Heat Sign Justin Hamilton
TUESDAY, 5:06pm: The Heat have offically announced Hamilton's signing in a press release. The release also includes confirmation that Miami has signed Eric Griffin, whose agreement with the team was reported nearly a month ago.
SUNDAY, 11:28am: The Heat will bring Justin Hamilton to training camp, agent J.R. Hensley tells Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Hensley says his client, who's been working out at the Heat's home arena the past few weeks, will ink a deal with the team in the days ahead. The 45th pick in the 2012 draft still isn't participating in any contact drills as he recovers from a hamstring injury that kept him out of summer league.
The signing will force Miami's brass to either keep the former LSU center into the regular season or cut him in training camp and lose his rights. The Heat could keep Hamilton's NBA rights in perpetuity if they elect not to sign him, as they did last year when he played in Europe. With some agents hearing that the Heat plan to carry only the minimum 13 players amid a luxury tax crunch this season, it's somewhat surprising that the team appears to be bringing Hamilton aboard now. Miami already has 13 fully guaranteed contracts.
Hamilton split 2012/13 between BC VEF Riga in Latvia and KK Cibona of Croatia. In all, he averaged 10.5 points and 6.0 rebounds in 18.7 minutes per game. His numbers as a senior at LSU weren't staggering, either, as he put up 12.9 PPG and 7.2 RPG in 30.0 MPG.
Pacers Sign Darnell Jackson
The Pacers announced a pair of signings in a press release today, as the team moves toward solidifying its roster for training camp. In addition to signing Ron Howard, whose agreement we heard about last month, Indiana also reached an agreement with Darnell Jackson, according to the release.
Jackson, 27, was selected in the second round of the 2008 draft, and has played for the Cavaliers, Bucks, and Kings in 138 total NBA contests. Since his last NBA action, which came for Sacramento in 2010/11, the 6'8" forward has played in Ukraine, China, and the D-League. In 19 games for the Reno Bighorns last season, Jackson averaged 13.8 PPG and 6.7 RPG. He participated in Utah's training camp last fall.
The signings of Howard and Jackson officially bring the Pacers' roster counts to 15 players, though our count has the team at 16, which includes a reported agreement with Rasual Butler. Although Indiana didn't announce Butler's deal today, there's no indication that it has fallen through. Assuming Jackson and Howard didn't receive any guaranteed salary, those two players, along with Butler, should compete in camp to earn a regular-season roster spot.
Mavs Invite Fab Melo To Camp
1:17pm: The Mavs and Melo have reached a training camp deal, according to Stein.
11:11am: Having already been traded by the Celtics and released by the Grizzlies this offseason, free agent big man Fab Melo is set to join a new team, reports ESPN.com's Marc Stein. According to Stein (via Twitter), the Mavericks are planning to bring the 2012 first-rounder to camp this fall.
Melo, the 22nd overall pick in last year's draft, only appeared in six NBA games for the Celtics in 2012/13. The Syracuse product spent most of the season with Boston's D-League affiliate, averaging 9.8 PPG and 6.0 RPG in 33 contests for the Maine Red Claws. While he has plenty of raw upside, Melo is also viewed as a long-term project, and given his lack of significant progress in his rookie season, neither the Celtics or the Grizzlies were inclined to wait on him.
The Mavericks already have 15 players on guaranteed contracts, so there may not be room for Melo on the regular-season roster, and it's unlikely he'll receive a significant guarantee. However, assuming Dallas finalizes a camp deal with the young center, the team will retain his D-League rights, meaning he could end up starting the 2013/14 season with the Texas Legends.
A source told Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link) earlier today that Boston and Houston could be potential landing spots for Melo, but CBA rules prevent the C's from re-signing Melo until next summer.
