Keith Appling To Join Lakers For Camp
SEPTEMBER 23RD: The signing is official, the team announced.
AUGUST 4TH: Undrafted point guard Keith Appling and the Lakers have reached agreement on a non-guaranteed deal, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). The arrangement will give the former Michigan State Spartan a chance to make the team out of training camp.
The 6’1″ Appling was a mainstay for coach Tom Izzo during his four-year college career, averaging more than 30 minutes per game each season from his sophomore campaign forward, in spite of a lack of flashy numbers. He averaged 11.2 points, 4.5 assists and 2.1 turnovers per game this past season. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress listed him as the 76th-best draft prospect for this year, while Chad Ford of ESPN.com ranked him 80th.
The Lakers had been carrying only 12 players with a contract or an agreement to sign, so it seems like the 22-year-old Appling, a Michael Silverman client, will have a reasonable chance to make the opening-night roster. That’s especially true given the dearth of point guards on the team, which has just Jeremy Lin and oft-injured 40-year-old Steve Nash to man the position.
Lakers Sign Wayne Ellington
SEPTEMBER 23RD: Ellington’s 2014/15 salary of $1,063,384 contains no preseason guarantees, writes Eric Pincus of the L.A. Times, who adds that if the former Tar Heel is on the roster through November 15 he is assured of $315,646. If he is still a Laker on December 1 that number grows to $581,692. Any non and/or partially guaranteed contracts, like Ellington’s, become fully guaranteed league-wide on January 10, as Pincus notes.
SEPTEMBER 22ND, 6:29pm: Ellington’s deal is partially guaranteed, according to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Twitter link).
5:47pm: The Lakers have signed Wayne Ellington, the team announced (Twitter link). The terms are unclear, but the Lakers are without the ability to give him more than the minimum salary. The 28th overall pick from the 2009 draft had been a free agent since a couple of days after the Kings waived him in a cost-cutting move more than three weeks ago.
The Arn Tellem client was one of a handful of free agents who reportedly worked out for the Lakers earlier this month. It’s been an offseason of movement for Ellington, whom the Mavs traded to New York the day before the draft in the Tyson Chandler swap. New York sent him to Sacramento in an August trade, but his guaranteed salary of more than $2.771MM was a tight squeeze under the luxury tax threshold for the Kings, who are believed to have used the stretch provision to spread out their obligation to him.
Ellington set career lows this past year in most categories, including minutes per game, as the Mavs found little use for the 6’4″ shooting guard. Still, his 42.4% three-point shooting was the best such mark in his five NBA seasons to date.
He joins 15 others who have deals with the Lakers, including 13 on fully guaranteed contracts. Keith Appling has a non-guaranteed arrangement, and it’s unlikely that Roscoe Smith has more than a nominal guarantee on his pact, so it seems Ellington possesses a strong chance to make the opening-night roster.
Pistons Sign Josh Bostic For Camp
THURSDAY, 12:12pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
TUESDAY, 3:59pm: Sierra corrects his original report and now says that Bostic will be in camp with the Pistons instead (Twitter link). Detroit would appear to offer an even tougher path to opening night for Bostic, since the Pistons already have 16 fully guaranteed deals and a non-guaranteed arrangement with Lorenzo Brown. The Pistons have the capacity to exceed the minimum salary, but it’s unlikely that they will.
3:27pm: The Warriors will sign swingman Josh Bostic for training camp, a source tells Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype (Twitter link). The Warriors are limited to giving the 6’5″ 27-year-old only the minimum salary, though it’s unclear if any of it will be guaranteed.
Bostic went undrafted in 2009 out of the University of Findlay, an NCAA Division II school in Ohio. He’s played overseas since spending the 2010/11 season in the D-League, with stops in Belgium, France and Russia. He split last season between France’s Chalon Sur-Saone and Russia’s Spartak St. Petersburg, averaging a combined 9.5 points and 3.8 rebounds in 27.6 minutes per game. His long-distance game probably won’t help his long-shot bid to make the opening night roster with Golden State, since he only made 22.8% of his 3.2 three-point attempts per contest overseas last year.
The Warriors have been carrying deals with 18 other players, including 13 on fully guaranteed pacts. All the rest have partially guaranteed minimum salaries, so there will be plenty of competition for the final spots on the team’s regular season roster.
Hawks Re-Sign Elton Brand
SEPTEMBER 23RD: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
SEPTEMBER 12TH, 10:02am: The signing has taken place, according to the RealGM transactions log, though the team has yet to make an official announcement.
SEPTEMBER 10TH, 6:54pm: The Hawks will re-sign Elton Brand to a one-year deal for $2MM, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter). Brand spent his 15th NBA season as a role player in Atlanta, averaging 5.7 points and 4.9 rebounds in 73 appearances for the Hawks. He shot 53.9 percent from the field in 19.4 minutes per contest, helping Atlanta to land the eighth and final playoff seed in the Eastern Conference.
