Pelicans Eye Ish Smith; Sixers Mull Waiver Claim
12:25pm: The Sixers are considering claiming Smith off waivers, tweets Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today.
12:07pm: The Pelicans are nearing a deal with guard Ish Smith, tweets Scott Kushner of The New Orleans Advocate. Kushner reports that Smith is in New Orleans and is waiting to clear waivers.
Smith was waived Saturday by the Wizards, along with four other players. He had a non-guaranteed deal in Washington after performing well for the Sixers late last season. Smith played 25 games in Philadelphia, averaging 12.1 points, 6.1 assists and 2.8 turnovers in 27.1 minutes per contest. In five preseason games with the Wizards, his averages were 2.2 points, 4.0 assists and 1.0 turnover in 11.5 minutes.
If Smith is signed, he will bring the Pelicans up to the roster limit of 15, with 13 fully guaranteed contracts plus Nate Robinson, who has a non-guaranteed deal. New Orleans would be Smith’s ninth NBA franchise.
Heat Keep James Ennis For Opener, Rework Deal
SUNDAY, 12:21pm: The restructuring leaves Ennis with precisely 37% of his salary guaranteed for this season, according to Winderman (Twitter link).
4:50pm: Ennis will have 40% of this season’s salary guaranteed, Jackson clarifies (Twitter link).
4:12pm: The sides are still finalizing the changes to the contract, tweets Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel.
SATURDAY 4:04pm: The Heat are keeping James Ennis for the start of the regular season after Ennis agreed to yet another change to the guarantee structure on his contract, reports Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Ennis was to have received a full guarantee on his $845,059 salary if he stuck on the roster for opening night under the terms of the modifications he and the Heat made to his deal over the summer. Instead, his salary will be partially guaranteed for about half its full value, according to Jackson. It’s unclear if the sides agreed to a date on which the full salary would kick in or if that would take place on the leaguewide guarantee date January 10th.
Ennis, who spent the preseason on a non-guaranteed deal, initially was to have received 50% of his salary for this season if he remained on the roster through August 1st, but the sides did away with that trigger this summer. The 25-year-old swingman struggled in summer league but bounced back somewhat during the preseason. He carries potential, having been the 50th overall pick in 2013.
The latest change to Miami’s deal with Ennis also moves up the date by which his salary for 2016/17 would become fully guaranteed. The new guarantee date for that season will come before July 1st, Jackson reports. It had previously been slated for August 1st.
The Heat have 15 players, including Ennis. That’s the regular season roster limit.
Pistons Exercise Options on Caldwell-Pope, Bullock
The Pistons have exercised team options on Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Bullock, the team announced today. The moves will affect both players’ contracts for the 2016/17 season.
Caldwell-Pope, a 6’5″ guard, was the eighth overall pick in the 2013 draft. He has played in 162 games in Detroit, starting 123, and has averaged 9.3 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.0 assists. He was part of the Rising Stars Challenge during the 2015 All-Star Weekend.
The Pistons acquired Bullock, a 6’7″ forward, in a July 9th trade with the Suns. He had a productive preseason, averaging 10.7 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 19.3 minutes of playing time. He was taken by the Clippers with the 25th pick in 2013.
Bullock’s place on the roster for this season wasn’t assured at the start of camp, but a strong preseason sold the Pistons on him and brought the idea of picking up his 2016/17 option into play, as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press wrote last week. His option is worth $2,255,644, while Caldwell-Pope’s calls for him to make $3,678,319. That adds about $5.9MM to the Pistons’ salary commitments for 2016/17, bringing the total to nearly $48.3MM against a projected $89MM cap.
Wizards Release Five Players
4:39pm: The moves are official, the Wizards announced via press release.
4:30pm: The Wizards are releasing Josh Harrellson, Ish Smith, Jaron Johnson, Jaleel Roberts and Toure’ Murry, reports Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post (Twitter link). The team has yet to make a public announcement, but Castillo indicates the moves have indeed taken place. All were on non-guaranteed deals except Roberts, who had a $10K partial guarantee. The subtractions leave Washington with 15 players, all of whom have fully guaranteed salaries.
The players hitting waivers today faced long odds to make it to opening night, including Harrellson, who acknowledged he was likely auditioning for 29 other teams with his preseason performance. He averaged 3.9 points in 7.3 minutes per game over seven preseason appearances. The 26-year-old big man was making his return after 2014 back surgery that forced him to miss all of last season.
