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Bucks Re-Sign Steve Novak

August 29th, 2016 at 4:05pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Bucks have re-signed unrestricted free agent Steve Novak, the team announced (via Twitter). The length and terms of the arrangement were not relayed, but with Milwaukee over the cap, it is likely for the veteran’s minimum. The team does still possess its Room Exception worth $2,898,000, but it would be surprising if it was used in this case. The team now has 15 players on its roster, which is the regular season maximum.

Novak had garnered some interest around the league from other teams, per his agent Mark Bartelstein, but the veteran had been holding off on making a decision because his clear preference was to remain in Milwaukee. “There have been a few teams that we’ve talked to; you always got to keep your doors open,’’ Bartelstein had said earlier this month. “But we’re still talking with the Bucks and, hopefully, we’ll make a deal with them. Steve would love to stay in Milwaukee. It’s a very special place for him.’’

The forward was the No. 32 overall pick in 2006. He has appeared in 459 career regular season games, averaging 4.7 points and 1.3 rebounds in 12.3 minutes per outing. He owns a career shooting line of .438/.431/.877. Novak will provide the team with veteran leadership and some outside shooting off the bench.

Pacers Sign Julyan Stone, Alex Poythress

August 29th, 2016 at 11:10am CST by Luke Adams

The Pacers have announced a pair of signings, revealing today in press release that they’ve added veteran guard Julyan Stone to their roster. The club also confirmed and formalized the previously-reported signing of undrafted free agent Alex Poythress.

Stone, 27, entered the NBA in 2012, and ultimately appeared in 47 total games over the course of three seasons for the Nuggets and Raptors. He didn’t see much action in those games, averaging just 1.3 PPG and 1.1 APG in 7.0 minutes per contest. Stone was in camp with the Thunder last fall, but was cut and signed with Gaziantep in Turkey — he averaged 4.4 PPG, 4.7 RPG, and 1.8 APG in 25 games for the Turkish club.

As for Poythress, he missed the bulk of the 2014/15 campaign due to a torn left ACL. Returning to Kentucky as a senior, the forward made 31 appearances and averaged 10.2 points, 6.0 rebounds and 0.6 steals in 23.6 minutes per contest. Poythress’ shooting line for the Wildcats was .601/.304/.706.

The Pacers already have 15 guaranteed contracts on their roster, so Stone and Poythress aren’t great bets to survive preseason cuts unless Indiana has injury problems heading into the season. Poythress could end up playing for the Pacers’ D-League affiliate in Fort Wayne, while Stone would be a candidate to head back overseas.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.

Bryce Cotton To Play Overseas

August 27th, 2016 at 9:00am CST by Eddie Scarito

Unrestricted free agent point guard Bryce Cotton is headed overseas, having signed a deal with the Turkish club, Anadolu Efes, the team announced (translation via Orazio Cauchi of Sportando). It will be a one-year arrangement between Cotton and the team, the announcement notes.

The 24-year-old was not without NBA possibilities heading into the preseason, with Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporting that Cotton was a potential training camp signee of the Hawks. Cotton played for Atlanta’s summer league team and reportedly impressed team officials by averaging 12.8 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists in five games. The Russian club Khimiki was also reported as a potential suitor for the free agent’s services.

Cotton split time last season between Xinjiang Guanghui of China, averaging 21.2 points and 2.7 assists in 9 games, and in the NBA with the Suns and Grizzlies. In eight NBA contests, Cotton averaged 1.0 PPG on 40% shooting.

Jazz Waive Kendall Marshall

August 26th, 2016 at 11:36am CST by Luke Adams

As expected, the Jazz have waived newly-acquired point guard Kendall Marshall, the team announced today in a press release. Utah’s tweets announcing the trade for Marshall and the point guard’s release came 25 minutes apart, so the former 13th overall pick was officially a member of the Jazz for less than a half-hour.

Marshall’s $2MM+ salary for 2016/17 would have become guaranteed within the next few days if he had remained on an NBA roster. By acquiring him in a deal for Tibor Pleiss, who has a guaranteed $3MM salary, Utah created $3MM in cap room and avoided paying any salary, though the team did send the Sixers some cash in the deal.

Marshall, who turned 25 last Friday, has played for the Suns, Lakers, Bucks, and Sixers since entering the NBA as a lottery pick in 2012, and will now be seeking a new home for the 2016/17 campaign. This is the third time he has been traded and subsequently waived — it also happened in 2013 and 2015.

Despite the fact that Marshall has failed to stick with an NBA team for more than a single season since his debut, several league executives believe there’s still a spot in the league for the former lottery pick as a backup point guard, writes Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.

Marshall’s best season as a pro came in 2013/14, when he averaged 29 minutes per game in 54 contests for the Lakers. The former UNC standout averaged a career-high 8.0 PPG and 8.8 APG that year, while shooting 39.9% on three-point attempts. Marshall has taken a step back since then, though he was off to a solid start as a backup for the Bucks in 2014/15 before he suffered a season-ending ACL injury.

Jazz, Sixers Swap Tibor Pleiss, Kendall Marshall

August 26th, 2016 at 11:07am CST by Luke Adams

11:07am: The deal is official, the Jazz announced in a press release.

