Sixers Sign Christian Wood To 10-Day, Waive Weems
The Sixers signed Christian Wood to a 10-day contract and waived Sonny Weems, the team announced via press release. Wood had been playing for the Delaware 87ers, the Sixers’ D-League affiliate.
Grizzlies Sign Munford To Second 10-Day Contract
The Grizzlies have signed point guard Xavier Munford to a second-10-day contract, the team announced today. Munford, who first signed with Memphis on March 16th, has averaged 2.4 points, 1.6 rebounds and 0.8 assists in five games with the team.
Munford was the latest addition to the injury-plagued Grizzlies’ roster after the league granted a request under the hardship provision to carry 17 players. With starting point guard Mike Conley likely out for the rest of the regular season, Memphis also recently signed Ray McCallum and Jordan Farmar.
Before joining the Grizzlies, Munford played 41 games with the Bakersfield Jam in the D-League. He was part of the D-League’s All-Star Game this season, ranking sixth in the league in assists and 11th in scoring.
Nets Sign Henry Sims To Second 10-Day Contract
The Nets have signed center Henry Sims to a second 10-day contract, the team announced today. Sims has appeared in four games for Brooklyn since inking his first 10-day deal March 17th. He is averaging 4.8 points and 3.5 rebounds in 13.3 minutes of playing time.
Sims spent most of this season with the Grand Rapids franchise in the D-League after being cut by the Suns in preseason. He also has NBA experience with the Cavaliers and Sixers, starting 32 games for Philadelphia last season.
With the Nets not having control of their first-round picks over the next three drafts, GM Sean Marks has expressed a desire to discover players through 10-day contracts. Once Sims’ new 10-day deal expires, the Nets will have to sign him for the rest of the season if they want to keep him on the roster.
Pelicans Sign Tim Frazier For Rest Of Season
SATURDAY, 2:07pm: The signing is official, the team announced via press release.
FRIDAY, 12:48pm: The Pelicans will sign Tim Frazier to a contract that runs through season’s end, GM Dell Demps told reporters, including Scott Kushner of The New Orleans Advocate (Twitter link). Today is the last day of Frazier’s 10-day contract, and the plan is for the team to re-sign Frazier on Saturday, The Advocate’s Brett Dawson relays (on Twitter). Frazier joined the Pelicans on a hardship exception and is one of 17 players on the roster, including Jordan Hamilton, who signed a 10-day contract today. The league normally hands out hardships in 10-day intervals, which would seemingly prevent the team from signing Frazier for the rest of the season unless it offloads other players first, but with five New Orleans players out for the balance of 2015/16, it appears the league has seen fit to bend its policy.
Frazier has delivered a strong performance for the depleted Pelicans, averaging 14.6 points, 4.8 assists and 4.0 rebounds in 26.0 minutes per game. His 3.2 turnovers per contest are disconcerting, but it’s tough to quibble with the numbers the second-year pro has put up in his brief time with New Orleans since inking the 10-day contract March 16th. The 25-year-old point guard didn’t have the same sort of opportunities with Portland earlier this season, when he saw just 7.8 minutes a night, but Frazier showed glimpses of his capabilities last year, when he averaged 5.5 assists and 2.3 turnovers in 21.7 minutes per game across 11 total appearances for the Blazers and Sixers.
Anthony Davis, Eric Gordon, Tyreke Evans, Quincy Pondexter and Bryce Dejean-Jones are the Pelicans expected to miss the rest of the season, while Norris Cole, Jrue Holiday and Ryan Anderson have also been dealing with injuries, according to the CBSSports.com injury report. Toney Douglas has been starting at the point with Frazier backing him up.
The Pelicans still have portions of their mid-level and biannual exceptions remaining, so it’s unclear what Frazier will make. Frazier would see at least $94,448, the prorated minimum salary, if he formally signs Saturday.
Pelicans Sign Jordan Hamilton To 10-Day Deal
FRIDAY, 11:14am: The signing is official, the team announced, acknowledging that the deal came via the hardship provision. Frazier’s 10-day contract runs through the rest of today, so the Pelicans have 17 players for now, two above the usual limit. Hamilton’s pact covers five games, against the Raptors, Knicks, Spurs, Nuggets and Nets.
