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Lakers Re-Sign Jordan Hill

July 23rd, 2014 at 6:40pm CST by Eddie Scarito

JULY 23RD: The team has officially re-signed Hill, according to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (via Twitter), who reports that GM Mitch Kupchak called Hill a “consistent contributor” in a team release.

JULY 11TH: Free agent forward Jordan Hill has agreed to a two-year, $18MM deal to return to the Lakers, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Hill joins Nick Young, who agreed to re-sign earlier, in returning to the team, and new acquisition Jeremy Lin, whose trade was agreed upon earlier, too.

In 72 games last season, Hill averaged 9.7 PPG, 7.4 RPG, and 0.8 APG while playing an average of 20.8 minutes a night. His slash line was .549/.000/.685. His career numbers over five seasons are 6.7 PPG, 5.3 RPG, and 0.5 APG.

With all the deals signed today, the Lakers have all but taken themselves out of the running for Carmelo Anthony, and seems to indicate the team will focus on next summer to try to lure a big name to Los Angles. The franchise now only has their $3.27MM taxpayer mid level exception with which to pursue players unless more moves are made.

Kings Plan To Submit Claim For Omri Casspi

July 23rd, 2014 at 4:41pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Kings plan on making a waiver claim on Omri Casspi, whom the Pelicans released today, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Casspi would go to the team with the worst record from last season if multiple teams submit claims, so the Bucks, Sixers, Magic, Celtics, Jazz and Lakers could all prevent him from ending up in Sacramento. Casspi’s contract is for only the minimum salary, so teams could use the minimum-salary exception to accommodate their claims.

Casspi has expressed interest in a return to Sacramento, where he spent his first two, and most productive two, years of his NBA career. Stein reported that the Pelicans were likely to waive the 26-year-old even before the trade that brought him from Houston became official, and agent Dan Fegan had already begun reaching out to other teams, as Casspi told Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee.

Any team that claims Casspi would have until the end of August 5th to turn around and waive him again before his non-guaranteed salary became fully guaranteed. It’s unlikely any team would make such a move, but the option of doing so would nonetheless provide a degree of flexibility. That might be enough to persuade another team to submit a claim and keep him from Sacramento.

Pelicans Waive Omri Casspi

July 23rd, 2014 at 4:32pm CST by Chuck Myron

4:32pm: The team has officially announced the move on its website.

4:16pm: The Pelicans have waived Omri Casspi, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link), a move that Stein reported the team was likely to make in the wake of its three-way trade to acquire him from the Rockets. The team has yet to make an official announcement.

Casspi’s minimum salary was to have become fully guaranteed if the Pelicans hadn’t waived him by the end of the day on August 5th. However, that guarantee date will still apply if a team claims him off waivers. It seems he’d be a decent candidate for a waiver claim, since he was a part of Houston’s rotation this past season and would come cheaply. The 26-year-old averaged 6.9 points in 18.1 minutes with 34.7% three-point shooting for the Rockets, reversing a steady decline in production that had taken place since his rookie year.

Casspi told Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee that agent Dan Fegan has spoken with several teams about a deal should he hit free agency, as we noted earlier. The Kings are among those clubs, Casspi said, expressing a desire to return to Sacramento, where he played his first two seasons in the league.

Rockets To Sign Clint Capela

July 23rd, 2014 at 3:35pm CST by Chuck Myron

JULY 23RD: Capela has signed his contract, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Houston will have to receive the signed contract before it becomes official.

JULY 14TH: The Rockets have been working with No. 25 pick Clint Capela to secure his buyout from Chalon-Sur-Saone of France and a FIBA letter of clearance, and they intend to sign him to a rookie scale contract this summer, reports Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. The outcome is the result that Capela’s camp had been pushing for after the Rockets apparently asked him to remain overseas for next season. Feigen’s piece doesn’t refer to the request, which Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com had reported over the weekend, but he does cast the Rockets as having been ambivalent about the notion of Capela playing for the team this season. Now, it appears the team and Capela are in lockstep toward a contract.

“We are planning out roster for next season. We expect him to be a part of it,” Rockets executive vice president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas said. “We’re in the process of working toward that.”

Capela is likely to receive a salary worth more than $1.189MM for next season, as our table of salaries for 2014 first-rounders shows. The Rockets had been attempting to preserve cap flexibility as they chased LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh, and Houston shopped the pick before the draft. There was also reportedly interest from other teams in trading for Capela’s rights once the Rockets made the selection, but Houston never showed mutual interest in such a swap. Now that the team’s marquee free agent targets are headed elsewhere and Chandler Parsons is off to Dallas, there’s room for Capela, a raw talent who averaged 9.8 points and 6.9 rebounds in 21.4 minutes per game for his French team this past season.

Knicks Waive Shannon Brown

July 23rd, 2014 at 3:27pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Knicks have waived Shannon Brown, the team announced (via Twitter). His non-guaranteed contract for the minimum salary was to have become fully guaranteed if the Knicks hadn’t waived him by the end of August 1st.

The move is somewhat surprising, given Brown’s ties to Knicks team president Phil Jackson, who was Brown’s coach when they were together with the Lakers. New York gave Brown his deal this past March soon after hiring Jackson, though Brown initially joined the club on a pair of 10-day contracts that predated Jackson’s arrival.

Brown, 28, averaged just 2.1 points and 7.8 minutes per game in 19 appearances for the Knicks this year, having seen only slightly more playing time in a 10-game stint with the Spurs earlier in the season. He had a much larger role the previous two seasons with the Suns, including a career-high 11.0 points per game in 2011/12, but Phoenix sent him to Washington in the Marcin Gortat trade, and the Wizards promptly waived him to get down to 15 players before opening night. The eight-year veteran spent the first three months of the season without an NBA deal.