9:38am: The Jazz and Sixers have agreed to a trade that will send point guard Kendall Marshall to Utah, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (via Twitter). According to Wojnarowski, the Jazz will send Tibor Pleiss, two second-round picks, and cash to Philadelphia in exchange for Marshall. Utah will subsequently waive Marshall, whose deal is not guaranteed, tweets Wojnarowski.

It’s essentially a cost-cutting move for the Jazz, who had been on track to pay Pleiss a guaranteed $3MM salary in 2016/17. Utah ditches that contract and takes on Marshall’s deal, which is fully non-guaranteed for now. The point guard’s $2,048,257 salary is set to become guaranteed soon, but the Jazz will waive him before that happens.

The move seems somewhat unusual on the surface for Utah, whose cap commitments for 2016/17 only totaled about $85MM prior to the trade. It’s possible though that the club is opening up a little extra cap room in order to renegotiate and extend Derrick Favors‘ contract. The Jazz will now have more than enough cap room to give Favors a pay raise to the max for 2016/17, while locking him up for additional seasons. Dana Gauruder of Hoops Rumors recently examined Favors’ case for an extension.

Whether or not the Jazz extend Favors this year, the team created more cap flexibility for 2017/18, when Pleiss would have had a modest $500K guarantee on his salary. With Favors and Rudy Gobert both candidates for max extensions, and Utah potentially wanting to lock up George Hill beyond this season as well, every little bit of cap room could help.

The Jazz also created an opening on their 15-man roster for the coming season, which is good news for the players competing for a spot. Utah selected three players – Joel Bolomboy, Marcus Paige, and Tyrone Wallace – in the second round of the 2016 draft, and the odds are good that at least one or two of those players make the regular-season roster.

As for the Sixers, they’re still well below the salary floor, and even if they don’t plan to use Pleiss at all, they’ll pick up a pair of future second-round picks and some cash for their trouble. The conditions on those second-rounders isn’t known, but Philadelphia didn’t have much to lose by making the deal.

Pleiss, a former second-round pick who signed with the Jazz last summer, barely saw any action in his first NBA season, playing just 82 total minutes for Utah. The German big man was assigned to the D-League for a good chunk of the season, and he played well there, averaging 12.3 PPG and 10.4 RPG in 28 contests.

Marshall, meanwhile, continues to jump from team to team, having failed to develop into a reliable NBA point guard since being selected 13th overall in 2012. The 25-year-old has played for the Suns, Lakers, Bucks, and Sixers since entering the league, and will now be seeking a new home for the 2016/17 campaign. This will be the third time he has been traded and subsequently waived — it also happened in 2013 and 2015.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Lakers Re-Sign Tarik Black

August 24th, 2016 at 2:58pm CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 24: More than a month and a half after agreeing to terms with Black, the Lakers have officially re-signed him, the team announced today in a press release. The delay was a result of the Lakers using all their cap room before going over the cap to sign Black using the Early Bird exception.

“Tarik is a player whose strengths are well-suited for the style of play we envision for our team going forward,” Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak said in a statement. “He plays the game with a mix of athleticism, energy, and physicality that make him a valuable frontcourt contributor in today’s NBA.”

JULY 4: The Lakers have reached an agreement on a new deal for restricted free agent center Tarik Black, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (via Twitter). According to Charania, the two sides agreed to a two-year, $12.85MM pact. Within his full report on the agreement, Charania writes that Black’s new deal will feature a trade kicker and won’t be fully guaranteed in the second year.

A former undrafted free agent, Black made his NBA debut with the Rockets during the 2014/15 season, appearing in 25 games (12 starts) for Houston before being cut. The Lakers nabbed Black off waivers, and he played well for Los Angeles in 2014/15, starting 27 of his 38 games with the team and averaging 7.2 PPG and 6.3 RPG, with a .589 FG%, in just 21.1 minutes per contest.

Black was used exclusively in a reserve role in 2015/16 for the Lakers, and saw his minutes reduced to just 12.7 per game, but the team apparently still liked what it saw from him enough to lock him up to a multiyear deal.

As Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets, based on the numbers, it looks like it will be an Early Bird signing, which means that the Lakers won’t have to allocate any extra cap space for Black. Currently, his cap hold is worth $1,180,431, which is the amount of his qualifying offer. The Lakers will be able to keep that number on the books until they run out of cap room (if they do so), at which point they can exceed the cap to finalize Black’s new deal.

Timberwolves Sign Toure’ Murry, John Lucas III

August 24th, 2016 at 10:36am CST by Luke Adams

The Timberwolves have added a pair of players to their offseason roster, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, who reports (via Twitter) that the team has signed guards Toure’ Murry and John Lucas III. While RealGM’s transactions log lists Murry’s deal as official, it’s not clear if Lucas’ signing has also been formalized.

Murry, 26, appeared in 51 games for the Knicks during the 2013/14 season, but has only played in five NBA games since then, enjoying brief stints in Utah and Washington. Lucas has a more extensive NBA resume, having played in 237 regular season contests with the Rockets, Bulls, Raptors, Jazz, and Pistons. The 33-year-old averaged 4.8 PPG and 1.5 APG in those games, shooting 34.5% on three-pointers.

