Jazz Release Elijah Millsap
2:11pm: The move is official, the team announced.
2:06pm: The Jazz have told Elijah Millsap that they’re waiving him, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. Charania indicates that the team has already released his non-guaranteed contract, though Utah has yet to make an official announcement. His minimum-salary pact would become fully guaranteed if not waived by the close of business Thursday, and it would also be guaranteed if another team claims him off waivers and keeps him after that date. Several other clubs are expected to have interest in the 6’6″ swingman, according to Charania. Millsap is in the second season of a three-year deal, so only a limited number of teams can snag him off waivers, unlike players signed to two-year minimum contracts.
The move, once official, will bring Utah down to 14 players, one under the limit. Chris Johnson also has a non-guaranteed contract, and while Jeff Withey has a partial guarantee of $200K, he’s already earned more than that by virtue of sticking on the roster as long as he has. That means Utah can waive Withey and avoid further financial obligation, just as with Johnson and Millsap.
Millsap, a younger brother of former Jazz power forward Paul Millsap, joined Utah on a 10-day contract almost a year ago to the day. Once that expired, he signed another 10-day deal and finally the three-year pact as the Jazz turned him into a rotation mainstay last season. That changed this year, as his 19.7 minutes per game from 2014/15 dwindled to 8.7 in 2015/16. He shot just 28.2% in 173 attempts from the floor this season, so it appears the team concluded his defensive prowess couldn’t make up for his offensive shortcomings. The 28-year-old client of Brendrick DeAngelo Simmons and Daniel Hazan has been to training camp with the Lakers, Thunder and Bucks in the past since going undrafted out of UAB in 2010, and he spoke with Zach Links of Hoops Rumors in September 2014 about his journey to the NBA.
The Jazz gave out more 10-day contracts than any other NBA team last season, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see them use Millsap’s roster spot to again cycle through players on those short-term deals. Millsap would be eligible to re-sign with Utah if he clears waivers, though that would seem unlikely.
Can you envision another NBA team as a better fit for Millsap? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Sixers Sign Elton Brand
12:48am: The sigining is official, the team announced via press release.
11:45am: Brand confirms that he’ll sign with the Sixers in a piece written for Sports Illustrated’s “The Cauldron” blog, noting that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski helped convince him to return to play. “I’m not coming here to hold Jahlil [Okafor]’s hand — or anyone else’s, for that matter — because that’s not what he needs,” Brand wrote in part. “But I do believe my experience and wisdom can benefit him and my other young teammates. It’s about communicating with them like men, starting to grow together, and — hopefully, eventually — winning some ballgames. That’s what Sam Hinkie and I talked about when he approached me about joining the team, and what has me so excited about this opportunity.”
The Sixers are reportedly waiving Christian Wood to make room for Brand, as we detail here.
10:40am: The Sixers plan to sign Elton Brand today, league sources tell Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). It’s not clear what sort of deal Brand will end up with, though it could be a 10-day contract if the sides hold off until Tuesday. TNT’s David Aldridge first reported last month that the Sixers were talking with the former No. 1 overall pick, though it wasn’t clear whether it was about a playing, coaching or front office role. Zach Lowe of ESPN.com identified Brand, who turns 37 in March, as a name to keep an eye on with new chairman of basketball operations Jerry Colangelo seemingly poised to add veterans. Philadelphia has 15 players already, so it would appear a corresponding move will be necessary.
Brand hinted over the summer that he was ready to retire, though he didn’t commit to the idea. He spent the past two seasons as a reserve on the Hawks, but he indicated in August that neither Atlanta nor another NBA team had made him an offer for this season.
The Sixers had Brand for four seasons before waiving him via amnesty in the summer of 2012. The Mavs soon thereafter submitted a partial claim to snag him off amnesty waivers. Philadelphia wasn’t eligible to bring him back while his amnestied contract was still in effect, but it expired in 2013.
