Cavs Invite Jermaine Taylor To Camp
The Cavaliers have extended a camp invitation to former Kings and Rockets shooting guard Jermaine Taylor, agent Michael Whitaker tells Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype (Twitter link). It's not entirely clear from the tweet whether Taylor has accepted the invitation, but since the news is coming from Taylor's camp, it seems he'll likely become the 16th player on Cleveland's roster.
The move isn't entirely a surprise, since Taylor's performance for Cleveland's summer league team drew praise from Cavs coach Mike Brown. The 6'4" Taylor averaged 12.8 points in 18.1 minutes per game for the summer Cavs. He also suited up for the Bulls' summer league team this year. Aside from that action, Taylor has been out of the NBA since 2011. He had a whirlwind 2012/13, playing for Lagun Aro Gipuzkoa BC in Spain, Hapoel Tel Aviv in Israel, Shanxi Zhongyu in China and the Maine Red Claws of the D-League.
Assuming Taylor will be with the Cavs on a fully non-guaranteed contract, he'll join Kenny Kadji and C.J. Miles as the only Cavaliers without at least a partial guarantee. Eleven Cavs have fully guaranteed deals, and nearly half of Andrew Bynum's $12.25MM salary is guaranteed as well. That leaves Taylor with a decent shot at making the opening-night roster.
International Notes: Ajinca, Ewing
We'll keep track of today's international news here..
- Former first-round pick Alexis Ajinca came up empty in his search for an enticing NBA offer and will return to play for Strasbourg of France this season, with eyes on a return to the NBA next summer, as Catch-and-Shoot.com reports (translation via Sportando's Enea Trapani).
- Patrick Ewing Jr. has decided to continue his career with Greece's Trikala, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Ewing has plied his craft around the world since finishing his college career at Georgetown, including a brief NBA stop in New Orleans in 2011.
- As always, you can keep track of all international player movement using Hoops Rumors' latest tracker.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Erik Spoelstra Signs Extension With Heat
12:28pm: Spoelstra has signed the extension, a source tells Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel (Twitter link).
9:00am: The Heat are close to ensuring coach Erik Spoelstra doesn't hit the open market next summer, as they're putting the finishing touches on a multiyear contract extension for the two-time champion bench boss, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Officials from several franchises have suggested to Wojnarowski that they would make a run at the Creative Artists Agency client if he were to become a free agent, so it appears the Heat are averting a bidding war.
Spoelstra's deal had been set to expire at the end of the 2013/14, which will be his sixth as head coach of the Heat. He took over a team that went 15-67 in Pat Riley's final season on the bench and, helped by Dwyane Wade's recovery from injury, guided it to a 43-39 record and a playoff berth. The Heat have finished with a record of better than .500 every year since Spoelstra took over as coach for the team he originally joined as video coordinator in 1995.
The extension will likely be announced before the Heat begin training camp this week. It'll be the second major management-related move for the team in the past few days, after Andy Elisburg's promotion to GM yesterday. In addition, Juwan Howard is joining Spoelstra's staff as an assistant coach.
Jazz To Sign Nick Covington
Jody Genessy of the Deseret News tweets that the Jazz formally offered a training camp invitation to Nick Covington, who has accepted. The 6'2" guard turned 28 this summer, and last played for alma mater Weber State in 2005/06.
For the last three years he's played in the NBA's Development league for Iowa, Sioux Falls and last season with Erie. With the Bayhawks in Erie last season, Covington averaged 9.4 points, 2.6 assists and 2.0 rebounds in 26 minutes of action per game.
In 47 games total, 38 of which he started, he actually shot worse from the field (39.5%) than he did from beyond the 3-point arc (39.9%).
Suns Bringing James Nunnally To Camp
The Suns have added shooter James Nunnally to their camp roster, tweets Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. The UC-Santa Barbara grad shot 63 percent from 3-point range for Miami during summer league.
Coro adds in his Arizona Republic post that new GM Ryan McDonough believed the Suns needed more perimeter shooting even before trading Caron Butler and Jared Dudley this offseason. McDonough explained the decision to Coro:
“We brought him (Nunnally) in a for a two-day workout recently and we were impressed with him on and off the court. It was competitive with other teams interested in signing him and we recruited him. We were able to get him with the opportunity that he will have here.”
The 23-year-old shot 58 percent from the field and averaged a team-high 13.0 PPG during summer league with Miami. He made quite the impression when he was 5-for-6 from long range for a 21-point second half in a losing effort to the Suns in that time.
Nunnally averaged 15.7 PPG from 2009 to 2012 with California-Santa Barbara and averaged 10.3 PPG and shot 41 percent from 3 last season for Bakersfield, the Suns' D-League affiliate. He'll be the 18th addition to the Suns' training camp, which runs Tuesday through Sunday next week. They won't have to cut down to between 13 and 15 players until the night before the regular season.
Andy Elisburg Promoted To Heat GM
The Heat have reshuffled their front office and coaching personnel. On the heel of news announcing the move of Juwan Howard from player to assistant coach, now the Heat are declaring a new general manager to assist team President Pat Riley.
