Odds & Ends: Renfroe, Knicks, Cavs, Grizzlies, Bell
Guard Alex Renfroe was reportedly close to signing with the Warriors earlier this month, but now it appears the former Belmont University standout is headed to the Spanish club CB Valladolid, David Pick reports via Twitter (hat tip to Sportando). Renfroe is like many who remain as free agents this time of year, faced with the choice between more money overseas and a shot at making an NBA roster on a non-guaranteed minimum-salary deal. While the NBA remains far and away the premier league worldwide, there is legitimate competition for players on the fringes of the Association. Here's the latest:
- Raptors radio analyst Eric Smith says the Knicks have hired former Raptors assistant Dave Hopla as an assistant coach for player development (Twitter link).
- The Cavaliers considered adding another veteran this summer to fill the leadership vaccum left by the departures of Antawn Jamison and Anthony Parker, but decided against it, believing coach Byron Scott as well as Anderson Varejao and Daniel Gibson can provide voices that are strong enough, writes Terry Pluto of the Plain Dealer.
- Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal writes that the Grizzlies will remain in the top tier of an improved Western Conference if they can stay healthy.
- Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel believes Raja Bell would be a welcome addition to the Heat. The 36-year-old shooting guard says the Heat would be his first choice if he can secure a buyout from the Jazz.
- Former Spurs enforcer Bruce Bowen talked to Raul Barrigon of HoopsHype.com about the Spurs' decision to largely stand pat this season, the Heat's chances to repeat, and his desire to get into coaching or a front office job someday.
- Keith Schlosser of Ridiculous Upside spoke with guard Cameron Jones, who made first team All-Rookie in the D-League last season after spending training camp with the Heat. Jones is a cousin of Raptors guard Landry Fields.
Mickael Pietrus Talking To Pair Of Teams
Free agent swingman Mickael Pietrus spoke to Alexis Boissel of the French-language website BasketSession.com and indicated that he's narrowed his choices down to two teams. He said he would have signed already, but wasn't interested in the money he was being offered, which seems to reinforce the notion that he's holding out for more than the minimum salary.
We heard from Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com earlier this week that three teams have displayed significant interest in the 6'6" 30-year-old, with two of those teams "very motivated" to complete a deal. It appears those clubs aren't the Timberwolves and the Celtics, as a pair of reports yesterday downplayed the chances of him winding up with those teams. Haynes also wrote that Pietrus has an offer from an overseas club that includes an out if he wanted to return to the NBA.
The Bucks reportedly had interest earlier this summer, but that has since waned, and with this week's signing of Marquis Daniels bringing the roster to 15 players, all of whom are on fully guaranteed contracts, it would be quite a surprise if Pietrus wound up in Milwaukee. The Raptors had internal discussions about Pietrus, but they can't offer him more than the minimum salary. The Hawks could be a possibility, since they have their $1.957MM biannual exception available and none of their three best fits at small forward have guaranteed deals, but that's just my speculation.
Pietrus, a nine-year veteran, has averaged 8.4 points and 3.1 rebounds with an 11.8 PER for his career. He was hampered by a right knee injury last season with the Celtics, when he put up 6.9 PPG, 3.1 RPG and an 8.5 PER, but after a do-over surgery this summer, he appears to feel much better, telling Boissel that his knee problems are behind him and that he is 100%.
Odds & Ends: Pietrus, Johnson, Raptors, Thomas
Here's today's look around the Association..
- While the Timberwolves continue to talk with Mickael Pietrus' camp, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (via Twitter) is told that there is a better chance the veteran wing winds up with a team in the Eastern Conference. This week it was reported that three teams have major interest in Pietrus with two clubs highly motivated to get a deal done. Pietrus also has a viable option overseas that would include an NBA opt-out.
- Doug Smith of the Toronto Star wouldn't be surprised to see either Amir Johnson or Ed Davis traded this season as one is likely to be squeezed out of the rotation in favor of the other. However, Smith is unwilling to handicap the odds of a trade happening or to predict which one will be on the block.
- Joel Brigham of HoopsWorld is surprised to see summer league standout Malcolm Thomas still without a guaranteed contract. Thomas posted a double-double in every Summer League game he played for the Bulls, averaging 17.9 PPG and 12.3 RPG for the week in Vegas.
- Eric Koreen of the National Post looks at how the Raptors are using advanced statistics to gain an edge going forward. Toronto has contracted KBAR Consulting to handle the analytics for the front office.
- Jim Cavan of the New York Times wonders if Adam Morrison will stick with the Blazers in his latest NBA go-round.
Raptors Sign Chris Wright, Jerel McNeal
The Raptors have officially signed forward Chris Wright and guard Jerel McNeal, the team announced today in a press release. Terms of the deals weren't disclosed, but in all likelihood, both players' contracts are non-guaranteed, minimum-salary pacts.
