Sixers Cutting Furkan Aldemir
The Sixers are waiving Furkan Aldemir, league sources tell Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Charania indicates the move has already taken place, though the team has yet to make an official announcement. Philadelphia will eat his fully guaranteed salary of nearly $2.837MM for this season unless he clears waivers. Aldemir’s release is part of a series of moves the Sixers are making today, but they still must cut one more player to get to the 15-man regular season roster limit.
Aldemir dealt with a case of plantar fasciitis in his right foot, slowing him during the preseason. He nonetheless averaged 4.8 points and 5.8 rebounds in 18.4 minutes per game across six preseason appearances. At 6’10”, he also showed proficiency on the boards in 41 games during the regular season last year after he signed with the Sixers in December.
The now 24-year-old was a draft-and-stash signee who played for Galatasaray in his native Turkey before coming stateside. The Sixers acquired his draft rights from the Rockets, who in turn had picked them up from the Clippers, the team that drafted him 53rd overall in 2012.
Pistons Waive Danny Granger
The Pistons have waived Danny Granger, the team announced. The move has been widely expected for weeks as Granger didn’t join the Pistons during the preseason, instead rehabbing on his own in Arizona. Granger has a fully guaranteed salary of $2,170,465 for this season that Detroit will be responsible for, barring a highly unlikely waiver claim from another team. The move takes the Pistons to 15 players, the regular season roster limit. Granger has experienced knee trouble in recent years, but it’s plantar fasciitis that has been the issue of late, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports details. He’ll need about a month more to return to health, Wojnarowski hears.
Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy conceded over the past few days that the team was “probably sort of at the end of the road with” the 32-year-old Granger and that it’s all but inevitable the team would waive him. Detroit acquired the former high scorer via trade with Phoenix this summer in a move that also brought in Marcus Morris, who was the centerpiece of the deal for the Pistons, and Reggie Bullock. Indications surfaced even at the time of the trade that the Pistons would waive Granger, as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press recently explained to Hoops Rumors. Granger signed a two-year deal with the Heat in 2014 that included a player option, but his health never allowed him to live up to the contract. He picked up his player option in June a few months after Miami traded him to Phoenix in the Goran Dragic deal.
The Pistons spent much of the offseason with 17 fully guaranteed contracts on their books, but they essentially removed any remaining question over who would go when they waived Cartier Martin’s fully guaranteed pact on Friday. That confirmed a regular season roster spot for Bullock, whose strong preseason prompted the team to pick up his option for 2016/17, too.
Do you think we’ll see Granger play in the NBA again? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
76ers To Cut Scottie Wilbekin, Keep Christian Wood
The Sixers will waive Scottie Wilbekin and have told Christian Wood that he’s made the opening night roster, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Wilbekin has a partial guarantee of $200K, while Wood’s partial guarantee is worth only $50K. The move takes the Sixers closer to the regular season roster limit of 15, though with Wilbekin, J.P. Tokoto and Pierre Jackson the reported cuts today, the team still must part ways with at least two more players.
Wilbekin, 22, displayed a scoring touch in the preseason, averaging 10.0 points in 17.6 minutes per game across five appearances. Still, it wasn’t enough for the undrafted shooting guard from the University of Florida.
Wood, another undrafted rookie, joined the Sixers after a deal with the Rockets fell through. The 20-year-old power forward from UNLV posted 6.2 points and 4.8 rebounds in 12.6 minutes per game over five preseason contests with Philadelphia.
Lakers To Waive Jabari Brown, Retain World Peace
12:52pm: The release of Brown is official, the team announced. The Lakers didn’t mention World Peace in its statement, but presumably he’s sticking around.
12:24pm: The Lakers will waive Jabari Brown and keep Metta World Peace for the opening night roster, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). One of them had to go, since the Lakers have been carrying 16 players, one over the regular season limit, and the deadline to cut to 15 is today. Neither have any guaranteed money on their contracts, but since the Lakers failed to make their final cut by Saturday’s deadline to waive non-guaranteed players without them counting against the cap, they’ll be stuck with two days’ worth of salary to Brown, assuming he clears waivers. That’s minus $8K in training camp compensation that Brown already earned, as former Nets executive Bobby Marks notes (All Twitter links), so the Lakers are poised to be out a mere $1,972 because they waited an extra two days.