It was surprising to see Smith on a non-guaranteed deal with little chance to crack the opening night roster, given his strong performance down the stretch with the Sixers last season. The 27-year-old point guard averaged 12.1 points, 6.1 assists and 2.8 turnovers in 27.1 minutes per game in 25 contests for Philaelphia. He was again an efficient ball-distributor despite lower scoring in the preseason with Washington this month, notching 2.2 points, 4.0 assists and 1.0 turnover in 11.5 minutes per game over five preseason contests.
Murry, 25, rejoined the Wizards during the offseason after he was briefly with the team on a pair of 10-day contracts last season. The two-year NBA veteran combo guard averaged 3.5 points in 7.5 minutes per game during four preseason contests.
Johnson spent last season with the Rockets D-League team after going undrafted out of Louisiana Tech in 2014. The 23-year-old shooting guard posted 2.0 points in 4.7 minutes per game over six preseason appearances for Washington.
The Wizards signed Roberts in August after he went undrafted out of UNC Asheville in June and played for Washington’s summer league team in July. The 23-year-old center put up 3.3 points in 6.9 minutes per game in three preseason contests.
Cavs Waive Quinn Cook, Keep Jared Cunningham
4:39pm: The Cavs have announced that Cook has been waived.
12:34pm: The Cavaliers will waive point guard Quinn Cook, Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group reports (via Twitter). Cook’s minimum salary deal was non-guaranteed, so Cleveland won’t be responsible for any money as a result of parting ways with the player.
Cook, 22, went undrafted out of Duke this year after averaging 15.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2.6 assists as a senior, His career NCAA numbers are 11.0 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.1 assists to go along with a shooting line of .432/.375/.853.
The subtraction of Cook lowers Cleveland’s roster count to 15 players, and means that Jared Cunningham, who is also in camp on a non-guaranteed arrangement, will make the regular season roster, Haynes notes. That’s somewhat of a surprise, since it previously appeared that the Cavs were likely to carry only 14 players for the start of the regular season. That was before Tristan Thompson re-signed, however. Cleveland is in line to pay an extra $20,895 in taxes plus $5,572 in salary to Cunningham for each day he remains on the roster, though Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal suggests he won’t be around past the point in January when his minimum salary would become fully guaranteed for the season (Twitter link).
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Rockets Waive Joshua Smith, Arsalan Kazemi
4:34pm: Smith and Kazemi have been released, the Rockets announced.
3:05pm: The Rockets are waiving Joshua Smith and Arsalan Kazemi, Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle reports (via Twitter). The team has yet to make an official announcement, though Feigen indicates the moves have already taken place. Neither player’s deal included any guaranteed money. The team’s roster count drops to 14 players, one below the regular season maximum.
Smith, 23, finished his NCAA career at Georgetown this spring after spending his first two seasons at UCLA, and he appeared in 33 games as a senior, averaging 10.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 20.5 minutes per night. His career collegiate numbers overall were 10.4 PPG, 5.3 RPG, and 0.7 assists, and his career slash line was .591/.000/.613. Smith played summer league ball for the Heat this offseason, appearing in nine contests in which he averaged 5.0 PPG and 4.0 RPG.
Houston had claimed Kazemi off waivers from the Hawks earlier this month. He put up 15.0 points in 38.9 minutes per game for ChongQing AoLong of China last season.
Nuggets Waive Johnson, Pecherov, Sweetney
The Nuggets have waived Nick Johnson, Oleksiy Pecherov and Devin Sweetney, the team announced via a press release. The cuts pave the way for Erick Green to stick for opening night on his partially guaranteed deal, notes Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, and he’s indeed made the regular season roster, as Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post confirms (Twitter links). Green’s guarantee is just $100K. Pecherov and Sweetney’s deals are non-guaranteed, but Johnson’s deal is fully guaranteed for two more seasons, and he is owed $845,059 for 2015/16 and $980,431 for the 2016/17 campaign, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. Denver will be responsible for that unless Johnson is claimed off waivers. The team’s roster count now stands at 15, the regular season limit.
Johnson, 22, was acquired from Houston as part of the Ty Lawson trade. The 2014 42nd overall pick appeared in 28 games last season, averaging 2.6 points and 1.4 rebounds in 9.4 minutes per game, and he owned a slash line of .347/.238/.680. Johnson’s release means the Nuggets have waived all four of the players they acquired in the Lawson trade, Dempsey notes (Twitter link).