Philadelphia has nine fully guaranteed contracts, though the Sixers haven’t been reluctant to waive guaranteed salaries of late, with Tony Wroten‘s Christmas Eve release the latest example. T.J. McConnell and Christian Wood have partially guaranteed salaries but have already earned more than their partially guaranteed amounts, meaning the Sixers wouldn’t owe them any more if they waived them today. Robert Covington, JaKarr Sampson, Ish Smith and Hollis Thompson have non-guaranteed salaries, though none of them appear to be likely waiver candidates.
Do you think Brand is the right veteran influence for the Sixers? Leave a comment to tell us.
Grizzlies Sign Ryan Hollins, Waive Russ Smith
TUESDAY, 11:30am: The signing of Hollins is official, the Grizzlies announced. The team also confirmed that Smith has been waived.
MONDAY, 11:00pm: The Grizzlies will waive Russ Smith in order to make room on the roster for the signing of center Ryan Hollins, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports reports. Hollins was with Memphis during training camp prior to the season and he made a strong impression on the team, Charania adds. The Grizzlies are limited to giving Hollins the minimum salary, though it’s unclear if he’ll have any guaranteed money.
Smith’s contract runs through the 2016/17 season and he’ll make slightly more than $845K this year, all of which is guaranteed. His salary for next season was set to be roughly $980K, though that salary is non-guaranteed. The Louisville product was averaging 1.5 points in 4.4 minutes per game this season.
The move to add Hollins isn’t expected to be a temporary one, Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal reports (Twitter links). Backup center Brandan Wright remains out with a knee injury, so Hollins shouldn’t have to wait too long to see minutes for the Grizzlies.
Chris Crouse contributed to this post.
Pelicans Trade Ish Smith To Sixers
4:04pm: The trade is official, the Pelicans announced on their website and the Sixers announced via press release. Philadelphia released Tony Wroten to accommodate the move, as we detail here.
3:16pm: The Sixers are on the verge of acquiring Ish Smith from the Pelicans, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Philly will send two future second-round picks to New Orleans in exchange for Smith, a source said to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter). Smith spent the second half of last season with Philadelphia and thrived there, but the Sixers didn’t re-sign him in free agency this past summer. Philadelphia has a full 15-man roster, so it would have to make a corresponding move if Smith came in and nobody went out in the trade.
Smith proved valuable early this season for the Pelicans, who claimed him off waivers from the Wizards shortly before opening night. The 27-year-old averaged 8.3 assists against 2.1 turnovers through the first 16 games of the season. However, his playing time has dwindled since the return of backup point guard Norris Cole from injury, as Smith has played less than 10 minutes in four of the Pelicans’ last five games.
The timing of the move for Philadelphia is somewhat odd, since point guards Kendall Marshall and Tony Wroten recently made their season debuts after recovering from injuries. The Sixers also have Isaiah Canaan and rookie T.J. McConnell at the position.
It’s the first move of consequence for the Sixers since Jerry Colangelo became chairman of basketball operations, and it represents a departure of sorts from GM Sam Hinkie‘s philosophy, since Hinkie was notorious for stockpiling second-rounders. Smith is just the second player on the team who’s older than 25, but though he has five years of NBA experience, he doesn’t quite fit the profile of the sort of long-tenured veteran the Sixers have been rumored to be seeking. Smith doesn’t figure to markedly change the direction of the Sixers, who at 1-30 are the first team ever to win just a single game in their first 31 outings.
Smith isn’t a lavish expenditure for Philadelphia, either. His contract is non-guaranteed for the minimum salary and covers only one season. He agreed to those terms with the Wizards before the start of training camp, joining Washington even though he faced long odds to make the opening night roster. The Wizards cut him, as expected, in late October, allowing the Pelicans to scoop him up. Smith was briefly with New Orleans last season, when the Pelicans acquired him in a deadline-day trade from the Thunder, but the Pelicans waived him immediately after that deal, and Philadelphia claimed him shortly thereafter. Smith averaged 12.0 points, 6.1 assists and 2.8 turnovers in 27.1 minutes per game across 25 appearances for the Sixers last year.
