Thunder Ink Royal Ivey To 10-Day Contract
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
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
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
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
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
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.
Hawks Sign James Nunnally
SATURDAY, 2:47pm: The Hawks have officially signed Nunnally to a 10-day deal, the team announced via press release.
FRIDAY, 7:51am: The Hawks have reached an agreement to sign D-League forward James Nunnally to a 10-day contract, according to Shams Charania of RealGM.com. Gino Pilato of D-League Digest first reported that Nunnally was in line for a D-League call-up from Atlanta.
Nunnally, who went undrafted in 2012, has spent most of the last two seasons with the Bakersfield Jam, and also received a training camp invite this past fall from the Suns. In 19 games for the Jam this season, the 23-year-old has averaged 18.2 PPG and shot 41.5% on three-pointers. Nunnally was a hot name at the D-League Showcase in Reno this week, reportedly meeting with the Cavs, Bulls, and Thunder before agreeing to sign with the Hawks.
Having waived Cartier Martin before this week’s contract guarantee deadline, the Hawks have a single open spot on their roster, so a corresponding move won’t be necessary to make room for Nunnally. If the team wants to keep the UC Santa Barbara alum around after his first deal expires, it can sign him to a second 10-day contract, then must decide whether to let him go or guarantee him a full-season salary.
D-League Moves: Fesenko, Hairston, Nedovic
The Sixers recalled Lorenzo Brown from the D-League this morning, about 24 hours after assigning him to the Delaware 87ers, and that was just the first of several notable D-League transactions today. Let’s round up a few more….
- Former NBA veteran Kyrylo Fesenko has been claimed by those Delaware 87ers, the team announced (Twitter link). Fesenko hasn’t played in the NBA since appearing in a few games with the Pacers in 2011/12, having caught on with multiple teams overseas since then. Gino Pilato of D-League Digest first reported last weekend that the ex-Jazz center had entered the D-League player pool.
- Former North Carolina guard P.J. Hairston has filed the paperwork to join the D-League, as he tells Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. Hairston’s NCAA basketball career ended when UNC decided not to seek his reinstatement following an investigation into potential rule violations. Hairston will be eligible for the 2014 draft, so no NBA teams will be able to call him up this season.
- The Warriors have recalled Nemanja Nedovic from the Santa Cruz Warriors, according to a press release from Golden State. Nedovic, on his fourth assignment of the season, was sent to Santa Cruz nearly two weeks ago, but didn’t play much this time around after tweaking his hamstring last weekend.
- Andre Roberson will head to the Tulsa 66ers on his second D-League assignment of the season, the Thunder announced today in a release. The assignment comes on the heels of perhaps the strongest showing of Roberson’s young NBA career — he scored five points and grabbed six boards in Denver last night.
- The Grizzlies have re-assigned Jamaal Franklin to the D-League, the team announced today in a press release. Franklin played one game for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants during his last assignment, recording 15 points and four steals.
Bulls Sign Cartier Martin
Three days after being released by the Hawks, Cartier Martin has found a new job. The Bulls have signed Martin to a 10-day contract, the team announced today in a press release.
Martin, 29, spent parts of four seasons with the Wizards prior to hooking on with the Hawks, appearing in 118 total games for Washington. In 25 contests with Atlanta this season, Martin averaged 6.6 PPG and 2.0 RPG while shooting a career-best 40.5% on three-pointers.
The Bulls had a two-week window after completing their trade of Luol Deng to add another body and increase their player count to 13, the minimum roster count allowed by the NBA. The Deng deal dipped Chicago slightly below the luxury tax, giving the team little room to add players. So unless the Bulls find another cost-cutting trade, we shouldn’t expect them to fill those last two open roster spots.
Odds & Ends: Thunder, Nuggets, Moon, D-League
The 2017 second-round pick the Thunder acquired from the Grizzlies in this week’s three-team trade with the Celtics won’t change hands if it falls anywhere from 31 to 55, according to RealGM’s log of traded draft picks. The 2014 second-round pick from the Sixers that the Thunder also landed in the deal will be moved if it falls between 51 and 55, so there’s a good chance OKC never see either pick.
Here’s more on that trade and a few other notes from around the NBA:
- Berry Trammel and Jon Hamm go in-depth to explain in a piece for the Oklahoman why the Thunder got involved in that swap. As we suggested yesterday, the move didn’t save OKC any money or land them real draft assets, but it allowed the team to create a little more cap flexibility below the tax line. With team salary now roughly $2.29MM below the tax threshold, the Thunder may have increased their odds of using the Eric Maynor trade exception worth about $2.34MM, writes Anthony Slater of the Oklahoman.
- The Nuggets look poised to begin saving some money on Danilo Gallinari’s salary, according to Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post, who notes that an NBA insurance policy will kick in after Gallinari misses his 41st consecutive regular season game. The policy ensures that the Nuggets will only have to cover 50% of Gallinari’s base salary per game for each additional contest he misses after the 41st.
- Former NBA forward Jamario Moon announced on Twitter that he’s leaving the D-League’s Los Angeles D-Fenders to join Olympiacos in Greece, which the team itself confirmed on Facebook a little later (translation via Sportando).
- The NBA appears to finally be on the verge of buying the Silna family – owners of the defunct Spirit of St. Louis – out of their take of TV revenue, writes Richard Sandomir of the New York Times. It’s a great read for those of you not familiar with one of the stranger business arrangements in pro sports.
- Keith Schlosser of Ridiculous Upside conducted an interesting Q&A with D-League president Dan Reed, who expressed optimism that the league will eventually expand to 30 teams, with all 30 maintaining a single-affiliate relationship with an NBA franchise.
Zach Links contributed to this post.