Eastern Notes: Heat, Pistons, Pierce, Williams
We learned earlier today that the Heat are bringing Justin Hamilton to camp, which wasn't a huge surprise since the former LSU big man has been working out at AmericanAirlines Arena for the last few weeks. Hamilton had his moments with the Heat during the 2012 offseason, after he was acquired in a draft-night trade with the 76ers, leading some on the Heat staff at the time to see him as a more promising prospect than Jarvis Varnado. However, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel writes that Hamilton still faces long camp odds with Greg Oden already something of a long-term developmental project and the Heat possibly keeping the minimum of 13 players to start the year. Hamilton's chances of making the team could also rest on the Heat's ability to move Joel Anthony's pesky contract. Here's more out of the Eastern Conference..
- The Central Division is one of the most fascinating divisions in the NBA because of the expectations of competitiveness from each team, writes Zach Harper of CBSSports.com. For the Pistons, their best-case scenario will be seeing Brandon Jennings and Josh Smith become bona fide NBA stars. For the Bulls and Pacers, their ceilings see them as real championship contenders.
- John Havlicek told Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe (Sulia link) that he believes the departed Paul Pierce is the greatest one-on-one Celtics player of all-time.
- Former Nets big man Jordan Williams signed with Spanish club Bilbao Basket last week but was waived over the weekend, according to HoopsHype (via Twitter).
Celtics Invite Damen Bell-Holter To Camp
The Celtics are adding an off-the-radar prospect, having invited undrafted Damen Bell-Holter to training camp, the power forward tells A.J. Jankowski of the Ketchikan Daily News. Germany's Telekom Baskets Bonn had just declined to renew Bell-Holter's three-week tryout contract when the Celtics extended their offer to agents Mitchell Butler and Toby Bailey. Bell-Holter indicates to Jankowski that he'll accept the invitation.
The Alaskan-born Bell-Holter wasn't highly regarded coming out of Oral Roberts this year. Neither DraftExpress nor ESPN.com listed him in their prospect rankings, and we didn't hear of any NBA team bringing him in for a predraft workout. The 6'9" power forward didn't take part in NBA summer league action after averaging 15.5 points and 9.4 rebounds in 31.5 minutes per game as a college senior this past season. NBA scouts may have been most familiar with him from his work at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament this spring, where he put up 7.7 PPG and 4.3 RPG in nearly 24 minutes of action per contest against other NCAA seniors.
The 23-year-old was sorting through offers before the Celtics called, and he said he was probably going to accept one from a team in Greece. Instead, Bell-Holter will have a shot, however remote, at making the Celtics regular season squad next month. His addition will give the Celtics 19 players, one short of the training camp roster limit. The deal is non-guaranteed, Bell-Holter confirms to Jankowski.
If Bell-Holter survives camp cuts, he'll become just the second player born in Alaska to appear in an NBA regular season game, joining Mario Chalmers.
Thunder Waive DeAndre Liggins
7:17pm: The Thunder are unlikely to sign anyone of note for training camp as a replacement for Liggins, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Still, I'd expect them to bring on a few inexperienced hopefuls, as most teams do as camp draws near.
7:07pm: Liggins was formally charged with seven felonies shortly before the Thunder waived him, reports Matt Dinger of The Oklahoman. The charges include counts of domestic abuse, kidnapping, and domestic assault and battery.
6:16pm: The Thunder have waived DeAndre Liggins, the team has announced via press release. Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman speculated that such a move was on the way this week after reporting Saturday that the former University of Kentucky Wildcat had been arrested for alleged domestic abuse. Liggins was already on shaky ground, with a non-guaranteed contract that seemed expendable when the team was chasing Mike Miller.
Liggins was set to make the minimum salary this season, the second of a two-year deal to which the Thunder inked him last fall. His release drops the team to 15 contracts, only 12 of which are fully guaranteed. Ostensibly, it's a boost for Daniel Orton's hopes of making the team, since the departure of Liggins makes him the only Oklahoma City player without at least a partial guarantee, but the Thunder are likely to invite more players to compete for a spot in training camp.
Orton and Liggins have an extensive shared history. They played together at Kentucky, spent their rookie years with the Magic, and joined OKC last season. Both made frequent trips to the Thunder's D-League affiliate in Tulsa in 2012/13, though Liggins, unlike Orton, saw the majority of his action with the big club. The 6'6" swingman averaged 7.4 minutes per game in 39 NBA contests, and saw increased run in the playoffs as the Thunder dealt with Russell Westbrook's injury, notching 8.5 MPG. Still, Liggins scored only eight total points in eight playoff games, which wasn't much better than his 1.5 PPG during the regular season.
