Mavs Release Jarrid Famous
The Mavs have waived center Jarrid Famous, the team announced via press release. Dallas needed to cut a player to accommodate its signing of former Xavier point guard Tu Holloway, since the team was already at the preseason roster limit. Famous signed with the team in July, but the deal only included a $10K partial guarantee, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. Only Dwight Powell, whose salary is non-guaranteed, had less. The Mavs will be on the hook for that $10K assuming Famous clears waivers.
The 27-year-old Famous was in his second NBA training camp, having joined the Pacers in 2011, the same year he went undrafted out of South Florida. He embarked on an overseas odyssey in the meantime, one that he recalled this past May in an interview with Zach Links of Hoops Rumors. Famous has made a concerted effort to make the NBA in the past year after previously focusing on overseas opportunities, as Zach detailed. He averaged 2.0 points and 1.8 rebounds in 9.6 minutes per game across five preseason appearances with the Mavs.
Dallas still has work to do to pare down to the 15-man regular season roster maximum. The Mavs have 15 full guarantees plus a sizable $500K partial guarantee to JaVale McGee and matching $50K partial guarantees for Brandon Ashley and Jamil Wilson.
Should the Mavs keep McGee? If so, whom should they cut? Leave a comment to tell us.
Mavs Sign Tu Holloway
OCTOBER 22ND, 2:11pm: The Mavs have indeed signed Holloway, the team announced via press release. Dallas has also waived Jarrid Famous, the team also says in the release. The corresponding move was necessary, since the Mavs already had 20 players, the preseason maximum.
OCTOBER 14TH, 10:35am: Former Xavier point guard Tu Holloway is leaving the Venezuelan team Guaros de Lara after receiving an invitation from the Mavericks, the Guaros de Lara says (Twitter links; translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). It’s not entirely clear if it means Dallas is signing him, auditioning him in a workout or merely bringing him in for talks, but the Mavs are already familiar with the 26-year-old’s game, having had him on the summer league roster in 2012. They would have to make a corresponding move to sign Holloway, since the Mavs are already at the 20-man preseason roster limit. Dwight Powell is the only player on the Mavs without at least a partial guarantee on his contract, as our roster count shows, though the partial guarantee for Jarrid Famous is just $10K, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
Guaros de Lara had Holloway on a guaranteed contact that included an NBA out, according to Carchia. He played for the Venezuelan team the past two seasons and has also made stops in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Belgium and Turkey since going undrafted in 2012. He totaled 12 points, eight assists and three turnovers in nearly 44 minutes of action over four games with the Mavs summer league team in July of that year after posting averages of 17.5 points, 4.9 assists and 3.0 turnovers in 36.6 minutes per game as a senior for Xavier in 2011/12.
The Mavs intend to keep all four of the point guards they have on fully guaranteed deals, according to coach Rick Carlisle, so that would make it remarkably tough for Holloway to find his way onto the regular season roster in Dallas. The Mavs can claim the D-League rights to as many as four players they waive, so it would appear Holloway has a stronger chance to be with the D-League Texas Legends than the Mavs come the end of the month, though that’s just my speculation.
Do you think Holloway has NBA-caliber talent? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Cavs Re-Sign Tristan Thompson
2:02pm: The deal is official, the Cavs announced.
THURSDAY, 1:41pm: Thompson has put pen to paper on his contract, Haynes tweets. The Cavs have yet to acknowledge the signing publicly.
WEDNESDAY, 5:58pm: The Cavaliers and restricted free agent power forward Tristan Thompson have reached an agreement on a five-year, $82MM deal, Chris Haynes of The Northeast Ohio Media Group reports (Twitter link). Rich Paul, Thompson’s agent, has confirmed the agreement with the Cavs to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link), who also notes that the pact is fully guaranteed. The arrangement includes no options, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com tweets.
This news comes as a bit of a surprise, seeing how the two sides reportedly haven’t been in contact with each other since Thompson let the Cavaliers’ qualifying offer expire at the beginning of October. Cleveland held the upper hand in these negotiations since Thompson’s choices were limited to signing a long term deal with the Cavs, signing an offer sheet with another team, or continuing to sit out. March 1st would have been the last day for him to sign an offer sheet this season, if the drama dragged on that long, and if he held out all season, Cleveland would have had the chance to issue another qualifying offer to renew his restricted free agency next July.