Wright, who will turn 24 later this month, appeared in 24 games for the Warriors in his rookie season, recording an impressive 18.6 PER, albeit in a small sample size (186 total minutes). The 6'8" forward out of Dayton averaged 17.8 PPG and 8.8 RPG for the Maine Red Claws and Dakota Wizards in 13 D-League contests.
McNeal, meanwhile, has never appeared in an NBA game, despite inking a 10-day contract with the Hornets in 2011. In 47 games for the D-League's Rio Grande Valley Vipers in 2010/11, the 25-year-old averaged 19.4 PPG. The 6'3" guard was particularly impressive in the D-League postseason, averaging 27.7 PPG, 7.0 RPG, and 6.5 APG while leading the Valley Vipers to a Finals appearance.
The signings bring the Raptors' roster to a total of 18 players. 14 of those players have fully guaranteed deals, while Jamaal Magloire and Dominic McGuire have partial guarantees, meaning Wright and McNeal will face uphill battles in earning roster spots.
Doug Smith of the Toronto Star first reported that the Raptors were expected to invite Wright to training camp.
Raptors Re-Sign Jamaal Magloire
SEPTEMBER 18TH: The Raptors have officially re-signed Magloire, according to a team release.
SEPTEMBER 6TH: Unrestricted free agent Jamaal Magloire will receive a non-guaranteed deal with an invite to training camp from the Raptors, according to Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun (via Twitter). Magloire played for the Raptors on a minimum-salary contract in 2011/12, and it appears he'll get the opportunity to do so again this season.
Magloire, 34, had a disappointing year in Toronto, averaging more fouls per game (1.9) than points (1.2) in limited minutes for the Raptors. His 37.8% field goal percentage and 2.7 PER were also among the worst of his career. However, Magloire had an even more disastrous season in 2007/08, and bounced back reasonably well with the Heat a year later, so the Raptors are taking a flier on the big man having a similar bounce-back performance this season.
With 14 players under contract, the Raptors will make Magloire the 15th man on their roster. However, the club can continue to invite players to training camp as long as the deals are non-guaranteed.
Alex Rucker On Raptors’ Offseason Additions
Jay Satur of Raptors.com recently sat down with Alex Rucker, the Raptors' Director of Analytics, to discuss a number of topics, including the new players Toronto will add for the coming season. The conversation focused primarily on the Raps' big trade acquisition (Kyle Lowry), the team's major free agent signing (Landry Fields), and last year's fifth overall pick (Jonas Valanciunas). Rucker shared some interesting observations on those players and how they ended up in Toronto. Here are a few of his comments:
On why the team targeted Lowry in trade talks:
"He’s a guy that’s been on our radar for three years as a guy that is underappreciated…. The value that he has is not captured well by the box score, so some people don’t quite get it. A lot of the things he does in terms of his style of play have a lot of value and he does a lot of things really well to help teams win ball games. I think [Rockets GM] Daryl [Morey] referenced that a couple of times in interviews about how a lot of their big wins were attributable to what Kyle did and maybe if you look at the box score, it wasn’t obvious, but he is a winning player."
On adding Lowry and John Lucas III to a point guard mix that already included Jose Calderon:
"When teams are playing us, they’re never going to get a 'backup point guard.' You’re going to get 48 minutes of quality point guard play. So when they bring in their backups and maybe have a drop off in quality, we should be in a position to take advantage of that because we will always have a good point guard on the floor."
On how Fields showed up on the team's free agent radar:
"We identified the wing as a position we wanted to upgrade. We felt like when you come off a season like we did, rebuilding, you look at every position and ask, how we can get better? With the wing spot, we looked across the whole spectrum of free agent and trade target wings and Landry was a guy that kept coming up in conversations. The coaches liked him, management liked him and the analytics liked him. He was a guy that was on the radar months ago as one of the top wing candidates that could help us upgrade at the wing spots.
On the perception that the Raptors overpaid Fields, who signed a three-year, $18.5MM deal:
"If the only year he played in pro basketball was this past season, then I would agree with every bit of criticism that’s out there about the deal. However, there’s this rather large sample of games, minutes, possessions that occurred as a rookie and a lot of that season was a slightly dissimilar situation than the one they currently have in New York…. So what kind of a situation are we looking to have? What kind of offence are we going to run? What kind of personnel are we going to have? How might he fit within that? I’m not thinking he’s going to immediately revert back to his rookie year, if he does, great. But I think the truth is somewhere in the middle and I’m going to be very happy if it’s something in the middle."
On the expectations for Valanciunas:
"Not necessarily from day one but over the long term, I think Jonas will be a guy that is a really good rebounder at both ends and can protect the rim defensively as an on-ball and help post defender. His dedication to improving his free throw percentage speaks to an overall offensive potential that he’s just growing into. So the work ethic and the passion he clearly has for the game, those intangibles combined with what he’s done on the court are real strong indicators that this is a guy, over the long run, that could be this building block at center we have for 10-15 years here in Toronto."