New Orleans appears poised to open a roster spot if the deal goes through as reported so far. Cole, Jrue Holiday, Toney Douglas and Tyreke Evans are all around to man the point guard position. The move would appear to be a positive development for Douglas, whose contract isn’t fully guaranteed.
Which team do you think is getting the better end of this deal? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Sixers Release Tony Wroten
4:02pm: The move is official, the Sixers announced via press release.
3:42pm: The Sixers are releasing Tony Wroten to make room for the recently acquired Ish Smith, a source tells Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Philadelphia had been carrying the league maximum of 15 players. The decision to waive Wroten is a bit of a surprise, since he is one of 10 players on Philly’s roster carrying a fully guaranteed contract, so they’ll be on the hook for the remainder of his $2.179MM salary, assuming he clears waivers.
Wroten was in the fourth and final year of his rookie-scale contract. Although he only played in 30 contests last year due to injury, he led the team in points per game, averaging a total of 16.9 each night. His minutes have been cut down quite a bit this season however, as rookie T.J. McConnell has played relatively well manning the point, and Wroten has struggled shooting since coming back from injury, having hit on just 33.8% of his shots.
The Clippers had some interest in Wroten last season, as Dan Woike of the Orange County Register points out on Twitter, but they don’t have room on their roster to accommodate a waiver claim or eventual signing, barring a corresponding move. It’s fair to infer the Pelicans passed up on the chance to acquire Wroten, so it appears his value has taken a hit as a result of his poor play this year.
Wizards Sign Jarell Eddie, Waive Ryan Hollins
WEDNESDAY, 10:30am: The moves are official, the team announced.
1:21pm: It’s expected to be a one-year, non-guaranteed deal for Eddie, Charania writes in a full story. That’ll force a decision no later than January 7th, the last day teams can waive non-guaranteed deals without them becoming fully guaranteed. The Wizards have the capacity to give Eddie more than the prorated minimum salary, with a $1.464MM sliver of the mid-level exception still in their quiver, but non-minimum signings are rare for midseason acquisitions, and especially so for players coming up from the D-League. Sources who spoke with Charania wouldn’t close the door on the possibility that the Wizards will re-sign Hollins later this season.
TUESDAY, 12:52am: The Wizards plan to sign Jarell Eddie and waive Ryan Hollins, sources tell Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Eddie, a one-year NBA veteran, has been playing for the Spurs affiliate in the D-League since the Warriors cut him at the end of the preseason. Hollins is on a non-guaranteed deal he signed November 30th, but Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reported last week that it would become fully guaranteed if Washington keeps him past December 27th, which the team apparently doesn’t intend to do.
Eddie, a 24-year-old small forward, was averaging 14.1 points in 28.6 minutes per game with the Austin Spurs, but it’s his blistering 3-point shooting that sets him apart. He’s made 32 of 61 attempts so far this season, good for 52.5%. He shot 45.2% on 281 attempts from beyond the arc in the D-League last season. He’s yet to appear in an NBA regular season game, though he has credit for one year of service thanks to the 10-day contract he signed last March with the Hawks. Eddie will help offset the loss of Bradley Beal, whom the team declared out for at least two weeks on December 12th because of a stress reaction in his leg.
Hollins has made three starts during his brief Wizards tenure, but he’s averaged only 9.6 minutes across five total appearances and hasn’t played in any of the team’s last five games. The 31-year-old signed with the Grizzlies for camp but didn’t stick for opening night in Memphis.
Washington is dealing with a hail of injuries, with Beal, John Wall, Otto Porter, Drew Gooden, Nene and Alan Anderson all dealing with some sort of malady, as CBSSports.com details. Still, none appear certain to keep anyone out for more than the next two weeks, so a hardship exception for an extra roster spot isn’t in play.