Clippers Sign Brandon Davies
SEPTEMBER 5TH: The Clippers have offically signed Davies, the team confirmed today in a press release. The amount of his guarantee still isn't known.
JULY 2ND: In addition to inviting Brandon Davies to play on their Summer League squad, the Clippers have also signed the undrafted free agent to a partially guaranteed one-year contract, reports Sean Deveney of the Sporting News (via Twitter).
Davies, a 21-year-old power forward, played four seasons at BYU, averaging 17.7 PPG and 8.0 RPG in 36 contests during his senior year. The BDA Sports client was ranked 63rd among this year's prospects by Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com and 90th by ESPN.com's Chad Ford, so it's not shocking that he wasn't selected on draft night.
Assuming the deal is finalized, as Deveney's tweet suggests, it wouldn't violate the July moratorium. Minimum-salary contracts for one or two seasons can be signed during the moratorium, and that's almost certainly the sort of deal Davies agreed to, though it's not clear what sort of guarantee he received.
Bobcats Sign James Southerland
SEPTEMBER 5TH: The Bobcats have officially announced the signing of Southerland in a press release.
AUGUST 24TH: James Southerland has accepted a training camp invitation from the Bobcats, according to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (via Twitter). Southerland went undrafted in June despite interest from a number of clubs.
The Spurs were amongst the teams interested in the 6'8" sharpshooter and they considered taking him with the 58th overall selection. San Antonio asked Southerland if he'd play overseas if they grabbed him, but he declined. He'll now try to find an NBA home with his late invite to camp with the Bobcats, though Bonnell notes that nothing is signed yet.
The Syracuse forward had an impressive 39.8% success rate from beyond the arc in his final college season. He also averaged career highs in points (13.3 PPG) and rebounds (5.2 RPG).
Lakers Sign Xavier Henry
The Lakers have officially signed Xavier Henry, the team announced today in a press release. Terms of the agreement weren't disclosed, but I'd expect it to be some form of non-guaranteed training camp invite.
Word of the Lakers' interest in Henry was reported yesterday by Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com, with fellow ESPN scribe Dave McMenamin adding (via Twitter) that the 6'6" guard was poised to become a camp invitee.
Henry, an Arn Tellem client, became an unrestricted free agent this summer because the Pelicans decided not to exercise the fourth-year option on his rookie contract. The Kansas product has yet to make a real impact in three NBA seasons with Memphis and New Orleans, averaging 4.5 PPG in 133 career contests. However, Henry was a lottery pick in 2010 and is just 22 years old, so there may still be some upside.
As our list of NBA roster counts shows, Henry becomes the 14th Lakers player under contract. That number doesn't include Marcus Landry, who is expected to receive a camp invite, and second-round pick Ryan Kelly, who has yet to officially sign with the team. With only 11 Lakers believed to be on fully guaranteed deals, Henry should have the opportunity to try to earn a roster spot next month.
E.J. Singler Accepts Blazers’ Camp Invite
WEDNESDAY, 8:03pm: The Blazers officially announced the signing, via press release.
FRIDAY, 4:34pm: Oregon's E.J. Singler has agreed to a deal with the Trail Blazers and will be in training camp with the team, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter). It sounds like it'll be a fully non-guaranteed contract for the undrafted forward.
Singler, 23, took a step back in his senior year with the Ducks, with his averages falling in PPG (13.6 to 11.7) and FG% (.467 to .411), among other categories. He also didn't exactly stand out in Summer League play with the Pistons, averaging just 1.6 PPG in five games. Still, he'll get a look this fall from the Blazers, even if a regular-season roster spot is a long shot.
A year ago, the Blazers invited a few players to camp with an eye on retaining their D-League rights, and getting them onto the Idaho Stampede's roster. A stint with the Stampede could be in Singler's future, though that's just my speculation.