Here is what the Heat said in their press release:
The Miami Heat announced today several front office promotions, including Andy Elisburg to Senior Vice President, Basketball Operations/General Manager, Adam Simon to Assistant General Manager/General Manager Sioux Falls Skyforce, Dan Craig to Assistant Coach/Player Development, Chad Kammerer to Director of NBA Scouting/Advance Scout, Keith Askins to Director of College and Pro Scouting and the hiring of Juwan Howard to Assistant Coach/Player Development.
Elisburg, a Heat original employee of 25 years, will serve as Senior Vice President, Basketball Operations/General Manager. His duties will include assisting CEO Nick Arison and President Pat Riley in the management of all aspects of the Heat's basketball organization including salary cap administration, talent acquisition, league compliance and the day-to-day business of basketball operations.
[…]
Additionally, the HEAT also named Rich Fernando to Executive Assistant to the Coaches, Eric Glass to Video Coordinator and Tim Hardaway to Scout/Community & Corporate Liaison.
Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, sent a tweet of the promotion earlier today where he noted that Pat Riley will remain the lead personnel executive despite the promotion. Winderman pointed out in his piece for the Sun-Sentinel that Elisburg's promotion makes him the first person to hold the title of Heat general manager since Randy Pfund in September of 2008.
ESPN basketball scribe Brian Windhorst adds in a tweet that Elisburg is known for his salary cap strategies. With the CBA luxury tax strictures already costing the Heat the 3-point shooting of Mike Miller – who was amnestied earlier this summer – Elisburg should be instrumental in keeping the Heat competing for more championships within the strict luxury tax parameters of the CBA.
Sixers Sign Solomon Alabi, Mac Koshwal
The Sixers announced that they have signed Solomon Alabi and Nayal "Mac" Koshwal. Terms of the deals are not disclosed but they are almost certainly non-guaranteed training camp contracts.
Alabi, a 7'1" center, was drafted by the Mavs with the 50th overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft before his rights were traded to Toronto. The 25-year-old played two seasons for the Raptors in 2010/11 and 2011/12. Last season, Alabi played for the D-League's Idaho Stampede and Ikaros Chalkidas of the Greek League.
Koshwal, a 6'10" forward/center, spent time in the Las Vegas Summer League before spending time on several minor league teams. The native of Sudan jumped from DePaul after his junior year but went undrafted in 2010.
Philadelphia's training camp roster now stands at the maximum of 20 players.
Heat Sign Charlie Westbrook
The Heat are bringing Charlie Westbrook to camp, a source tells Emiliano Carchia of Sportando (via Twitter). The guard was in summer league with the Trail Blazers earlier this summer but did not advance further with the team.
The 6'4'' guard out of the University of South Dakota spent last season in Verona, Italy and appeared to be on his way back there this season. The 24-year-old turned down a pair of training camp invites in August to go back to Europe, but he may try and make things happen in the states this season. Westbrook isn't likely to hook on in Miami for this season, but he could make an impression and continue to build on his game in the D-League if he stays in the U.S.
Brian Cook Agrees To Camp Deal With Jazz
Veteran big man Brian Cook will join the Jazz for training camp, tweets Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. He'll be the 19th player on Utah's preseason roster as he seeks to play a 10th NBA season.
The Wizards waived Cook at the end of training camp last year, and he spent the season with the Piratas de Quebradillas in Puerto Rico, as our International Player Movement Tracker shows. The Puerto Rican deal had an NBA out, but Cook didn't exercise it before he became a free agent this summer. He switched agents in August, hiring Herb Rudoy of Interperformances.
Cook's last official NBA action came in 2011/12, when he split 32 games between the Wizards and Clippers, totaling just 81 points and 276 minutes. He had a more significant role with the Clips in 2010/11, averaging 4.8 points and 2.4 rebounds in 11.2 minutes per game. The former first-round pick has a decent shot at making the Jazz opening night roster, since the team has only 12 fully guaranteed contracts and Ian Clark's partially guaranteed deal.
Blazers Sign Dee Bost
SEPTEMBER 27TH: The Blazers have officially announced Bost's deal, along with the rest of their training camp roster, via press release. It's a two-year, minimum-salary deal with $25K guaranteed for this season and nothing guaranteed for 2014/15, as Mark Deeks of ShamSports reported earlier this month.
AUGUST 19TH: The Trail Blazers have signed Dee Bost to a contract, according to Joe Freeman of the Oregonian (via Twitter). Freeman hears from a source that the deal is non-guaranteed and that Bost is expected to ultimately land with the Idaho Stampede.
The point guard graduated from Mississippi State last season and averaged 15.8 points and 5.6 assists as a senior. Bost is the school's all-time assist leader with 633 dimes, good for eighth all-time in the Southeastern Conference.
Bost got a training camp invite from the Blazers at the end of July and made a strong impression on the club early. The 23-year-old went undrafted in 2012 and spent last season overseas with Budućnost Podgorica in Montenegro, averaging 8.3 PPG, 1.8 APG, and 1.3 turnovers in 21.5 minutes per contest.