THURSDAY, 7:22pm: The Pelicans plan to sign swingman Jordan Hamilton to a 10-day contract, Shams Charania of The Vertical reports (Twitter link). The 25-year-old is currently playing for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Houston’s D-League affiliate. New Orleans currently has 16 players on its roster, including Tim Frazier, whose first 10-day pact with the team expires on Friday. It’s unclear if the Pelicans will decline to ink the point guard to a second 10-day arrangement or if the team will be adding Hamilton via a second hardship allowance.
New Orleans should have little difficulty being approved for a 17th roster spot, having been besieged by injuries this season. The team is currently missing Anthony Davis, Eric Gordon, Bryce Dejean-Jones, Tyreke Evans and Quincy Pondexter, all of whom are out for the remainder of the campaign. Adding to the team’s woes, Jrue Holiday and Ryan Anderson are both expected to be out of action through the weekend. In order for a team to be granted an extra roster spot, it must have three players who have missed at least three straight games because of injury or illness, plus a fourth player who is also unable to perform.
Hamilton, 25, had signed with the Russian club Krasny Oktyabr, aka Volgograd, back in August but parted ways with the team in November. He joined the Rockets’ D-League affiliate in February and has appeared in 14 games, averaging 14.9 points, 9.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists in 29.2 minutes per contest.
The 6’7” Hamilton appeared in 14 games for the Clippers during the 2014/15 season, averaging 2.7 points, 1.1 rebounds and 0.5 assists in 8.7 minutes per game. His career numbers through parts of four NBA campaigns are 5.5 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 0.7 assists to accompany a slash line of .405/.366/.671.
Nuggets Ink Axel Toupane To Two-Year Deal
FRIDAY, 10:40am: The signing is official, the Nuggets announced via press release. The team also acknowledged it on Twitter. It will pay $61,776 this season.
THURSDAY, 3:21pm: The Nuggets have reached agreement with Axel Toupane on a two-year deal, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (via Twitter). Next season’s salary is non-guaranteed, Charania adds. Denver only has the prorated minimum salary to give, so the rookie will see no more than $64,864 this season, with the precise value dependent on when he formally signs the contract. The non-guaranteed pay for next season is $874,636.
The shooting guard’s second 10-day pact expired overnight, so Denver had to make a decision about whether to sign him or let him walk. The Nuggets have a roster count of 15 players, the league maximum for the regular season, so inking Toupane will limit Denver’s roster flexibility the rest of the campaign. The team is dealing with a number of injuries, with Wilson Chandler lost for the season, Danilo Gallinari on the shelf until April with ankle woes and Kenneth Faried struggling with back issues.
Toupane has appeared in 11 games for the Nuggets and is averaging 3.0 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.7 assists in 13.8 minutes per outing. His shooting line is .263/.292/.857.
Wolves Sign Greg Smith For Rest Of Season
WEDNESDAY, 11:14am: The signing is official, the team announced (Twitter link). Minnesota’s press release also confirms that Smith’s second 10-day signing took place on March 12th, not March 13th.
TUESDAY, 12:12pm: The Timberwolves will sign Greg Smith for the rest of the season, reports Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press (Twitter link). The big man previously signed a pair of 10-day contracts with Minnesota. His second 10-day deal expired overnight, according to Krawczynski, and that jibes with the information on the RealGM transactions log, which shows Smith as having signed the pact March 12th. The team didn’t give a formal announcement until March 13th, making it seem as though today, and not Monday, is the final day of the contract. Regardless, it appears Smith will be sticking around as Minnesota’s 14th player.
Smith has averaged 10.3 minutes per game across nine appearances with the Wolves so far, though he hasn’t had much of a role in the team’s offense, averaging just 2.3 points per contest. His size has come in handy as fellow big men Kevin Garnett and Nikola Pekovic deal with knee and Achilles tendon injuries, respectively.
Keeping Smith still leaves Minnesota with an open roster spot, one of two the Wolves reaped through buyouts with Kevin Martin and Andre Miller. A minimum-salary contract for Smith would cost the Wolves no more than $128,161 if it doesn’t carry into next season. Even on top of the $111,444 total for the two 10-day contracts, it’s still much less than the $609,083 the team saved in the buyouts.
