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Odds & Ends: Embiid, Bynum, Kings, Petro

January 17th, 2014 at 4:19pm CST by Chuck Myron

Many talent evaluators around the NBA wish the talented but raw Joel Embiid would stay in school for another year, according to Chad Ford of ESPN.com, who debates the freshman Kansas center with fellow ESPN.com scribe Kevin Pelton for an Insider-only piece. NBA teams usually want to see intriguing collegians enter the draft, so the stance on Embiid is an unusual one, as Ford explains. The 19-year-old is the No. 1 prospect on Ford’s Big Board. Here’s more from the Association:

Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star doesn’t get the sense that the Pacers will sign Bynum just to keep him away from the Heat, but Kravitz believes Indiana should take a low-risk flier on the big man regardless of where he might otherwise end up.
An Eastern Conference scout didn’t think the trade that brought in Rudy Gay would go as well as it has for the Kings, telling Marc Stein of ESPN.com that the move has made the team “relevant again.”
Johan Petro announced via Twitter that he’s left the Guangsha Lions of China, so it appears he’s free to sign with any team (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). The 27-year-old center spent each of the past eight seasons in the NBA.
The Bulls had next season in mind when they signed D.J. Augustin, but it’s unclear whether the team or the point guard will want to continue their relationship beyond 2013/14, as Sam Smith of Bulls.com writes in his latest mailbag column.
Former 11th overall pick Jerome Moiso has retired, reports L’Equipe (translation via Carchia). Moiso spent five seasons in the NBA after the Celtics drafted him in 2000. He finished last season with Piratas de Quebradillas in Puerto Rico.
Louisiana-Lafayette point guard Elfrid Payton is a fast riser in the eyes of many NBA teams, tweets Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times. Ford has the 6’4″ junior at No. 54 in his ESPN.com rankings, while Payton is No. 64 for Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.

Lakers Sign Manny Harris To 10-Day Deal

January 16th, 2014 at 4:42pm CST by Chuck Myron

4:42pm: The team has officially announced the deal, via Twitter.

11:29am: The Lakers will sign combo guard Manny Harris to a 10-day contract, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com. He’ll join them in Boston, where the team is set to play Friday night, McMenamin adds.

Harris had drawn interest from the Hawks as well as the Lakers, as Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio reported earlier this week, and USA Today’s Sam Amick revealed that Harris interviewed with the Thunder earlier this month. The 24-year-old was playing for the Lakers’ D-League affiliate, which acquired his D-League rights in December. He’s coming off back-to-back D-League Performer of the Week awards, and has averaged 43 points over his last three games, McMenamin notes via Twitter. He’s notched 30.6 points and 6.5 rebounds in 38.0 minutes per game overall for the L.A. D-Fenders this season.

The 6’5″ Harris wasn’t nearly as productive in two seasons with the Cavaliers, the only NBA team he’s played for. He put up 6.2 PPG in 17.4 MPG in his time with Cleveland. The Lakers have an open roster spot, so they don’t need to waive anybody to make room.

Clippers Sign Hedo Turkoglu, Release Wayns

January 16th, 2014 at 12:18pm CST by Chuck Myron

12:18pm: The Clippers have officially announced the deal. The team’s press release adds that the Clippers have released Maalik Wayns, terminating his 10-day contract, which had been set to expire Friday. The release also announces a second 10-day deal for Darius Morris, but it doesn’t mention the length of Turkoglu’s contract, almost certainly signifying that agent Jim Tanner has secured a deal for the rest of the season for Turkoglu, as had been expected.

THURSDAY, 11:34am: Turkoglu tweets that the deal is official, though there’s been no announcement from the team (hat tip to Sportando).

WEDNESDAY, 9:50pm: The Clippers are set to sign Hedo Turkoglu on Thursday, reports Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com. Turkoglu was to undergo a physical today, and the team appeared ready to bring him aboard pending the results, as Ismail Senol of NTV Spor in Turkey reported earlier today. The deal will cover the rest of the season, according to Senol.

“He’s another shooter,” Clippers boss Doc Rivers said, according to Markazi. “Sometimes you don’t bring a guy in because a guy is not doing something. You bring a guy in because he does something our other guys do as well. He’s another shooter and can space the floor. He’s very skilled. We would like to take advantage of that.”

Turkoglu, 34, comes to the Clippers after the Magic waived him earlier this month, saving half of his $12MM salary this season before it became fully guaranteed. The Clippers can only offer the minimum salary, but it doesn’t appear they had much competition for the Jim Tanner client. The Lakers and Hawks registered interest in the forward while he was still with the Magic, but the Lakers decided against pursuing him in free agency, and Atlanta hasn’t been connected with him recently either.