Do you think we’ll see Hollins in the NBA again this season? Leave a comment to tell us.
Sixers, Brett Brown Agree To Extension
4:12pm: The Sixers sent out a press release officially announcing the extension. “Brett has been everything we anticipated – and more – both as a basketball coach and a partner in building this program,” GM Sam Hinkie said. “His tireless work ethic, his daily desire to consistently improve, and his resiliency line up with our core values as an organization. It was not difficult to come to the decision to formally say we want to work with Brett Brown even longer.”
3:02pm: The Sixers and coach Brett Brown have reached an agreement on a two-year extension, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter). Brown’s existing pact was to expire after next season, but the extension will allow the contract to carry through the 2018/19 season, according to Wojnarowski. The Yahoo scribe reported earlier this week, in the immediate wake of the team’s hiring of Jerry Colangelo to the front office, that an extension was “very likely” for Brown, and both the coach and owner Josh Harris confirmed shortly thereafter that they were deep into negotiations about the matter. The Sixers began their push for a deal well before Colangelo joined the team, league sources told Wojnarowski. The Sixers have called a 4:00pm Central time press conference, and they’re expected to formally announce the deal then, Wojnarowski writes.
Brown, a first-time NBA head coach, has gone just 38-149 since taking the job before the 2013/14 season, but he’s had barren rosters to work with, the result of GM Sam Hinkie‘s drastic rebuilding plan. He’s admitted that the losing gets to him sometimes and has occasionally offered subtle criticism of the front office, such as when he said recently that he wished he had more veterans on the team. He’s otherwise shown a relentlessly positive demeanor and even tempered his remark about veterans by saying that he accepts the responsibility that normally falls to experienced players.
Speculation arose that Brown was more frustrated behind the scenes than he expressed publicly. Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Daily News wrote this week that Brown was furious amid recent off-court trouble for Jahlil Okafor, with Hayes suggesting the team’s handling of the matter might have driven the coach to his breaking point. Brown said in September that he intended to serve out the remainder of his contract and had no plans to quit.
The coach was worried about his job security early last season, but Hinkie dispelled those fears and the coach’s willingness to forge ahead despite trying circumstances won him respect in the Sixers organization, as TNT’s David Aldridge recently reported. Harris and Hinkie professed their admiration for Brown as training camp began this season.
Brown is the third coach to come to terms on an extension since the start of the season, joining Rick Carlisle of the Mavericks and Steve Clifford of the Hornets. Carlisle is the only one among the three who has a winning record for his team.
Does Brown deserve the extension? Leave a comment to tell us.
Sixers Waive Phil Pressey
The Sixers have waived point guard Phil Pressey, reducing the roster to 15 players, the team announced via press release. The move coincides with the recall of fellow point guards Tony Wroten and Kendall Marshall from the D-League, as the team announced in the same statement. Pressey was in the team’s 16th roster spot via hardship provision, but with Wroten and Marshall back from rehab stints, it appears the team no longer has the volume of long-term injuries necessary to warrant carrying an extra man.
Philadelphia signed Pressey a month ago, when Marshall, Wroten, Joel Embiid, Carl Landry and Robert Covington were all expected to miss at least two weeks. The NBA allows teams to carry 16 players for 10 days at a time when they have enough long-term injuries, so it would appear the league twice granted the Sixers permission to renew the hardship provision and keep Pressey around. Embiid and Landry are still out, but Covington returned to action November 16th. Wroten and Marshall have yet to appear in any games on either the NBA or D-League level this season, but they’ve been working out with the D-League club since the Sixers assigned them to the Delaware 87ers on November 11th.
Pressey was a third-stringer behind Isaiah Canaan and T.J. McConnell, but he nonetheless managed 3.9 points, 3.3 assists and 1.4 turnovers in 12.1 minutes per game across 14 appearances. Philadelphia was the third NBA team to carry the 24-year-old on its roster since the Celtics released him this past summer. He spent most of the preseason with the Trail Blazers, losing a battle for a regular season roster spot to Tim Frazier, and the Jazz claimed Pressey off waivers shortly thereafter so they could grab his D-League rights when they dumped him two days later.