There were reports a few weeks back that Brand and the Hawks were in talks, and the Duke product also reportedly drew interest from the Heat and Knicks this offseason. The 35-year-old has had some injury issues at points in his career and took some time to consider retirement before committing to a 16th season in June. His PER declined for the third straight season in 2013/14 and, at 14.05, was the lowest mark of his career.
The Hawks drafted Adreian Payne at No. 15 in June to add to a frontcourt that already includes Al Horford and Paul Millsap. While Brand, a David Falk client, should get legitimate minutes in 2014/15, he figures to have a somewhat reduced role. He made $4MM in Atlanta last season. If his deal is fully guaranteed, it would make 14 such contracts on the books for the upcoming season in addition to Mike Muscala‘s partially guaranteed deal.
Hawks Sign Kent Bazemore
SEPTEMBER 23RD: The deal is at last official, the team announced via press release.
SEPTEMBER 11TH: The Hawks and Bazemore finally put pen to paper Wednesday, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). The team has yet to make an official announcement. It’s likely that the signing took so long to complete because Atlanta wanted to preserve cap space, though that’s just my speculation. The Hawks could have used cap space to acquire other players and circled back to sign Bazemore using the room exception. As it stands, they’re using cap space to ink Bazemore.
JULY 11TH: 9:50pm: Bazemore’s agent, Austin Walton, confirmed the deal and that it is fully guaranteed, tweets Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops.
9:31pm: Kent Bazemore has reached an agreement to join the Hawks, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The deal is for two years and $4MM, according to Stein. Shams Charania of RealGM tweets that the deal is fully guaranteed, and contains no options.
The shooting guard was traded along with MarShon Brooks from the Warriors to the Lakers in the Steve Blake deal on February 19th of this year. Bazemore’s career numbers are 4.1 PPG, 1.1 RPG, and 0.9 APG.
The 25 year old who originally went undrafted out of Old Dominion also received interest from the Hornets, Lakers, Rockets, Spurs, Warriors and Celtics.
Heat Sign Shawn Jones For Camp
SEPTEMBER 23RD: The signing is finally official, as the team has followed up with a formal announcement.
AUGUST 7TH: The Heat have reached a non-guaranteed deal with undrafted power forward Shawn Jones, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). It appears it’ll be a summer contract for the former Middle Tennessee State Blue Raider, giving him a chance to make the club out of training camp. It’ll almost certainly be a minimum-salary arrangement, especially since the Heat are limited to handing out no more than that.
Jones, 22, was the 99th-best draft prospect this year in the rankings that Chad Ford of ESPN.com compiled, and Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress didn’t list him within his top 100, pegging him as only the 81st-best senior in the 2014 draft class. The 6’8″ Jones was nonetheless impressive on the boards at the Portsmouth Invitational, a seniors-only predraft showcase, averaging 11.7 rebounds in 31.0 minutes per game in three contests. He pulled down 5.2 RPG in 14.6 MPG in summer league action with the Clippers.
Miami has been active in recent days, striking deals with Shawne Williams and Tyler Johnson. The addition of Jones gives the team agreements with 15 players, though only 11 are known to have fully guaranteed salaries, as our roster counts show.
Heat Sign Andre Dawkins For Camp
SEPTEMBER 23RD: The signing is official, the team announced.
SEPTEMBER 2ND, 2:32pm: The pact is non-guaranteed, agent John Spencer confirms to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. There were about a dozen teams in pursuit of Dawkins, who turned down guaranteed salary from overseas clubs, Spencer adds.
12:35pm: The Heat and undrafted shooting guard Andre Dawkins have reached agreement on a deal for training camp, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). That suggests it’s a non-guaranteed arrangement for the former Duke Blue Devil, though it’s conceivable that he’ll have some sort of partial guarantee. It’ll almost certainly be a minimum-salary contract, since the Heat are limited to giving out no more than that.
The 6’4″ Dawkins played a reserve role at Duke, averaging 7.9 points in 13.7 minutes per contest this season, but his 42.1% three-point accuracy on 4.6 attempts from behind the arc each game surely helped him earn a few predraft workouts with NBA teams. He joined the Heat and the Rockets in summer league, showing efficient scoring pop with 12.3 PPG in just 19.3 MPG in four appearances with Miami’s squad.
The Heat had been carrying 17 players, though only 11 have full guarantees, as our roster counts show. That would appear to give the 22-year-old Dawkins a decent chance to make the opening-night roster if he impresses during camp and preseason action next month.
Mavs Sign Charlie Villanueva For Camp
SEPTEMBER 23RD: The deal is official, as Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com confirms (Twitter link).