It had appeared on the opening day of free agency that the sides were close on a five-year, $80MM deal, but the power forward instead had reportedly sought the max of around $94MM over five years, though Thompson was later said to prefer a three-year max contract, something that Cleveland had little interest in agreeing to. The full value of a three-year max for Thompson would have been worth precisely $52,914,188. Tim Bontemps of The New York Post had predicted that Thompson would end up re-signing for five years and $85MM, a number not far off the amount reported by Haynes.
The 24-year-old will become the sixth highest paid power forward in the league behind Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge, Blake Griffin, Paul Millsap, and David Lee. It’s debatable whether or not Thompson is worth being compensated at this level, especially given the luxury tax hit that will be tacked on. Thompson’s numbers through 306 career NBA contests are 10.1 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 0.7 blocks to accompany a slash line of .488/.000/.633.
The Cavaliers currently possess a roster count of 20 players, including 13 with fully guaranteed contracts, which is the preseason maximum, so a corresponding move will need to be made prior to Thompson’s deal becoming official.
Cavs Waive Nick Minnerath
2:01pm: The move is official, the team announced.
1:01pm: The Cavs will waive combo forward Nick Minnerath to make room for Tristan Thompson, reports Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer (Twitter link). The team is at the 20-man roster maximum and can’t officially re-sign Thompson until it releases someone, and it looks like Minnerath is the one to go. The 26-year-old who went undrafted out of the University of Detroit Mercy in 2013 joined the Cavs last month on a non-guaranteed deal.
Minnerath averaged 2.7 points in 9.8 minutes per game over three preseason appearances for Cleveland. He spent the first two seasons of his pro career playing in France and Spain, though he had brushes with the NBA during summer league in 2013 and 2014. He’ll next play for the D-League affiliate of the Cavs assuming he clears waivers, Haynes writes in a full story, so it looks like the Cavs will make him one of the four camp cuts whose D-League rights they’re allowed to claim.
Cleveland plans to keep its roster at the 20-man preseason maximum as long as possible, as Haynes reported last week, which means the Cavs probably won’t make extensive cuts until Saturday, the last day for teams to waive summer contracts without them counting against the cap. The Cavs had been planning to carry only 14 players on opening night, as Haynes also reported prior to the Thompson deal, so that puts the non-guaranteed contracts of Dionte Christmas, Quinn Cook, Jack Cooley, Jared Cunningham, Austin Daye and D.J. Stephens in jeopardy.
Hawks Waive Terran Petteway
1:53pm: The release is official, the team announced via press release.
10:46am: The Hawks have waived Terran Petteway, according to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link). The team has yet to publicly announce the move, though Vivlamore indicates it has already taken place. The undrafted swingman from Nebraska signed a deal that carries a $75K partial guarantee, so Atlanta will be responsible for that if he clears waivers. The move leaves the Hawks with 17 players, including 13 full guarantees and partial guarantees to Mike Muscala and Lamar Patterson, as our roster count shows.
Muscala is a “lock” to make the opening night roster, as Vivlamore has termed it in the past, and Petteway appeared the only strong challenger to Patterson for the 15th regular season spot, based on their matching $75K partial guarantees. Still, Patterson, the 48th overall pick from 2014, has averaged twice as many minutes in the preseason as Petteway has. Petteway, 23, averaged 1.7 points in 7.2 minutes per game in three preseason appearances.
Earl Barron and DeQuan Jones remain on Atlanta’s roster with non-guaranteed deals. The Hawks will have to cut them by the end of Saturday if they don’t want to incut a cap hit for either of them.
Bulls Waive Jordan Crawford, Marcus Simmons
The Bulls have waived Jordan Crawford and Marcus Simmons, the team announced via press release. The release of Simmons, a shooting guard who went undrafted in 2011, comes as no surprise, but Crawford, a four-year NBA veteran, appeared to have a decent shot to stick for opening night. The moves reduce the Bulls roster to 15 players, including 13 full guarantees, though that doesn’t necessarily mean the team is through with preseason cuts, since Chicago usually starts the season with only 13 or 14 players. Both Crawford and Simmons signed non-guaranteed deals.
Crawford, 26, was trying to restart his NBA career after spending last season in China and the D-League. The combo guard made 35 starts in 39 appearances for the Celtics in 2013/14, but he spent the second half of that season buried on the bench with the Warriors following a trade, and he’s had trouble regaining his foothold in the NBA since. He averaged 3.2 points in 7.2 minutes per game across five preseason appearances this fall.
Simmons and Crawford were briefly teammates with the D-League Fort Wayne Mad Ants last season. The 27-year-old Simmons won 2010/11 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year honors as a senior at USC, but he’s struggled offensively, shooting just 28.8% on 52 three-point attempts in the D-League last year. He went scoreless in about three minutes of preseason action for the Bulls.