The Clippers won’t have to make a roster move if the deal goes down Thursday, since their 10-day deal with Darius Morris will expire overnight. Another roster spot will open with the expiration of their 10-day contract with Maalik Wayns on Friday night, and Rivers indicated the team is still looking for other free agents to add, notes Markazi, who mentions Lamar Odom as a possibility. The team apparently still has interest in Sasha Vujacic, as well.

Clippers Re-Sign Darius Morris

January 16th, 2014 at 12:15pm CST by Chuck Myron

12:15pm: Morris has officially signed his second 10-day deal, the Clippers announced. The team will have to decide whether to retain him for the balance of the season or let him go when the contract expires.

8:02am: The Clippers will ink Darius Morris to a second 10-day contract, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. His first 10-day deal expired last night. Wojnarowski doesn’t say when the move will happen, but if it goes down today, it’d be a little surprising, since Doc Rivers said the team will sign Hedo Turkoglu today. The Clippers would have to terminate their 10-day deal with Maalik Wayns a couple days early to accommodate both Morris and Turkoglu today, though the team wouldn’t be on the hook for any additional salary if it cuts Wayns before his deal ends Friday night.

Morris has played 27 minutes over a total of four games so far with the Clippers, scoring five points and dishing out four assists. The 23-year-old Brian Dyke client is in his third NBA season after the Lakers made him the 41st overall pick in 2011. The 6’4″ point guard is serving as a backup to Darren Collison, who’s set to start at the position for about another month or so as Chris Paul‘s injured shoulder heals.

The Clippers have used other ball-handlers at times during Morris’ stint, and Turkoglu has proven a capable leader of an offense during his career. Rivers, who’s in charge of the team’s front office, nonetheless seems to want to keep Morris around, perhaps as insurance. The Clippers have been linked to Lamar Odom and Sasha Vujacic, though it seems neither will join the club in the immediate future.

Thunder Ink Royal Ivey To 10-Day Contract

January 16th, 2014 at 11:16am CST by Chuck Myron

THURSDAY, 11:16am: Oklahoma City has announced the signing of the Jim Tanner client, via press release.

WEDNESDAY, 10:16am: The Thunder will sign Royal Ivey to a 10-day contract pending the results of today’s physical, tweets Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report. The 32-year-old guard was in camp with the Hawks this past fall, and spent the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons with Oklahoma City. The Thunder have two open roster spots, so there’s plenty of room for Ivey.

A second-round pick by the Hawks in 2004, Ivey has managed to spend at least part of every season since then on an NBA roster despite never averaging more than 19.2 minutes per game. He was with the Sixers last season, when he scored 3.2 points in 13.2 minutes a night.

Ivey, familiar with the Thunder’s system, will help shore up a backcourt that’s missing the injured Russell Westbrook. The team reportedly interviewed D-League guard Manny Harris about a week ago, but apparently Ivey’s beaten out the former Cavalier for a spot, at least for now.

Celtics Recall Rajon Rondo From D-League

January 15th, 2014 at 1:25pm CST by Chuck Myron

1:25pm: The team has recalled Rondo, according to a press release, meaning the assignment lasted less than two hours, apparently just long enough for him to get in the workout that Ainge referred to.

11:28am: The Celtics have assigned Rajon Rondo to the D-League, the team announced. The move had been rumored in recent weeks, but it nonetheless represents one of the most high-profile assignments in the history of the D-League.

“Rajon is progressing terrifically in his rehab and this is the next step,” GM Danny Ainge said in a statement. “This is a brief assignment so that Rajon can participate in a workout this afternoon with the Red Claws and he will be called back up to the Celtics upon the conclusion of the workout.”

Rondo tore his right ACL last season, but he appears close to returning to the Celtics. Boston agreed to trade Jordan Crawford, who had been playing the point in Rondo’s absence, as part of a three-team swap today.

The move required Rondo’s approval, as well as that of the union, since NBA teams can only unilaterally send down players with less than three years of experience. Rondo, a veteran of seven seasons, initially proposed the idea of the assignment, so it doesn’t sound as if the Celtics faced too much difficulty in making it happen. Still, Rondo probably won’t appear in a game for the Maine Red Claws, and will instead just practice with the club, as Amar’e Stoudemire did with the Knicks’ affiliate last season.