Wolves Re-Sign Robbie Hummel

July 23rd, 2014 at 3:23pm CST by Zachary Links

WEDNESDAY, 3:23pm: The deal is official, the team announced.

MONDAY, 8:28pm: Robbie Hummel has re-signed with the Wolves, according to his reps at Priority Sports (on Twitter). It’s a fully-guaranteed one-year, $900K pact, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (on Twitter).

The Wolves declined to extend Hummel a qualifying offer of $1.016MM at the end of June, but less than a month later they’ve agreed to a deal that pays just ~$100K less. Last season, the 25-year-old averaged 3.4 PPG and 2.5 RPG in 12.4 minutes per contest across 53 games (five starts).

The swingman was taken with the No. 58 pick in the 2012 draft, signed with a Spanish team later that summer, and circled back to the T’Wolves prior to the 2013/14 season.

Lakers Sign Ed Davis

July 23rd, 2014 at 2:33pm CST by Charlie Adams

JULY 23RD: The deal is official, the team announced on its website, as it introduced Davis to the media today.

“Ed is a versatile, young frontcourt player who, if he continues to work hard, will be a valuable contributor,” Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak said in the team’s statement. “We look forward to him furthering his development with the Lakers and are excited by what we think he can offer our team.”

JULY 16TH: The Lakers and Ed Davis have agreed on a two-year, $2MM deal, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The second year of the contract will feature a player option, Wojnarowski adds (Twitter links).

Davis spent the 2013/14 campaign with the Grizzlies, where he averaged 15.2 minutes per contest over the course of 63 games. While his nightly marks of 5.7 PPG and 4.1 RPG don’t jump off the page as particularly noteworthy, Davis was quietly able to post a respectable 15.9 PER. The big man won’t necessarily fill the void created by Pau Gasol‘s departure to Chicago, but he could definitely prove to be a low-cost, efficient signing for the Lakers.

The official terms of the contract haven’t been released yet, but Davis’ salary for the upcoming season will likely be $981,084, the minimum a player of his experience can make. Otherwise, Los Angeles will need to dip into the room exception if they want to be able to ink the Landmark Sports client.

Davis’ signing will add even more youth to the Lakers’ power forward slot, which had already been set to feature promising rookie Julius Randle. Davis, who mostly played the four last season, will have a good chance to see some serious minutes on the floor for Los Angeles in 2014/15.

Hornets Sign Brian Roberts

July 23rd, 2014 at 12:04pm CST by Zachary Links

JULY 23RD: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.

JULY 13TH: The Hornets are set to sign Brian Roberts to a two-year, $5.5MM+ deal, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.

Late last week, Wojnarowski reported that Roberts was No. 1 on Charlotte’s wish list as they searched for a backup to point guard Kemba Walker. The Pistons and Grizzlies were also said to have had interest.

In two seasons with New Orleans, Roberts has averaged 8.2 PPG and 3.0 APG in 19.9 minutes per contest while shooting 37.2% from the outside. The former University of Dayton standout has a slightly below-average PER of 14.0 for his NBA career.

Mavs Void Contract With Rashard Lewis

July 23rd, 2014 at 10:47am CST by Chuck Myron

The Mavericks have nullified their contract with Rashard Lewis after a right knee injury requiring surgery was discovered during his team physical, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Lewis had signed a one-year deal for the minimum salary this past weekend, but today’s move puts him back in free agency immediately. He doesn’t need to pass through waivers. Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson, in a statement from the team, stopped short of confirming that the Mavs had voided the contract, but he seemed to hint that the 34-year-old sharpshooting power forward was no longer with the organization.

“It came to our attention during Rashard Lewis’s physical that he is in need of a medical procedure on his right knee,” Nelson said. “We wish him all the best for a speedy recovery and continued success in his remarkable career.”

The Mavs aren’t on the hook for any salary to the client of Dutt Sports Services Inc., even though his contract appeared to be fully guaranteed, but it’s possible that the players association will file a grievance, as is often the case when teams move to nullify contracts with players. It’s not clear how long it will take for Lewis to recover and return to action. The move won’t create any more cap flexibility for Dallas, since the team is already essentially capped out and it appeared the Mavs used the minimum-salary exception on their deal with Lewis.

Nets Sign Markel Brown

July 23rd, 2014 at 9:49am CST by Ryan Raroque

WEDNESDAY, 9:49pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release. It’s a multiyear contract, the Nets revealed in their statement.

TUESDAY, 7:27pm: The Nets will sign Markel Brown, league sources tell Tim Bontemps of the New York Post (via Twitter). Brown was selected 44th overall by the Timberwolves last month before Brooklyn acquired his draft rights via trade.

It was somewhat of surprise that the Oklahoma State shooting guard went so highly in last month’s draft, since Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress ranked him as the 55th best prospect and Chad Ford of ESPN.com had him down at No. 61. He averaged 17.2 points and 5.3 rebounds in 35.3 minutes per game this past season as part of a backcourt tandem with point guard Marcus Smart, this year’s sixth overall pick.

Brown will face stiff competition to make the Nets opening night roster, especially if his deal isn’t fully guaranteed for this coming season. Brooklyn agreed to a deal No. 60 pick Cory Jefferson earlier tonight and also possesses the rights to Xavier Thames, the 59th overall selection. The Nets signed highly touted European draft-and-stash prospect Bojan Bogdanovic this afternoon, so it’s shaping up as a battle between this year’s second-rounders, camp invitee Michael Jenkins and any players the club adds from here for no more than two open roster spots.