Do you think we’ll see Pressey in the NBA again this season? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Wizards Sign Ryan Hollins
11:57am: The signing is official, the Wizards announced.
10:57am: It’ll be a minimum-salary contract, as J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic.com hears (Twitter link), so the Wizards won’t have to use the disabled player exception they’d like to get in return for Webster’s injury.
10:40am: The deal for Hollins will be non-guaranteed, according to Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post (on Twitter). The Wizards will release Webster to make room on the roster, as Charania also reported and as we covered in more detail here.
7:57am: The Wizards and nine-year veteran center Ryan Hollins have agreed to a deal, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. Washington already has 15 players, and while the team has planned to apply for a disabled player exception for Martell Webster, who’s out for the season, that doesn’t provide for an extra roster spot. Alan Anderson, who’s still recovering from left ankle surgery, is the only other injured Wizard who isn’t at least questionable for Tuesday’s game. That would mean Washington doesn’t have the four long-term injuries required for a hardship provision, which would allow the team a 16th man. Thus, it would appear that the Wizards must let go of one of their 15 fully guaranteed salaries to accommodate Hollins, unless some of their injuries are more serious than reports have thus far indicated.
Hollins, 31, was with the Grizzlies in preseason before Memphis cut him prior to opening night. The Wizards, Kings, Clippers, Mavericks and Pelicans all reportedly had interest in him over the summer, and the Kings, for whom he played last season, still had their eyes on him when the Wizards snapped him up, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports. Hollins was efficient with Memphis during the preseason, averaging 5.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 11.5 minutes per game across seven appearances.
The Wizards, expected to make a run in the Eastern Conference playoffs as they’ve done the past two seasons, are 6-8 and in 12th place in the East. Garrett Temple, who’s on an expiring contract worth slightly more than $1.1MM, would make for the least expensive cut if the Wizards let go of someone.
Do you think Hollins can help the Wizards? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Wizards Waive Martell Webster
11:56am: Webster’s release is official, the team announced.
“Martell, with his contributions on the court and ability to connect with the fans and the community off the court, has been a great example of the type of player we want to represent our organization,” Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld said. “He worked extremely hard to fight through his injuries but unfortunately was not able to make a healthy return. We appreciate everything he contributed to the team and wish him and his family nothing but the best.”
9:42am: The Wizards plan to waive Martell Webster, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The move clears a roster spot for the team to sign Ryan Hollins, a pending transaction that Charania reported overnight. Webster is out for the season with a hip injury. His salary is fully guaranteed for $5.6135MM this season and partially guaranteed for $2.5MM next year, the final year of his contract. Washington will have to pay both unless another team claims him off waivers, though a claim would be a highly unlikely outcome. Webster would have been in line for a full guarantee on his salary worth more than $5.845MM next season if he’d have played in at least 70 games this season, but he’s already missed too many.
Webster said when he elected to have surgery on his right hip that it would knock him out for four to six months, a timetable that might have him back in time for the end of the season. Other reports indicated that recovery could take as long as 10 months, and the Wizards ultimately announced that they expected him to miss the entire season. The small forward whose 29th birthday is this week had employed balance-correcting glasses and other measures in an ill-fated attempt to try to rehabilitate the hip without surgery.
Injuries have long plagued the former sixth overall pick, though he missed a total of only 10 regular season games his first two seasons with Washington, in 2012/13 and 2013/14. That changed last season, when he missed 50, and he appeared only once in the 2015 playoffs. Still, he’s no longer pondering retirement as he did a year ago. He averaged 9.7 points in 27.7 minutes per game with 39.2% 3-point shooting in 2013/14, his last healthy season.
Do you think Webster can return from injury next season to play a significant role for another NBA team? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.