Chris Babb Accepts Celtics’ Camp Invite
Former Iowa State guard Chris Babb has agreed to a training camp deal with the Celtics, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter).
Babb, 23, went undrafted this past June, but joined the Suns for Summer League play in July. In his senior year at Iowa State, the 6'5" guard averaged 9.1 PPG to go along with 38.2% shooting from three-point range.
Like fellow camp invitees Kammron Taylor and DeShawn Sims, Babb probably isn't a strong bet to make the Celtics' regular-season roster, since the team already has 14 guaranteed contracts on its books, plus Donte Greene's non-guaranteed deal.
Cavs, Kenny Kadji Agree To Terms
Undrafted free agent Kenny Kadji has agreed to sign a non-guaranteed contract with the Cavaliers and will be in camp with the club, reports Shams Charania of RealGM.com. According to Charania, Kadji turned down several "substantial" offers from overseas in favor of trying to earn a regular-season roster spot with the Cavs.
Kadji, 25, played his senior year at Miami in 2012/13, averaging 12.9 PPG and 6.8 RPG in 36 games with the team. The power forward worked out for the Lakers, Jazz, and Knicks in the weeks leading up to the 2013 draft, and was ranked as the 68th-best prospect in his class by ESPN.com's Chad Ford, but didn't hear his named called on draft night.
By our count, the Cavs have 14 players currently on their roster, and not all of those contracts are guaranteed, so there could be an opening for Kadji to earn a roster spot with a strong camp. The Miami product also played for Cleveland's Summer League squad in Las Vegas last month.
Kammron Taylor Accepts Celtics’ Camp Invite
Former Wisconsin guard Kammron Taylor has accepted an invitation to join the Celtics' training camp this fall, agent Keith Kreiter tells Shams Charania of RealGM.com. Details of the deal aren't known, but if it's just a camp invite, it will be fully non-guaranteed.
Taylor, 29, graduated from Wisconsin in 2007, having averaged 13.3 PPG in his senior year. He has played for a variety of teams overseas since then, including spending last season with Germany's Neckar Riesen Ludwigsburg, with whom he averaged 13.2 PPG. Taylor also was a part of the Timberwolves' Summer League squad last month.
Boston already has 14 players on guaranteed contracts, plus Donte Greene on a non-guaranteed deal, so earning a regular-season roster spot is a long shot for Taylor. It's possible that he and fellow camp signee DeShawn Sims will end up joining the Celtics' D-League affiliate in Maine, though that's just my speculation.
Luke Babbitt Signs With Russian Team
FRIDAY, 8:07am: Babbitt has officially signed with BC Nizhny Novgorod, according to a Sportando tweet.
WEDNESDAY, 11:20am: Ex-Blazers forward Luke Babbitt will head overseas for the coming season, according to Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com. Haynes reports that Babbitt has reached an agreement to play for Russia's BC Nizhny Novgorod on a one-year contract that doesn't include an NBA out. Agent Bill Duffy of BDA Sports confirmed the deal.
"My take is Luke needs to play 30 minutes a game and play a more expanded role," Duffy told Haynes. "We've had recent success with both Danny Green and Patrick Beverley getting an opportunity to develop their games in Europe and return to the NBA. The NBA is a league of opportunity. We feel strongly this is the best move for Luke at this time."
Babbitt hit free agency for the first time this summer after the Blazers declined their team option for the 2013/14 season. After a promising sophomore year in Portland, the 24-year-old took a step backward this past season, with his rates slipping to 3.9 PPG, a .348 3PT%, and a 9.4 PER. The Sixers were mentioned as a possible suitor a month ago, but other than that, Babbitt didn't seem to garner a whole lot of NBA interest.
Sixers Acquire Tony Wroten From Grizzlies
August 29th: The league has officially approved the trade, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
August 22nd: The second-round pick going to Memphis will be heavily protected and may never change hands, a source tells Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
1:29pm: A week after acquiring a 2012 first-round pick from the Celtics, the Grizzlies have sent their own 2012 first-rounder to Philadelphia. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (via Twitter) that the Grizzlies have traded Tony Wroten to the Sixers in exchange for a future second-round pick.
Wroten, 20, was selected 25th in last year's draft by the Grizzlies, but appeared in just 35 games for the team in his rookie season, playing limited minutes. In 11 contests for the D-League's Reno Bighorns, the University of Washington product averaged 17.0 PPG, but didn't shoot particularly well (.415/.326/.548).
