Pistons Sign Hasheem Thabeet For Camp
THURSDAY, 12:13pm: The team has followed up with an official announcement, via press release.
WEDNESDAY, 10:40pm: The contract has been signed, according to the RealGM transactions log.
3:45pm: The Pistons have signed Hasheem Thabeet, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). The deal is non-guaranteed according to Stein, though the length and terms have not been disclosed yet. Thabeet’s signing brings Detroit’s preseason roster count to 19, with 16 of those players on fully-guaranteed contracts. With the Pistons’ glut of bigs on the roster Thabeet would seem to be a real long shot to stick past training camp.
Thabeet was traded from the Thunder to the Sixers in a roster clearing move back in August. Philadelphia had no intention of keeping Thabeet, and they waived him on the final day before his non-guaranteed $1.25MM salary for this coming season was to have become fully guaranteed.
The former second-overall draft pick out of UConn never came close to living up to his draft position. In five seasons Thabeet has averaged just 2.2 PPG and 2.7 RPG. His career shooting numbers are .567/.000/.568.
Diante Garrett To Join Blazers For Camp
SEPTEMBER 24TH, 10:38pm: The deal is official, the team announced.
AUGUST 12TH, 8:12am: The RealGM transactions log indicates the signing is official, although the team has yet to make an official announcement.
AUGUST 11TH, 1:30pm: It’ll be a two-year contract, Freeman writes. That means it won’t be an Exhibit 9, and Portland would be on the hook for his salary should he be injured while performing for the team.
1:06pm: The Blazers have reached agreement on a deal that will bring free agent guard Diante Garrett to camp, a source tells Joe Freeman of The Oregonian (Twitter link). It’s a non-guaranteed pact, Freeman hears, so it’ll be a summer contract. It’ll almost certainly be for the minimum salary, since the Blazers can’t give out anything more.
The Raptors waived their non-guaranteed contract with Garrett last month shortly after acquiring him from the Jazz in the Steve Novak trade. He was on the fringes of the rotation for Utah this past season, averaging 3.5 points and shooting 37.5% from three-point range in 14.8 minutes per game. That followed a year in which he spent the entire season on the Suns roster but only appeared in 19 contests.
The 25-year-old Wasserman Media Group client will join James Southerland, who signed last week, in a fight to unseat one of the 15 Trail Blazers known to have guaranteed deals. It works in Garrett’s favor that the two Blazers with the cheapest contracts are fellow guards Will Barton and Allen Crabbe. Portland would only have to eat less than $1MM if the team were to keep Garrett instead of Barton or Crabbe.
Lakers Sign Ronnie Price
9:27pm: Price’s deal is non-guaranteed, Sam Amick of USA Today reports (Twitter link).
2:59pm: The Lakers have signed point guard Ronnie Price, the team announced. Sam Amick of USA Today reported the deal minutes before the team sent out its release. The contract covers one year at the minimum salary, according to Amick, but it’s unclear whether it contains any guaranteed money for the nine-year veteran.
Price is the third player among the handful who worked out for the Lakers earlier this month to come to terms with the club, joining former Kings Jeremy Tyler and Wayne Ellington. The 31-year-old Price had been a free agent since early July, shortly after the Magic waived him rather than guarantee his minimum salary. The Mike Higgins client put up his lowest scoring average since his rookie year this past season, but he matched a career high with 2.1 assists per game. Price has spent his NBA career as a backup, never seeing more than 14.4 minutes per contest in a single season.
Only 13 Lakers are known to have fully guaranteed deals, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to envision Price on the regular season roster. He’ll compete against Ellington, Tyler, and rookies Keith Appling, Jabari Brown and Roscoe Smith to make it to opening night.
No Deal For Sixers, Malcolm Lee
SEPTEMBER 29TH: Lee is not among the players listed on the preseason roster the team sent via press release, so presumably the deal is off.
SEPTEMBER 24TH: The Sixers have reached agreement with Malcolm Lee, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it’s likely a standard non-guaranteed camp deal for the 24 year-old out of UCLA. This brings Philadelphia’s preseason roster count to 18, with eight of those players having fully-guaranteed contracts, and four whose deals carry partial guarantees.
