’t happening at the moment, rather than that a deal won’t happen at all.
10:36am: The Kings and Clippers maintain interest in signing nine-year veteran Ryan Hollins, and the Wizards are also eyeing him, a source told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Spears reported Sacramento’s interest in re-signing the Todd Ramasar client in early July, around the time Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times heard that the Clippers had conversations about reuniting with Hollins, who previously spent two seasons with the team.
The Clips didn’t make an offer at that point, Turner said then, and it’s unclear if any team has put a deal on the table for Hollins yet. He’s also reportedly received interest from the Mavericks and Pelicans along the way, though neither team has been connected to him for more than a month.
Hollins, who turns 31 in October, would appear to have an easier path to a regular season roster spot with the Kings or Clippers than he would with the Wizards, barring trade activity. Sacramento and L.A. have 14 full guarantees apiece while Washington has 15 and apparently isn’t offering partially guaranteed money to its camp invitees. Still, he faces competition, as the Kings were reportedly eyeing Hedo Turkoglu late last month while reports continue to show the Clippers have interest in re-signing Glen Davis.
The Kings signed him to a one-year, minimum-salary contract in 2014, and that would seem to be the sort of deal he’d command this time around, too. He averaged 3.0 points and 2.2 rebounds in 9.6 minutes per game this past season.
Where do you think Hollins ends up? Leave a comment to tell us.
No. 60 Pick Luka Mitrovic Extends Overseas Deal
Luka Mitrovic, the 60th pick in this year’s draft, has reached an extension with Crvena Zvezda of Serbia that runs through the 2016/17 season, according to the Euroleague’s website (hat tip to Sportando’s Enea Trapani). It’s unclear if the deal includes an NBA out that would allow him to sign with the Kings, who acquired his NBA rights from the Sixers last month as part of the Nik Stauskas trade.
It’s no surprise to see Mitrovic remain overseas, as Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi reported shortly after Philadelphia made him the final pick in June that he would do so. The 22-year-old’s contract had been set to run through this coming season, as Mark Porcaro shows in our register of Draft Rights Held Players, so the extension tacks on another year.
The Mark Fleisher client is well-regarded, having been the 39th overall prospect in this year’s draft according to Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider rankings. Mitrovic, a 6’8″ power forward, averaged 9.7 points and 5.7 rebounds in 24.5 minutes per game this past season for Crvena Zvezda. He just gained a new teammate with NBA experience, as Gal Mekel has signed to play with the club.
The Sixers also sent the rights to No. 47 overall pick Arturas Gudaitis to Sacramento in that swap. Gudaitis signed for at least two years with Lietuvos Rytas of Lithuania before the trade became official.