Like Fab Melo, who the Grizzlies acquired from Boston, Wroten is viewed as a young player with upside. However, while Memphis was willing to roll the dice on Melo, it seems the team was ready to cut ties with Wroten. The move indicates that the Grizz have confidence in Nick Calathes as their backup point guard behind Mike Conley. Jerryd Bayless is also available to play at the point, though he's more of a combo guard, and Josh Akognon is under contract as well, but has a non-guaranteed deal. Wroten's departure could bode well for Akognon's chances of earning a regular-season roster spot.
The Sixers, meanwhile, had only been carrying 12 contracts (10 guaranteed), and need to add more players if they intend to surpass the league's required salary floor. Wroten's modest salary won't raise team payroll to the minimum threshold, but it's a start. Philadelphia had also been carrying just one point guard (Michael Carter-Williams), so taking a chance on Wroten makes sense for a team not expecting to compete for the playoffs.
Because they still have plenty of cap room, the 76ers able to absorb Wroten's contract without sending out any salary in return. The over-the-cap Grizzlies will create a traded player exception worth Wroten's salary ($1,160,040), the latest in a long list of TPEs for the club. Clearing that salary from their books should also give Memphis a little more breathing room below the luxury tax.
Suns Sign Alex Len
The Suns have signed first-round pick Alex Len to a rookie-scale contract, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic (via Twitter). The team has confirmed the signing in a press release.
Len, the fifth overall pick in June's draft, was one of a handful of first-rounders that had yet to officially sign his deal, along with Nerlens Noel and Michael Carter-Williams of the Sixers, and the Spurs' Livio Jean-Charles, who appears likely to play overseas. As our chart of salaries for 2013 picks shows, the Ukrainian big man will likely earn a salary of about $3.49MM.
The signing of Len seemingly coincides with the finalization of the trade that sent Caron Butler from the Suns to the Bucks. I noted earlier today when I examined that deal that it wouldn't be surprising to see Phoenix make Len's deal official simultaneously, since that would allow the club to go over the cap, creating a sizable trade exception in the Butler swap
Assuming the Suns chose that route, they'll obtain a $5,548,537 TPE, but would have to renounce it to free up cap space. Renouncing the exception would result in $5,241,838 of cap room, according to figures at HoopsWorld and ShamSports. In other words, the TPE could accommodate a slightly more expensive acquisition, but would only allow the team to add a player via trade, rather than via free agency.
The addition of Len means the Suns now have 17 guaranteed contracts on their books, so the club will have to trade or cut at least two players by opening night.
Suns Trade Caron Butler To Bucks
THURSDAY, 3:37pm: The Bucks have officially announced in a press release that their acquisition of Butler is complete. It looks like it'll just be Smith and Kravtsov for Butler, with no draft picks involved.
WEDNESDAY, 11:37pm: Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic hears the Suns will receive point guard Ish Smith, center Viacheslav Kravtsov, and a draft pick (Twitter link). Even though the Bucks acquired Kravtsov on July 31st as part of the Brandon Jennings sign-and-trade, they're exempt from the two-month moratorium on packaging him in a trade with another player, since they're under the cap.
10:45pm: The Bucks and Suns have reached agreement on a trade that will send Caron Butler to Milwaukee, according to HoopsWorld's Alex Kennedy (Twitter link). Butler has already been told the trade will indeed happen, a source tells Marc Stein of ESPN.com, who adds that the teams are still working on the details of the deal (Twitter link). Butler is a native of Racine, Wisconsin, which is about 30 miles south of Milwaukee, and it appears the Suns are attempting to do a favor for the 33-year-old, who's heavy on community involvement, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com.
Since the Suns acquired Butler from the Clippers in a three-way swap that became official July 10th, Phoenix can't package Butler with any other players in a trade until September 10th, under the rules of the collective bargaining agreement. However, the club can trade the veteran by himself at any time. It's conceivable that the teams could wait a couple of weeks to officially announce the trade if Milwaukee wants anyone else on the Suns roster, but given the timing of the deal and the speed with which it seems to have come together, I think Butler will be the only Sun going to Milwaukee.