Brown, 22, is a holdover from last season, when the Lakers signed him to multiyear deal after a pair of 10-day contracts ran to term. The shooting guard averaged 6.0 points in 14.3 minutes per game across six preseason appearances this fall, and while World Peace put up only 3.7 points in 14.1 minutes per contest in the same number of preseason games, the 35-year-old’s mentorship ability loomed large. The move isn’t a shock, as Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times suggested last week that World Peace had a slight edge over Brown in the competition for the final regular season roster spot.
The Lakers also cut Brown at the end of the preseason a year ago, and they claimed his D-League rights, making him an affiliate player. The team still has those rights, and the Lakers would like to have him with their D-League affiliate again this year, according to Bresnahan (Twitter link). However, if he clears waivers and doesn’t have another NBA offer, the Lakers would have to convince him to sign with the D-League rather than overseas, where he would probably make more money. Brown’s priority is to sign overseas, reports Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News.
World Peace isn’t assured of much beyond opening night, since his contract wouldn’t become guaranteed until the leaguewide guarantee date in January. Still, it’s an intriguing comeback story for the veteran combo forward who spent last season playing overseas and whom the Lakers waived via the amnesty provision in 2013.
Did the Lakers make the right choice in keeping Metta World Peace over Brown? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Sixers To Waive Pierre Jackson
12:36pm: Brown confirmed the team is waiving Jackson, Cooney tweets.
11:06am: The Sixers will waive Pierre Jackson today, the last day teams have to cut down to 15 players, reports Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News spotted Jackson leaving the team’s practice facility this morning while the rest of the team was practicing inside (Twitter link). Philly is letting go of Jackson even though he has a fully guaranteed salary of $750K for this this season. He’s one of 20 Sixers still under contract, so the team has at least four more cuts to make today.
The subtraction of Jackson would leave only 11 Sixers with full guarantees for this season. T.J. McConnell, Scottie Wilbekin and Christian Wood have partial guarantees, while Robert Covington, Jordan McRae, JaKarr Sampson, Hollis Thompson and J.P. Tokoto are without guaranteed money. Covington and Thompson are candidates to start, but while their places on the roster appear relatively safe, the same can’t be said for the others. Philadelphia is also reportedly thinking about claiming Ish Smith off waivers from the Wizards today.
It appears that it will be the second straight year that Philadelphia has signed and waived Jackson prior to the start of the regular season, as the team gave him a $400K partial guarantee last season before cutting him even though he’d already torn his Achilles tendon. The 24-year-old dealt with groin issues this year, and he wasn’t 100% during the preseason even as he made it onto the court, as coach Brett Brown said last week, according to Brian Seltzer of Sixers.com.
Jackson, who took part in a wide-open preseason competition for Sixers point guard duties, averaged 2.0 points, 2.3 assists and 1.7 turnovers in 14.3 minutes per game during three appearances this month. The Sixers signed Jackson to a four-year deal in July, but only this season’s salary was guaranteed. His D-League rights belong to the affiliate of the Jazz, so the Sixers can’t make him an affiliate player, notes Adam Johnson of D-League Digest (Twitter link).
Who else do you think the Sixers will end up cutting? Leave a comment to let us know.
Sixers Cutting J.P. Tokoto
The Sixers are waiving J.P. Tokoto, reports Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer (on Twitter). Coach Brett Brown confirmed the move, tweets Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News. Tokoto, this year’s 58th overall pick, signed the required tender of a one-year, non-guaranteed minimum salary deal that the Sixers had to make to retain his draft rights. Philadelphia is also releasing Pierre Jackson, as Pompey reported earlier, but the team still has to make three more cuts to reduce its roster to 15 by the deadline to do so at the close of business today.
Philadelphia will have a cap hit of about $6,178 for Tokoto, provided he clears waivers, though the team has ostensibly already paid him $8K in training camp compensation, which doesn’t count against the cap, as former Nets executive Bobby Marks explains (All Twitter links). That amount negates the $6,178, so all Tokoto cost the Sixers was $8K.
Tokoto, a 22-year-old shooting guard, averaged 3.2 points in 10.4 minutes per game over five appearances during the preseason. Philadelphia can make him an affiliate player for its D-League affiliate if he clears waivers, but the Sixers no longer have any NBA rights to the prospect from the University of North Carolina.
Jazz Sign Eric Atkins
The Jazz signed free agent point guard Eric Atkins, the team announced. The move is considered to be for the D-League roster, Aaron Falk of the Salt Lake Tribune tweets.
Earlier on Sunday, the Jazz claimed Phil Pressey off waivers. The Jazz currently have 17 players on the roster. The allowed maximum by opening night is 15. Falk tweets that both point guards could provide insurance for the Jazz because the team currently has only two healthy point guards.