Odds & Ends: Kidd-Gilchrist, Raptors, 2013 Draft
During a University of Kentucky charity game that he originally wasn't scheduled to compete in, Bobcats rookie Michael Kidd-Gilchrist appeared to show no ill effects from a knee injury that kept him sidelined during July's Summer League in Las Vegas, writes the Charlotte Observer's Rick Bonnell.
Here's a look elsewhere around the league this Saturday evening.
- The Raptors are currently entering stage two of the rebuilding process, writes NBA.com's John Schuhmann. Even though the team's big offseason target, Steve Nash, ended up signing with the Lakers, Toronto continues to build around the strength of their talented youth.
- Hoopsworld.com and Draft Express give us their top 100 NBA prospects for the 2013 draft. UCLA's Shabazz Muhammad and Kentucky's Nerlens Noel headline the list.
- HoopsWorld.com gives us a season preview for the Trail Blazers, a team that's either rebuilding or already talented enough to compete for the eighth seed in the West. Also from HoopsWorld.com, a preview for the Bucks.
- The Jazz will enter the 2012/13 season with a new general manager and new faces on the roster, such as longtime Hawks forward Marvin Williams, writes The Salt Lake Tribune's Steve Luhm.
- Chris Smith, J.R. Smith's brother, will fight for a roster spot with the Knicks in this year's training camp, writes Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv.
Odds & Ends: Louisville, D-League, Raptors
Earlier this summer, we heard rumblings of Virginia Beach putting the wheels in motion to land an NBA team with an eye on the Kings. Today, Marcus Green and Dan Klepal of The Courier-Journal write that a group of community leaders in Louisville, Kentucky would like to land a team as well. However, one city spokesman says that there is no "active deal" between the city and any team in the Association. Here's this afternoon's look around the league..
- The Maine Red Claws of the D-League are set to hire Mike Taylor as their next head coach, league sources tell Paul Flannery of WEEI.com. Taylor has experience in Europe and the D-League and will now head the Red Claws in their first year under the full control of the Celtics.
- AJ Mitnick of Sheridan Hoops brings us his All-Eurobasket Qualifying team, which features Omri Casspi, Danilo Gallinari, and Marcin Gortat. Finnish guard Petteri Kaponen, whose draft rights are owned by the Mavericks, also turned in a standout performance during the games.
- Doug Smith of the Toronto Star expects the Raptors to offer Jamaal Magloire an off-the-court role if he does not survive with the club. Magloire's deal hasn't been officially announced yet but it is expected to be a one-year, non-guaranteed pact.
- Jarvis Varnado is hoping to make the Heat on a non-guaranteed deal, but Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel doesn't like his chances. Winderman expects Miami to give the nod to Mickell Gladness rather than the defensive-minded Varnado.
- Last year's D-League call-up record will likely be broken this season, opines Gino Pilato of Ridiculous Upside. Part of the reason for that is that there will be an all-time high of eleven NBA teams with single affiliates.
Raptors Notes: Iguodala, Trades, Calderon
The Raptors officially announced their signing of Dominic McGuire this morning, and deals for Jamaal Magloire and Chris Wright are expected to follow. With 14 players already on guaranteed contracts, the Raptors figure to have McGuire, Magloire, and Wright in camp to battle for the team's 15th and final roster spot. Here are a few more of today's Raps-related items:
- Lang Greene of HoopsWorld passes along comments made by Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo to Michael Richards on TSN Radio (.mp3 link), which included a handful of interesting tidbits. Among them: Colangelo said the Raptors had a chance this offseason to jump into some trade scenarios, and still have some trade possibilities that they're exploring.
- Colangelo singled out Andre Iguodala as a player the Raptors could've been in on, but said the asking price was too high for a guy that can become a free agent as early as next summer. According to Greene, the Raptors would have had to give up DeMar DeRozan, Ed Davis, Jose Calderon, and a first-round pick to land Iguodala.
- Colangelo also noted that Calderon's expiring contract makes for a valuable trade asset.
- Toronto's GM on the team's offseason: "Maybe we failed this summer to make the sexy move, but I tell you that we have gone about this building it the right way, taking a patience approach which is not easy for me to do. I want to turn things around very quickly sometimes — all of the time. But sometimes you really do have to wait. You have to do it the right way."
Raptors Sign Dominic McGuire
WEDNESDAY, 8:50am: The Raptors have officially signed McGuire, according to a team release. McGuire will have at least some guaranteed money on his one-year deal, says Doug Smith of the Toronto Star.
SUNDAY, 4:21pm: The Toronto Raptors have reached an agreement with free agent forward Dominic McGuire, according to a tweet from Yahoo! Sports columnist Adrian Wojnarowski. Late last week, Wojnarowski tweeted that the Nets were planning on bringing McGuire in for a workout, but it appears he's headed to their division rival.
The 6'9" defensive specialist should be a perfect fit with the plan head coach Dwane Casey's trying to set forth in Toronto. He's coming off one of the best seasons of his five-year career. With near-career best averages of 3.5PPG and 3.8RPG with the Warriors.