Cameron Bairstow and Cristiano Felicio remain as the only Bulls without full guarantees. Bairstow has a $425K partial guarantee, and while the Bulls are high on Felicio, he’s without any guaranteed money.
Magic Waive Greg Stiemsma
The Magic have waived Greg Stiemsma, the team announced via press release. The move takes the Magic down to 15 players, the regular season roster limit. Orlando has 13 fully guaranteed contracts, and while teams aren’t required to carry more than that many players, most start the season with 15, which suggests Orlando has made its final preseason cut. If that’s the case, center Nnanna Egwu and Devyn Marble will make the Magic opening night roster on their non-guaranteed deals. Stiemsma was attempting to do the same after signing a non-guaranteed deal with the Magic shortly before the start of training camp last month.
Stiemsma, 30, went scoreless and grabbed two rebounds this month in his lone preseason appearance, which lasted close to 10 minutes. A strained Achilles tendon kept him out of the first few exhibitions this fall, notes Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. The five-year NBA veteran was on the Raptors roster all of last season, but he rarely saw playing time, averaging just 3.9 minutes per contest over a scant 17 games.
The release is one of two transactions the Magic have made in the past 24 hours, as Orlando also waived Melvin Ejim late Wednesday. Saturday is the last day teams can waive summer contracts without them counting against the books, so the Magic could still make moves that bump Egwu and Marble from the roster.
Magic Waive Melvin Ejim
The Magic have waived small forward Melvin Ejim, the team announced via a press release. Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel was the first to report the news (via Twitter). Ejim’s minimum salary deal includes a partial guarantee of $150K for the 2015/16 season, which Orlando will still be on the hook for, providing he clears waivers.
Ejim put up 9.2 points and 6.8 rebounds in 30.1 minutes per game for the Magic’s summer league team this year after spending this past season with Virtus Roma in Italy. He made four preseason appearances for the Magic this summer, averaging just 3.5 points in 8.0 minutes of action per contest. The 6’7″ small forward went undrafted in 2014 in spite of a solid senior season in 2013/14, when he averaged 17.8 PPG and 8.4 RPG in 32.1 MPG for the Cyclones.
Orlando’s preseason roster count now sits at 16 players, including 13 with fully guaranteed pacts. The Magic will still need to pare down their roster by at least one more player prior to the October 26th deadline.
Jazz Sign E.J. Singler
The Jazz have signed unrestricted free agent small forward E.J. Singler, the team has announced. The length and terms of the arrangement are not yet known. It is likely a minimum salary pact that includes little or no guaranteed money, but that is merely my speculation.
Singler, 25, is the younger brother of Thunder small forward Kyle Singler. Utah’s Singler went undrafted in 2013 and was in training camp last season with the Trail Blazers. He spent the rest of the 2014/15 season with BC Kalev/Cramo of Estonia, appearing in 60 games, 19 of them starts, and averaging 6.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 0.8 assists in 17.2 minutes of action per contest. During the 2013/14 campaign he played for the Idaho Stampede, Utah’s D-League affiliate, logging averages of 14.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 28.2 minutes in 22 appearances.
Utah’s roster now sits at 16 players, including 12 with full guarantees on their salaries. The Jazz will need to pare down that number by one prior to Monday’s deadline to finalize regular season rosters. Singler was likely signed with an eye on retaining his D-League rights, though that is speculation on my part.
Wolves Exercise Options On Five Players
4:00pm: The Wolves have officially announced that they have picked up the options on the five players (Twitter link).
WEDNESDAY, 3:20pm: The Wolves have indeed picked up the options, as Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports hears (Twitter link), though the team has yet to make an official announcement.
SUNDAY, 1:26pm: The Wolves plan to exercise options on Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine, Shabazz Muhammad, Gorgui Dieng and Adreian Payne early this week, Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press reports (on Twitter).
The moves are largely expected and do not come as a surprise, as Krawczynski tweets. All the options are for the 2016/17 season and the deadline is November 2nd.
All five players are young and each have high ceilings. They each are also affordable. Wiggins’ option is for $6,006,600, LaVine’s is $$2,240,880, Muhammad’s is $3,046,299, Dieng’s is $2,348,783 and Payne’s is $2,022,240.
The options for Wiggins, LaVine and Payne are for the third years of their respective rookie scale contracts and the options for Muhammad and Dieng are for the fourth. We regarded Wiggins’ option as a slam dunk, Dieng’s option as highly likely and the other three as generally expected.