Cavs Sign DeSagana Diop, Michael Lee
The Cavaliers have increased their training camp roster to the maximum allowable 20 players, rounding out their list of camp invitees with DeSagana Diop and Michael Lee, the team announced today in a press release.
Several Cleveland camp invitees have been reported within the last couple days, including Elliot Williams, Jermaine Taylor, and Henry Sims. Diop and Lee will join those players and others in a competition for the final couple spots on the regular season roster.
Diop, 31, was drafted by the Cavs eighth overall back in 2001, and spent four underwhelming seasons with the team before heading to Dallas as a free agent. Diop has spent the last few years with the Bobcats, and while he never developed into more than an extra rebounder and defender off the bench, he earned $7.37MM in 2012/13.
Lee, meanwhile, played his college ball at St. Bonaventure before going undrafted in 2008. He has played internationally since then, spending time on clubs in Ukraine, Serbia, Hungary, Croatia, and France.
Clippers Sign Mustapha Farrakhan
The Clippers have finalized their camp roster, and one player we hadn't previously heard mentioned is among the invitees. Mustapha Farrakhan will be in camp with the team, the Clippers announced today in a press release.
Farrakhan, 25, participated in camp with the Bucks a year ago, but was released before the regular season began. He spent the year bouncing around the D-League, appearing in multiple games for the Iowa Energy, Sioux Falls Skyforce, and Idaho Stampede. The 6'4" guard averaged just 6.8 PPG on 38.0% shooting for the season.
With the addition of Farrakhan, the Clippers will carry 18 players into camp, including 13 on fully guaranteed deals.
Kings Sign Cousins To Four-Year Max Extension
MONDAY, 11:06am: The Kings have officially signed Cousins to a long-term extension, the team announced today in a press release.
FRIDAY, 12:06am: The Kings and DeMarcus Cousins have reached an agreement in principle on a new long-term deal for the big man, reports Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee. According to Jones, Cousins will sign a four-year extension with Sacramento worth the maximum salary. The new deal will keep the former fifth overall pick under contract through 2017/18.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter) pegs the total value of Cousins' new contract at about $62MM, though the exact amount won't be known until next July when the 2014/15 cap figures and maximum salaries are set. Wojnarowski adds (via Twitter) that the pact won't include an option on the fourth year, while Jones tweets that it was Cousins' preference to do four years rather than five.
By agreeing to a four-year extension with Cousins, rather than a five-year deal, the Kings will hold on to their designated player tag to potentially use on another player down the road. There are no real candidates at this point to become Sacramento's designated player, though perhaps if Ben McLemore's development goes as planned, the team will consider going to five years for him when he becomes extension-eligible.
Cousins, 23, is coming off a season in which ne nearly averaged a double-double, with 17.1 PPG and 9.9 RPG, to go along with a 20.2 PER. We had heard earlier in the week that he and the team were nearing an extension, with the potential for a deal to be finalized before camp got underway. With an agreement in place, it looks like the Kings will be in position to finalize and announce Cousins' new contract before the club plays its first preseason game.
Cousins' new contract will make him the fourth player this offseason to sign a rookie-scale extension, including the third to sign a max deal. John Wall and Paul George both agreed to five-year max extensions with their respective clubs, while Larry Sanders inked a four-year contract worth $44MM. As I noted when I examined extension-eligible players yesterday, plenty of situations are still up in the air, including Eric Bledsoe, Derrick Favors, and Gordon Hayward.
Heat Signed, Released Ricky Sanchez
When the Heat traded Dexter Pittman to the Grizzlies at last season's trade deadline, Miami acquired the rights to 2005 second-rounder Ricky Sanchez as part of the swap. However, the Heat no longer hold Sanchez's NBA rights, having signed him on September 16th and released him this past Friday, according to Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel (via Twitter).
While the Heat presumably would have preferred to stash Sanchez overseas, the Puerto Rican big man was a free agent this summer. So when Miami issued the required tender to retain Sanchez's rights, he signed that offer, forcing the team's hand, as Winderman explains (via Twitter). Because the club wasn't interested in bringing him to camp, he was subsequently waived, meaning he's now free to sign with any team, NBA or otherwise.
Sanchez, 26, played for Cangrejeros de Santurce in Puerto Rico last season, averaging 11.1 PPG and 4.6 RPG in 42 contests.
Nets Sign Marko Jaric
The Nets have signed Marko Jaric to a training camp contract, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News (Twitter link). The addition of Jaric brings Brooklyn's roster count for camp to 19 players, including four on non-guaranteed deals.
Jaric, a first-round pick in 2000, hasn't appeared in an NBA game since the 2008/09 season with the Grizzlies. Over the course of his seven-year NBA career, he averaged 7.1 PPG and 3.6 APG to go along with a 12.0 PER. Jaric received a camp invite from the Bulls last fall, but didn't make the team and didn't end up landing with another team, stateside or overseas.