According to Stein, both Murry and Lucas will be given the opportunity to compete for a roster spot in Minnesota this fall. However, for that to happen, the Wolves would need to either trade or cut a player with a guaranteed salary. Currently, the club has 15 players on guaranteed contracts, including Ricky Rubio, Kris Dunn, and Tyus Jones at point guard, and Zach LaVine, Shabazz Muhammad, and Brandon Rush at the two.

One other scenario that could open up a roster spot in Minnesota would be a retirement decision from Kevin Garnett. For now, Garnett – who has one year remaining on his contract – hasn’t made a call one way or the other on his future.

Lakers Sign Yi Jianlian

August 23rd, 2016 at 3:34pm CST by ChrisCrouse

AUGUST 23: Jianlian’s one-year deal is only guaranteed for $250K, but it counts for $8MM against the Lakers’ cap, according to Bobby Marks of The Vertical. The base salary, partially guaranteed for $250K, is worth the minimum ($1,139,123), while the deal features another $6,860,877 in likely incentives.

AUGUST 22: The signing is official, the team announced.

AUGUST 17, 3:55pm: The proposed deal will pay Jianlian the veteran’s minimum, but incentives could push the total value upwards of $8MM, Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times tweets.

10:41am: The Lakers and Jianlian are finalizing a one-year deal that will pay him approximately $8MM, Stein tweets.

AUGUST 16: The Lakers and Yi Jianlian are in advanced talks to bring the big man to the NBA, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times notes (Twitter link) that the Lakers had representatives at the Staples Center during USA’s exhibition game against China last month.

Yi was selected by the Bucks with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2007 NBA draft. After an up-and-down rookie season, he was traded to the Nets in a deal for Richard Jefferson. The 28-year-old last played in the NBA for the Mavericks during the 2011/12 season. He averaged 2.6 points and 1.6 rebounds in just 6.8 minutes per game.

The Lakers have 14 players under contract, as the team’s depth chart at Roster Resource indicates. Yi would have competition for minutes. However, if Timofey Mozgov‘s groin injury lingers, he could possibly end up starting a few games for Los Angeles should he sign.

Lakers Sign Brandon Ingram

August 23rd, 2016 at 12:15pm CST by Luke Adams

12:15pm: The Lakers have made it official, announcing in a press release that they’ve formally signed Ingram to his rookie contract.

8:31am: Heading into Tuesday, 29 of 30 first-rounders from the 2016 draft have either signed their NBA contracts or elected to play overseas for the coming season. Number two overall pick Brandon Ingram will make it 30 out of 30 later today, according to Shams Charania of The Vertical, who reports (via Twitter) that the Lakers are poised to sign their rookie forward.

[RELATED: 2016 Draft Pick Signings]

The Lakers will sign Ingram exactly two months after he was drafted, having waited this long because it gave the team a little extra flexibility. While the odds of packaging the No. 2 overall pick in a trade for a star were slim, keeping Ingram unsigned allowed the club to move him such a deal — once he signs his rookie contract, the former Duke standout can’t be traded for a month.

The delay also gave the Lakers the opportunity to make the most of their leftover cap room. Ingram’s cap hold of $4,401,400 has been on Los Angeles’ books for the last couple months, but that number will increase to $5,281,680 once he officially signs his deal, since he’ll get the maximum allowable 120% of his rookie-scale amount.

The difference between those two figures only works out to about $880K, but there was no reason for L.A. to give up that extra flexibility early. That flexibility appears to have allowed the Lakers to max out their cap room with deals for Yi Jianlian and Zach Auguste this week, though we haven’t yet seen the official numbers on those contracts.

Ingram, who will turn 19 next month, averaged 17.3 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 1.4 BPG, and 1.1 SPG while shooting 41.0% from three-point range during his first and only college season. He was viewed as the consensus No. 2 prospect in this year’s draft behind first overall pick Ben Simmons.

Jared Cunningham To Play In China

August 23rd, 2016 at 9:51am CST by Luke Adams

After spending four seasons in the NBA and the D-League, Jared Cunningham is taking his talents overseas for the 2016/17 season. As relayed by Emiliano Carchia of Sportando, Cunningham has signed with Chinese team Jiangsu Tongxi.

The 24th overall pick in the 2012 draft, Cunningham was sent to Dallas by the Cavaliers in a draft-day trade, the first move in an NBA journey that saw the former Oregon State guard spend time with six different teams. The Mavericks, Hawks, Kings, Clippers, Cavaliers, and Bucks have all had Cunningham on their regular-season rosters for at least brief stints since he entered the league.

In total, Cunningham appeared in 84 regular-season contests, including 40 with the Cavs last season. He never carved out a consistent role, however, averaging just 2.3 PPG on .347/.306/.674 shooting for his NBA career.

The 25-year-old had more success in the D-League, where he averaged 17.2 PPG for four separate teams in 69 overall games. However, by heading to China, Cunningham will get a chance to earn more playing time than he would in the NBA, and more money than he would in the D-League.