The 6’5″ shooting guard worked out for the Lakers and the Nets during the Summer, and his most recent appearance in the league was with the Timberwolves during the 2012/13 campaign. In 35 career games, including 12 starts, Lee has averaged 4.0 PPG, 1.9 RPG, and 1.5 APG. His career slash line is .385/.294/.703.
Lee will get a look in camp at the the wing as a potential backup to projected starter Tony Wroten, and with the Sixers expected to challenge the league record for losses in a season, the roster is wide open for Lee to stick around through opening night.
Kings Waive Scotty Hopson
WEDNESDAY, 2:24pm: The move is official, the team announced.
TUESDAY, 11:15pm: The Kings have waived swingman Scotty Hopson, according to the RealGM transactions log, though the team has yet to make an official announcement. His nearly $1.451MM salary is non-guaranteed, so it won’t stick on Sacramento’s books. Reports on Monday indicated that the Alberto Ebanks client was moving close to a deal with Italy’s Enel Brindisi even as he remained on the Kings roster, but representatives from the Italian team denied that they were pursuing him. In any case, Hopson will have to wait at least another two days to sign to play in Italy or anywhere else, since he’ll need to clear waivers first.
The 25-year-old former University of Tennessee standout has two games of NBA experience, but he’s already been with five NBA teams after signing with the Cavs at the end of March. Cleveland appeared to add Hopson chiefly to use him as a trade chip, and he was involved in four swaps this summer, passing through the Hornets, Pelicans and Rockets on his way to Sacramento. He’s spent most of his pro career overseas since going undrafted in 2011, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see him return to international ball.
Sacramento has deals with 18 players following Hopson’s departure, leaving the Kings with two open preseason roster spots to fill if they choose. It would make sense if Sacramento were to also release Alonzo Gee, the other player the team acquired in the Jason Terry trade, though that’s just my speculation. Gee’s $3MM salary is also non-guaranteed.
Wizards Sign Xavier Silas
SEPTEMBER 29TH: The deal is official, the team announced.
SEPTEMBER 23RD: While the team hasn’t announced Silas’ deal, it has been signed, as the RealGM transaction log shows.
SEPTEMBER 15TH, 2:03pm: Silas has put pen to paper on a contract with the Wizards, as he tells Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link), though there’s been no official announcement from the team yet.
1:03pm: Xavier Silas has committed to a camp deal with the Wizards, reports J. Michael of CSNWashington.com. Washington is also close to an agreement that would bring Damion James to camp, Michael adds. Silas is almost certainly getting the minimum salary, and James assuredly would, too, since the Wizards can’t give out any more than that. It’s unclear whether either is in line for any sort of guaranteed salary.
Silas, a 6’5″ shooting guard, is joining the Wizards for the second straight preseason. Washington cut him before opening night last year, and he went on to play in Israel and Argentina. The 26-year-old’s only official NBA experience came in a pair of regular season games and a pair of playoff games for the Sixers in 2011/12.
James has a more extensive NBA track record, having been the 24th pick in the 2010 draft out of Texas. Still, the 6’7″ small forward made it into only 34 games in his first three NBA seasons, all with the Nets. James inked a 10-day contract followed by a deal for the rest of the season with the Spurs in April of this year, but he played in just five regular season games and didn’t appear in the postseason for San Antonio as the team made its championship run.
The Wizards are carrying 13 guaranteed deals plus a $400K partial guarantee on their contract with Glen Rice Jr., so it appears as though Silas and perhaps James would have decent chances to make it to opening night. Washington, which like so many teams is in the Ray Allen sweepstakes, would ideally round out the regular season roster with a wing player, but there’s a strong chance the Wizards will carry fewer than the maximum of 15 players when the regular season begins, according to Michael.
Wizards Sign Daniel Orton For Camp
SEPTEMBER 29TH: The deal is official, the team announced.
SEPTEMBER 23RD: The Wizards are close to signing Daniel Orton for training camp, reports J. Michael of CSNWashington.com. Orton is expected to sign a summer contract within the next few days, and it will be non-guaranteed.