Pecherov, 29, has been out of the NBA since the 2009/10 campaign when he appeared in 44 games for the Timberwolves. The center has career NBA averages of 3.9 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 0.2 blocks to go along with a slash line of .386/.290/.793.
The 27-year-old Sweetney went undrafted out of St. Francis of Pennsylvania in 2010. In four seasons with the Red Flash, the swingman averaged 14.0 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.7 assists, and he had a shooting line of .423/.268/.785. Sweetney spent the 2014/15 season playing for a pair of teams in Switzerland, where he notched averages of 20.0 PPG, 5.1 RPG, and 2.3 APG in 19 total contests, before finishing up with Huracanes of the Dominican Republic on a four-game stint in which he put up 9.3 PPG, 2.8 RPG and 1.0 APG in 27.3 MPG.
Suns Cut Henry Sims, Keep Cory Jefferson
4:19pm: The release of Sims is official, the team announced via Twitter.
2:06pm: The Suns intend to waive center Henry Sims, Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic reports. Sims’ deal was non-guaranteed, so the move won’t cost Phoenix any funds. The departure of Sims also means that Cory Jefferson will make the regular season roster, Coro adds. The Suns’ roster count will go down to 14 players, one under the regular season maximum.
Sims, 25, made 73 appearances for the Sixers last season, including 32 starts. He averaged 8.0 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 19.2 minutes per contest. His career numbers through three NBA campaigns are 7.8 PPG, 4.9 RPG, and 1.1 APG to go along with a slash line of .475/.174/.760. Philadelphia didn’t tender a qualifying offer to the big man this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Jefferson, the final pick of the 2014 draft, appeared in 50 games for the Nets this past season, averaging 3.7 points in 10.6 minutes per game. Brooklyn waived the 24-year-old 6’9″ forward in July so the team could avoid his non-guaranteed salary becoming partially guaranteed for $150K.
Grizzlies Waive Diawara, Carter, Jones, Stepheson
The Grizzlies have waived Yakhouba Diawara, Sampson Carter, Lazeric Jones and Alex Stepheson, the team announced. Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reported the moves minutes earlier (Twitter link). The Memphis roster drops to 16, which means one more cut has to take place no later than Monday. JaMychal Green, who has a $150K partial guarantee, and Ryan Hollins, who’s on a non-guaranteed deal, are the only remaining Grizzlies without full guarantees. The four players Memphis is letting go have no guaranteed money.
Diawara, 33, was attempting an NBA comeback after having played overseas since his last NBA appearance in 2009/10. The swingman averaged 2.3 points in 16.0 minutes per game across six preseason contests this month.
Carter was a 25-year-old combo forward who went undrafted out of UMass in 2014. Last season he hopped from BC Prievidza in Slovakia to CAB Madeira in Portugal and finally to Club Virgilio Castillo, also known as Chola, of the Dominican Republic. Pincus reported that his contract was a one-year, minimum-salary arrangement without a guarantee. He averaged 1.0 point and 6.0 minutes per game in six preseason appearances.
Jones’ contract was the first NBA deal for the former UCLA point guard who spent three years playing overseas. The 25-year-old put up 5.8 points in 14.3 minutes per game over six preseason contests for the Grizzlies.
Stepheson followed a similar path, playing overseas after going undrafted in 2011 out of USC and finally landing his first NBA deal with the Grizzlies earlier this month, when the team cut camp invitee Michael Holyfield. Stepheson’s deal was a one-year, minimum-salary arrangement without a guarantee, as Pincus reported. He averaged 2.3 points in 9.2 minutes per game over three preseason appearances.
Celtics Waive Perry Jones III, Corey Walden
The Celtics have waived Perry Jones III and Corey Walden, the team announced via press release. By doing so, the Celtics will be responsible for the $2,038,206 that Jones is due for the 2015/16 season, as well as the $25K partial guarantee owed to Walden, unless either player is claimed off waivers. These moves reduce Boston’s roster count to the regular season maximum of 15 players.
Jones had been acquired by the Celtics from OKC in exchange for a protected 2018 second round pick back in July, and the team had reportedly been shopping the 23-year-old, but was apparently unable to find a taker. Through 143 career games Jones has notched averages of 3.1 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 0.4 assists.
Walden, who went undrafted out of Eastern Kentucky, appeared in two games with the Celtics’ summer league team in Las Vegas, averaging 2.0 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 3.5 steals per game. Walden averaged 18.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists for EKU is his senior season. He intends to play for Boston’s D-League affiliate in Maine this season, his agent tells Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (Twitter link).