Grizzlies Sign Ray McCallum To Second 10-Day
The Grizzlies have signed Ray McCallum to a second 10-day contract, the team announced. His first expired overnight. The move restores Memphis to a 17-man roster, meaning the club has received additional clearance from the league through the hardship provision to carry two more than the regular season 15-man maximum. However, Memphis has no immediate plans to re-sign Alex Stepheson, whose first 10-day contract also expired at the end of Monday, tweets Grizzlies sideline reporter Rob Fischer. The hardship exception they’d used to carry Stepheson as one of 18 players on Monday’s roster wasn’t renewed, according to Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal, who suggests it likely means Chris Andersen will return tonight from the left shoulder injury that’s kept him out for the last nine games (Twitter link)
The latest deal for McCallum, which costs $55,722, will cover four games, against the Lakers, Spurs (twice) and Nuggets. The third-year pro has seen plenty of action in Memphis, starting the last two games and averaging 8.5 points, 2.8 assists and 1.8 turnovers in 24.3 minutes per contest across six appearances overall. He’s canned nine of his 18 3-point attempts as he’s seen far more opportunity than he did with the Spurs, who had him for most of the season before waiving him to make room for Andre Miller. The Knicks reportedly considered signing him, but the Grizzlies instead scooped him up to deal with their many injury problems.
Nine Grizzlies were ailing at one point earlier this month, and six have some sort of injury at this point, including Andersen. Marc Gasol is out for the season with a broken foot, while Brandan Wright, P.J. Hairston, Jordan Adams and Mike Conley are also sidelined, according to the CBSSports.com injury log.
Teams can’t sign any player to more than two 10-day contracts per year, but only 13 days will be left in the season when McCallum’s latest pact expires. The Grizzlies only have 14 players signed through season’s end, so they have flexibility to retain McCallum if they choose.
Grizzlies Sign Jordan Farmar To 10-Day Deal
MONDAY, 12:42pm: The 10-day signing is official, the team announced.
SUNDAY, 12:02pm: The Grizzlies will sign Jordan Farmar, Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal reports (Twitter link). No contract details have been provided yet, but it will likely be a 10-day deal, as Tillery reported earlier this week.
The Grizzlies currently have 17 players on their roster. The league granted them three additional roster spots via the hardship provision, so they ostensibly have an opening after not bringing back Briante Weber at the conclusion of his 10-day deal Friday night. The 10-day pacts for Ray McCallum and Alex Stepheson will expire Monday. McCallum and Stepheson are on their first 10-day deals, respectively, so the team has the option of bringing one or both of them back on a second 10-day contract or exploring other possibilities with the two roster spots.
Memphis currently has seven players who are dealing with some sort of ailment. Farmar will be the 26th player who will play for the team this season. He last played in the NBA during the 2014/15 season, when he was a backup to Chris Paul on the Clippers. He had expressed a willingness to join an NBA team via a 10-day contract earlier this year.
Nets Ink Sean Kilpatrick To Multiyear Deal
The Nets have signed Sean Kilpatrick to a multiyear deal, the team announced via press release. The exact length and terms of the pact were not announced by the team, though Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports previously reported that the arrangement included a guarantee for next season. It’s unclear if that guarantee is for the player’s full salary or if it is merely a partial guarantee. Brooklyn now has 15 players on its roster, including Henry Sims, whose 10-day deal runs through next weekend.
The combo guard performed extremely well for Brooklyn during his two 10-day pacts and this multiyear deal is a fitting reward for his strong outings. Kilpatrick has appeared in nine games with the Nets, averaging 11.9 points while shooting 49.3% from the field and 47.1% from three-point range in 19.1 minutes per contest. The 26-year-old has scored in double figures six times, including each of the last four games. In 21 career NBA games split between Brooklyn, Denver and Minnesota, Kilpatrick has averaged 7.4 points and 1.2 rebounds in 15.5 minutes of action per appearance.
The signing of Kilpatrick for next season shouldn’t impact the team’s available cap space significantly, considering it is most likely a minimum salary arrangement, though that is merely my speculation. The Nets had $45,702,813 in salary committed for 2016/17 prior to inking Kilpatrick. With the salary cap set to jump to the $90MM-$95MM range, Brooklyn will still have plenty of room to chase free agents this offseason.