Pacific Notes: Gasol, Gay, Thompson

January 14th, 2014 at 3:18pm CST by Chuck Myron

The fear of negative feedback from fans persuaded the Lakers not to trade Pau Gasol to the Cavaliers unless the deal involved a scorer, center or point guard in exchange, sources tell Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio. Andrew Bynum was involved in those talks, but presumably the Lakers felt they needed a more viable option at center. The Lakers are holding out for valuable assets in a Gasol trade, but that may be an unrealistic goal. Here’s more on Gasol and others from the Pacific Division:

Lee Jenkins of SI.com thinks the time is now for the Lakers to finally trade Gasol, since his presence only hinders the team’s lottery chances at this point. Jenkins thinks a trade would also benefit Gasol.
Rudy Gay‘s success with the Kings means it’s no longer a given that he’ll decide this summer to opt in for the final season of his contract, according to SB Nation’s Tom Ziller, who points out that a lower usage rate has been part of Gay’s improvement.
Mark Deeks of ShamSports, writing for the Score, thinks Jason Thompson would be a much better fit on another team than he is on the Kings. Deeks urges the Kings to go ahead and trade the power forward, whom they’ve already put on the market.
Scott Machado is set to join the D-League affiliate of the Warriors today, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. The point guard spent camp with the Jazz after appearing in five playoff games for the Warriors last season.

Hamady N’Diaye To Sign In D-League

January 14th, 2014 at 12:18pm CST by Chuck Myron

Center Hamady N’Diaye will sign a contract with the D-League and play for the affiliate of the Sixers, who hold his D-League rights, as Shams Charania of RealGM.com reports. The Sixers auditioned N’Diaye yesterday for a spot on the big club, but passed him over in favor of Dewayne Dedmon.

N’Diaye spent much of the season with the Kings after making the team out of training camp. Sacramento cut his non-guaranteed contract last week before it would have become fully guaranteed for the season. The 27-year-old was also drawing interest from China and was considering signing there before choosing to go back to the D-League where he’s played in 35 games over parts of three seasons, Charania writes.

The native of Senegal will play for the Delaware 87ers, though every NBA team remains eligible to sign him. Playing in the D-League will give him a better chance to showcase his skills than he had when he was with the Kings, who gave him just 74 minutes of playing time in more than two months. He played 56 total minutes in two D-League games while on assignment from Sacramento earlier this season.

Sixers Sign Dewayne Dedmon

January 14th, 2014 at 9:56am CST by Zachary Links

TUESDAY, 9:56am: The Sixers have officially announced the signing.

MONDAY, 7:54pm: The Sixers are set to sign Dewayne Dedmon to a ten-day deal, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (via Twitter). Philadelphia auditioned big men today, including Dedmon and former Heat and Celtics forward Jarvis Varnado.

Dedmon, 24, was with the Santa Cruz Warriors of the D-League after a short stint with the Warriors’ varsity squad. In 15 D-League games this season, the USC product put up 15.2 PPG and 13.5 RPG.

In addition to Varnado, Dedmon also beat out Kyrylo Fesenko and Rutgers product Hamady N’Diaye for the vacant spot. The Sixers had a need for frontcourt depth after waiving Daniel Orton prior to the contract guarantee deadline.

Odds & Ends: Salaries, Rondo, Hickson

January 13th, 2014 at 2:58pm CST by Chuck Myron

The NBA’s highest paid players used to dominate the list of the top earners in team sports, but no longer. Eight Major League Baseball players have deals that give them average annual salaries within the top 10 among all athletes in North American team sports, according to Liz Mullen and David Broughton of the SportsBusiness Journal (subscription only). Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony are the other two on that list. It’s a reversal from 2000, when eight NBA players were among the top 10 on those rankings, while two baseball players took up the other spots.

“The NBA players union has failed to protect the rights of the top players in the league,” agent Arn Tellem said. “Collective bargaining has proved totally ineffectual.”

It might help matters if the National Basketball Players Association were able to fill its vacant executive director position. They missed out on another target for the post when Blazers president Larry Miller turned them down, as Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com reported this weekend. While we wait to see who they wind up with, here’s more from the NBA:

Celtics GM Danny Ainge has consistently batted down Rajon Rondo trade rumors, but there’s an “increasing belief” around the league that Ainge will seek to trade the point guard for multiple assets, as Chad Ford writes in his “tank rank” piece for ESPN Insider.
J.J. Hickson is leaving agent Andy Miller of ASM Sports and will soon hire a new representative, tweets Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post.
ASVEL Villeurbanne of France has released former Clippers and Jazz point guard Travis Leslie, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).
If Jordan Hill plays in 11 more games this year and averages at least 14.1 minutes per contest over the season, he’ll trigger an incentive clause worth $63,600, notes Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times. Hill is averaging 20.2 MPG so far.