SEPTEMBER 8TH: 3:58pm: It will be a one-year contract, Charania tweets.
3:05pm: The Mavericks will sign Charlie Villanueva to a non-guaranteed deal, a source tells Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com (Twitter link). It’s almost certainly for the minimum salary, since that’s all Dallas can give, and Shams Charania of RealGM reported this morning that Villanueva was choosing between minimum-salary offers from the Clippers and Mavs.
It’ll be a healthy drop in salary from the $8.58MM he saw last season in the final year of a player-friendly five-year, $37.7MM contract with the Pistons. The Excel Sports Management client reportedly worked out for multiple teams earlier this summer, but there didn’t appear to be much of a market for Villanueva until the Mavs and Clippers became involved. The nine-year veteran averaged career lows in just about every category last season as he saw just 9.0 minutes per contest across 20 appearances.
The 30-year-old’s choice of Dallas over L.A. is somewhat curious, since the Mavs already have 15 guaranteed deals, while the Clippers only have 13, as our roster counts show. To make the opening-night roster, Villanueva would also have to beat out Ivan Johnson and Eric Griffin, who both possess partial guarantees on their deals and who both can play at power forward, Villanueva’s position.
Rockets Sign Kostas Papanikolaou
SEPTEMBER 23RD: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
AUGUST 11TH, 8:06am: George Sferopoulos, the agent for Papanikolaou, posted a photo on Twitter of what appears to be Papanikolaou signing his Rockets contract (hat tip to Sportando). The team has yet to make an official announcement.
AUGUST 8TH, 7:01pm: The Rockets will pay FC Barcelona the maximum Excluded International Player Payment Amount of $600K to bring Papanikolaou to the states this season, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (via Twitter). As was reported last month, the total of the buyout is $1.5MM, meaning that Pananikolaou will be responsible for the difference of about $900K.
5:05pm: The first season is worth $4.8MM, tweets Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, and the second year is a team option. That figure is likely rounded up from $4,797,664, which is what the Rockets had left on their mid-level. The second season’s salary will be $4.6MM, Wojnarowski reports (Twitter link).
4:54pm: The Rockets and draft-and-stash prospect Kostas Papanikolaou have struck a deal that will bring the Greek small forward to Houston this season, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. It appears to be more than a minimum-salary deal, since Stein adds that the Rockets are using part of their mid-level exception (Twitter links). It’ll be a two-year arrangement, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (on Twitter).
Papanikolaou and the Rockets had reportedly stopped talking last month after the 24-year-old turned down an apparent two-year, $4MM offer. It seems the two sides circled back to the idea, however, and the 48th pick of the 2012 draft will suit up for Houston this coming season. Papanikolaou was initially selected by the Knicks in 2012 before his draft rights were traded to the Blazers a few weeks later. Last summer, his rights went to Houston as a part of the deal for Thomas Robinson.
The 6-foot-7 forward played in Spain last year for FC Barcelona, where he averaged 6.8 points on just over 47 percent shooting in 24.2 minutes per game. But it was the prior campaign in which he made a name for himself, shooting over 46 percent from three and 53 percent from the field for Greece’s Olympiacos en route to being named the Euroleague Rising Star for the 2012/13 season.
The signing of Papanikolaou is the latest manuever in what has to be considered a disappointing offseason in Houston for GM Daryl Morey. After striking out on Chris Bosh, the Rockets lost Chandler Parsons, Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin from a team that won 54 games. They managed to offset some of that bad fortune by adding Trevor Ariza, Jeff Adrien, Joey Dorsey and Ishmael Smith, though that foursome would be hard-pressed to duplicate the contributions of the group that departed. Depending on how NBA-ready he looks in preseason, Papanikolaou could be in the mix at both forward positions.
Josh Harrellson To Play In China
Three-year NBA veteran Josh Harrellson has signed with China’s Chongqing Flying Dragons, according to Harrellson’s representatives at the Altius Culture agency (on Twitter). The terms are unclear, but most such deals are one-year arrangements that allow the player to return stateside in time to latch on with an NBA club for the stretch run of the regular season.
The 25-year-old didn’t seem to garner much interest in NBA circles this summer after the Pistons waived him in mid-July rather than guarantee his minimum salary for the season. The 6’10” Harrellson played sparingly for the Pistons this past season, averaging 2.9 points in 9.9 minutes per game, and while he set a career high with 38.7% accuracy from behind the three-point arc, he only attempted 31 treys all year.
The Flying Dragons are about to embark on their first season in the Chinese Basketball Association, the country’s top-flight league. Harrellson joins Andray Blatche, Jordan Crawford, Toney Douglas, Al Harrington and Byron Mullens among players migrating from the NBA to China this offseason.