The Nets already have 15 players on guaranteed contracts, so there likely won't be any roster spots available for the team's camp invitees. Perhaps though, if Jaric impresses the club over the next few weeks, he'd receive consideration later in the year if Brooklyn needs to add a player or two.
Knicks Pick Up 2014/15 Option On Mike Woodson
The Knicks have officially exercised their 2014/15 option on Mike Woodson, the team announced today (Twitter link). The move ensures that Woodson will remain under contract for the next two years, and will no longer be on an expiring deal this season.
Woodson, who replaced Mike D'Antoni as the Knicks' head coach in 2011/12, has compiled a 72-34 (.679) record with the team so far, though New York hasn't made it past the second round of the playoffs in either of his two seasons.
There had been some speculation that Woodson could be on the hot seat for the coming year, given his contract status, the high expectations for the Knicks, and the fact that Steve Mills recently replaced Glen Grunwald as the club's general manager. Grunwald and Woodson have a long history, dating back to their days as college teammates at Indiana.
Cavs Bringing Henry Sims To Camp
The Cavaliers have added one more player to their training camp roster, having reached an agreement with Henry Sims, according to Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal. The signing of Sims will increase Cleveland's preseason roster count to 18 players.
Sims, 23, made his NBA debut last season for New Orleans, appearing briefly in a pair of games for the then-Hornets. The 6'10" center spent most of the year with the Erie BayHawks, earning a spot in the D-League All-Star game, and finishing with averages of 16.4 and 8.7 RPG in 41 contests. We heard multiple times in August that the Cavs were considering extending a camp invite to Sims, who also drew some interest from the Knicks.
There's no guarantee Sims will earn a regular-season roster spot for the Cavs, but he should at least be given a shot. Even if we assume Andrew Bynum (partially guaranteed) and C.J. Miles (non-guaranteed) are locks for the roster, that could still leave two openings up for grabs, for the likes of Sims, Jermaine Taylor, Kenny Kadji, and Elliot Williams.
Kings Bringing Hamady N’Diaye To Camp
Hamady N'Diaye will join the Kings in training camp for the second straight season. He's one of 17 players listed on the team's camp roster, as Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee passes along. The 7-footer has seen minimal regular season action in the NBA, logging a total of 83 minutes over two seasons for the Wizards.
The Kings waived N'Diaye before the regular season last fall, and he agreed to a deal with Tianjin of China the same day. He averaged 11.0 points and 8.9 rebounds in 31 games with the Chinese club last season, parlaying that into a summer-league stint with the Mavericks this past July.
N'Diaye joins DeQuan Jones as Kings with non-guaranteed contracts. Trent Lockett, another camp hopeful, has a partial guarantee of $35K on his deal.
Grizzlies Sign Byars, Ely, Gaffney
The Grizzlies have officially announced the signings of Derrick Byars, Melvin Ely and Tony Gaffney. It's confirmation of news we heard about Ely and Gaffney earlier this month. Memphis extended a training camp invitation to Byars this week, but it hadn't been clear whether he accepted. The trio of signees brings the Memphis roster to 18.
Byars also drew interest from the Knicks around the same time he worked out for the Grizzlies this month. He was a second-round draft pick of the Blazers in 2007, but Portland traded him to the Sixers on draft night and Philadelphia cut him in training camp that fall. The 6'7" swingman from Vanderbilt has also been to camp with the Thunder, Bulls and Heat over the years, but he only has a pair of games with the Spurs in 2011/12 on his official NBA resume. Last year he split the season between Caciques de Humacao in Puerto Rico and ALBA of Germany.
Byars, Ely and Gaffney are all presumably on non-guaranteed deals with the Grizzlies, as are Josh Akognon and Willie Reed. The team has 13 fully guaranteed contracts, so it's possible that none of the five camp invitees make the opening-night roster, but it seems like the most impressive of the bunch will remain with Memphis into the regular season.
Elliot Williams To Join Cavs For Camp
Elliot Williams has accepted an invitation to join the Cavaliers for training camp, giving him another chance to fulfill the promise that made him a 2010 first-round pick, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who confirms that the deal is non-guaranteed. Williams missed all of 2012/13 for the Trail Blazers after tearing his left Achilles tendon, and he didn't play in his rookie year because of surgeries on both knees.
Portland took Williams 22nd in the 2010 draft, but he wound up only appearing in 24 games with the club, all of them in 2011/12. The shooting guard from Memphis averaged just 3.7 points in 6.2 minutes per game during his time with the Blazers, who declined the fourth-year option on his rookie deal before last season. Williams didn't take part in NBA summer league action this year.
Fellow NBA veteran Jermaine Taylor appears set to take part in Cavs camp as well, so Williams will bring Cleveland's roster to 17 players. Williams is a client of Wasserman Media Group agent Thad Foucher, as the Hoops Rumors Agency Database shows.