Michael reports that Orton also worked out for the Pistons and Lakers, and canceled another workout with the Clippers once they signed Ekpe Udoh. Orton’s conditioning is better than it was during summer league, and Washington was the best fit for the third-year center because they covet frontcourt pieces more than his other suitors, Michael tweets.
The Vartanian/Simmons Sports Management client has played a total of 50 games in parts of the last three seasons with the Magic, Thunder, and Sixers. The big man has averaged 2.8 points and 2.5 rebounds per game for his career.
Grizzlies Sign Michael Beasley For Camp
THURSDAY, 2:30pm: The deal is official, the team announced.
TUESDAY, 6:53pm: Michael Beasley has reached an agreement on a non-guaranteed contract with the Grizzlies, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Beasley spent this week working out with Memphis, according to Wojnarowski, who writes that the former No. 2 overall pick has chosen the Grizzlies because of the opportunity to make the team as a backup power forward. The Memphis roster now stands at 20, but with only 14 fully guaranteed deals Beasley figures to have a reasonable shot to break camp with the team. The Grizzlies are limited to giving him the minimum, since the sliver of their mid-level exception that they have remaining exceeds the amount of the rookie minimum, but not the minimum for a player with the six years of experience that Beasley has.
The talented but troubled Kansas State product, still only 25 years old, was drafted by Miami in 2008 and spent time with the Timberwolves and Suns before returning to the Heat for a second term last season. The Jared Karnes client auditioned for the Spurs last week, had a pair of workouts with the Lakers earlier in the offseason and had reportedly drawn interest from a few other teams. Beasley would have liked to have re-signed with the Heat, but concerns over his defense and maturity persuaded the team against bringing him back, we heard earlier this month.
Beasley has averaged 13.2 points and 4.9 rebounds over six years in the league. Last season, on a loaded Miami team, he posted career-low averages in points (7.9), rebounds (3.1) and minutes (15.1). He will be competing against fellow non-guaranteed camp invitees Earl Clark, Patrick Christopher, Luke Hancock, Kalin Lucas and Hassan Whiteside for the Grizzlies final roster spot.
Lakers Sign Jeremy Tyler, Jabari Brown For Camp
The Lakers have added Jeremy Tyler and Jabari Brown to their roster for training camp, the team announced today, while also confirming the official deals for Keith Appling and Roscoe Smith. After adding Wayne Ellington yesterday, the team’s roster now stands at 18 heading into camp, with 13 of the spots occupied by fully guaranteed contracts. The Lakers training camp roster should eventually balloon to 19 or 20, according to Mark Medina of the L.A. Daily News (via Twitter).
Tyler is a three-year veteran who has spent time with the Warriors, Hawks and Knicks since being drafted by Charlotte in the second round of the 2011 NBA Draft. Tyler and Ellington were two of five players to work out with the Lakers earlier this month. Tyler was waived by the Kings a week prior after being dealt to Sacramento by the Knicks in August along with Ellington, coincidentally. The 23-year-old power forward has averaged 3.6 points and 2.6 boards over 104 games in his NBA career.
Brown, who led the SEC in scoring in 2013/14, went undrafted in June after leaving Missouri following his junior season. The shooting guard averaged 19.9 points and shot 41 percent from three for the Tigers last season en route to a first team all-SEC selection. He was a college teammate of fellow Lakers rookie Jordan Clarkson, who signed with the team in August.
Roscoe Smith To Attend Lakers Camp
SEPTEMBER 23RD: The signing is official, the team announced.
AUGUST 4TH: Former UNLV and UConn forward Roscoe Smith has accepted an invite to Lakers training camp, a source tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv (on Twitter). The 23-year-old went undrafted in June.
Smith was a second-round draft candidate but likely went undrafted thanks to his age and lack of size for his more natural power forward position. Smith, who celebrated his 23rd birthday in May, stands at 6’8″ and weighed in at just 202 pounds this summer.
As a freshman at UConn, Smith started 33 games and put up 5.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game. He also started in the 2011 NCAA Tournament, helping the Huskies to the National Championship. The following season, he saw his playing time decrease thanks to the arrival of Andre Drummond.
After UConn was banned from postseason play thanks to academic issues, he transferred to UNLV and per the rules sat out the 2012/13 season. Smith averaged 11.1 points per game and 10.9 rebounds per game.