The rebuilding Suns are looking for draft picks and short-term contracts, Stein noted. That jibes with the notion that the Bucks are unlikely to give up any of their key players in the swap, as Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times wrote when he first reported that the teams were in trade talks. I speculated earlier this evening that a big man would likely be headed to Phoenix, since the Bucks have eight of them on their roster. Milwaukee is about $7.5MM below the cap, but Butler's set to make an even $8MM in the last season of his deal this year, so the Bucks can't absorb him in the trade without sending a player to the Suns.
Butler averaged 10.4 points per game last season, his lowest output in nine years, but the two-time All-Star has added the three-point shot to his arsenal in recent years, nailing 38% of his 3.8 long-range attempts per game the past three seasons. He shot just 31.2% on 1.8 three-point tries per contest over the first eight years of his career. That outside threat will help the Bucks make up for the losses of Brandon Jennings, J.J. Redick and Mike Dunleavy, who went to other teams this summer, and Carlos Delfino, who signed with the Bucks but could miss a part of the regular season recovering from a fractured bone in his foot.
Kings Sign Trent Lockett
THURSDAY, 10:33am: Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities reports (via Twitter) that Lockett's deal with the Kings is a two-year pact, and includes a partial guarantee, as we speculated below.
WEDNESDAY, 7:10pm: The Kings have signed Trent Lockett, the team announced on its website. The 6'5" shooting guard played for Sacramento's summer league team after going undrafted in June out of Marquette. The deal likely amounts to just a training camp invitation, but the formal announcement from the club suggests there may be a partial guarantee involved.
Lockett wasn't a highly rated draft prospect, but we heard that he performed predraft workouts for the Bucks and Knicks, and today's release for the Kings says he worked out for them prior to the draft, too. He averaged 7.0 points and 20.2 minutes per game in five summer league contests for Sacramento last month.
That 7.0 PPG is the same number he put up in 26.6 MPG for Marquette last season, little more than half of his 13.0 PPG output as a junior at Arizona State, where he played three seasons before transferring. ESPN's Chad Ford, who rated him the 132nd-best prospect in the draft, pointed to athleticism and rebounding as his strengths (Insider link). He put up more than five rebounds per game in each of his last three seasons in college.
Lockett is the 15th player under contract with the Kings, as our updated roster counts show. The 14 other players all have fully guaranteed contracts. NBA teams are limited to 15 players during the season, but they can carry as many as 20 players into training camp, so Lockett figures to receive more competition for the final spot on the regular season roster.
Eric Dawson Accepts Camp Invite From Hawks
Free agent forward Eric Dawson has accepted an invitation to training camp from the Hawks, reports Shams Charania of RealGM.com. According to Charania, Dawson's camp deal with Atlanta will be non-guaranteed.
Dawson enjoyed a brief NBA stint with the Spurs in 2011/12, when San Antonio inked him to a pair of 10-day contracts. Although he has only appeared in four career NBA contests, Dawson has plenty of experience overseas and in the D-League, having played for the Austin Toros as well as teams in the Dominican Republic, Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines.
A report in July indicated that Dawson had signed with Metros de Santiago of the Dominican Republic, so it's not clear what the status of that contract is now. Perhaps Dawson will return to the D.R. club if he fails to earn a spot on the Hawks' regular-season roster, though that's just my speculation.
Ivan Johnson Signs With Chinese Team
8:51am: Johnson's agent, Jeremiah Haylett, has confirmed that his client has signed with Zhejiang, according to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter).
8:37am: After failing to receive any NBA offers to his liking, Ivan Johnson has signed with China's Zhejiang Golden Bulls, according to a Hupu.com report (translation via HoopsHype). We haven't heard yet from Johnson's camp that the deal is official, but based on the report out of China, it looks like the big man is heading overseas for the coming season.
Johnson, 29, reportedly set an end-of-August deadline for NBA offers, and with no suitable opportunities stateside, opted instead for one of his international offers. Playing in non-NBA leagues is nothing new for the Oregon product, who has spent time with teams in South Korea and Puerto Rico, as well as playing in China in 2011 before coming to the NBA.
In two NBA seasons with Atlanta, Johnson averaged 6.5 PPG and 3.9 RPG to go along with a 15.1 PER in 125 contests. The former Hawk drew interest from the Knicks this offseason, and reportedly engaged in preliminary talks with at least six NBA teams in total. However, I would guess none of those clubs were willing to offer more than the minimum.
Former NBA players Quincy Douby, Eddy Curry, and Josh Boone played for the CBA's Golden Bulls in 2012/13.