Atkins spent the 2014/15 season with KAOD BC of Greece. He appeared in 26 games (19 starts) and averaged 7.0 points per game, 2.2 rebounds per game and 2.9 assists per game. Atkins played overseas after spending the previous four years at Notre Dame. In his senior season, Atkins averaged 13.9 poins per game to go along with 4.9 assists per game.
Jazz Claim Phil Pressey Off Waivers
5:35pm: The team announced the move.
4:16pm: The Jazz have claimed Phil Pressey off waivers after the point guard was waived by the Blazers, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports reports (on Twitter).
Pressey’s deal with the Blazers was non-guaranteed. Pressey, 24, who signed with Portland shortly after the Celtics waived him this summer, averaged 4.8 points, 2.0 assists and 1.0 turnover in 16.4 minutes per game across four preseason appearances.
Pressey has been viewed by many as a natural point guard with good passing instincts, but he is not considered a good shooter. The Jazz currently have 15 players on the roster, the allowed maximum by opening night. Aaron Falk of the Salt Lake Tribune tweets that it seems like the move is to secure Pressey’s D-League rights.
Magic Pick Up Options On Napier, Three Others
SUNDAY, 1:58pm: The team announced it has exercised the options on each of the players, Robbins tweets.
TUESDAY, 11:24am: Shabazz Napier‘s strong preseason performance has won over the Magic, who plan to pick up their $1,350,120 team option for 2016/17 on his rookie scale contract, reports Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. The team is also planning to exercise its rookie scale options on Aaron Gordon, Victor Oladipo and Elfrid Payton, according to Robbins, but unlike those three, the team wasn’t quite convinced about the option for Napier heading into camp, Robbins indicates.
The deadline for all four options is Monday, November 2nd, and Orlando is expected to make the moves official soon after its last preseason game on Friday, Robbins writes. The options add up to precisely $14.868MM, lifting the Magic’s payroll for 2016/17 to more than $60.5MM against a projected $89MM cap.
Napier, 24, is fifth on the team in preseason points per game, with 10.2, and is putting up that number in just 17.0 minutes per contest. The point guard whom the Magic acquired for virtually nothing in a trade with the Heat this summer has posted 2.2 assists and 1.2 turnovers per game in his five preseason appearances. That’s slightly better than the 2.2-to-1.6 assists-to-turnover ratio he put up in his rookie season with Miami last year, and he’s scoring at about double the rate he did with the Heat.
The 2014 Final Four Most Outstanding Player went 24th overall in the 2014 draft on the same night the Magic came away with Gordon and Payton, who were top-10 picks. Payton finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting while injury limited Gordon’s impact. Oladipo was the second pick in the 2013 draft and finished second in Rookie of the Year voting in 2014.
I regarded the option pickup for Napier as generally likely, while the same move for Gordon, Payton and Oladipo seemed highly likely. The options for Napier, Gordon and Payton are for the third seasons of their respective rookie scale contracts, which cover four years. The option for Oladipo is for his fourth season, and he’ll be eligible for a rookie scale extension next summer.
Do you agree with the Magic’s plan to pick up Napier’s option? Leave a comment to let us know.
Pistons Waive Ryan Boatright
12:35pm: Boatright was waived at 5:00pm Saturday, the deadline for teams to cut players with non-guaranteed salaries without any of their salary hitting the cap, tweets former NBA executive Bobby Marks. He is expected to clear waivers Monday and be designated for the D-League Grand Rapids Drive, Detroit’s affiliate.
11:36am: The Pistons have waived guard Ryan Boatright, the team announced today. He will go to Detroit’s D-League team in Grand Rapids as an “affiliate player,” a designation for someone who was under contract with an NBA team, was waived, and who agreed to sign with the team’s D-League affiliate. An NBA team can claim the D-League rights to up to four players it waives, with the rest subject to the D-League draft if they sign there. The Nets couldn’t make Boatright an affiliate player because they don’t have a D-League affiliate.
Detroit signed Boatright on Friday after he was waived by the Nets earlier in the week. He saw little preseason playing time with Brooklyn, averaging 4.2 points, 3.8 assists and 1.0 turnover in 13.9 minutes per game. Boatright, a 6’0″ guard, was a star at Connecticut, was wasn’t selected in June’s draft.
The move brings the Pistons’ roster down to 16 players, all of whom have fully guaranteed contracts. Veteran Danny Granger is expected to waived to reach to maximum of 15.