Spurs Waive Keifer Sykes
The Spurs have waived Keifer Sykes, the team announced via press release. He joins Jimmer Fredette, Deshaun Thomas and Youssou Ndoye on the waiver wire, as previous reports from Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports foretold that the Spurs were cutting them, too. Sykes, a 21-year-old point guard who went undrafted out of Wisconsin Green Bay this year, was on a non-guaranteed contract, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. Today’s moves leave the Spurs with 16 players, including 13 on fully guaranteed deals.
Sykes failed to score, record an assist or commit a turnover in nearly 19 minutes of preseason action spread over three games. He fared better with the Cavs in summer league, averaging 9.4 points in 18.3 minutes per contest.
San Antonio’s final roster spot appears to be a one-on-one battle between veterans Rasual Butler and Reggie Williams, presuming the Spurs keep Matt Bonner and his sizable partial guarantee. Neither Butler nor Williams has any guaranteed salary. The Spurs aren’t obligated to carry more than 13 players, a consideration since the team is over the luxury tax threshold, but most teams carry 15 on opening night.
Who do you think the Spurs should keep for the regular season? Leave a comment to let us know.
Spurs Waive Jimmer Fredette
1:01pm: Fredette’s release is official, the team announced via press release.
10:18am: The Spurs are waiving former No. 10 overall pick Jimmer Fredette today, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The ex-BYU star signed with San Antonio in late July on a one-year, minimum salary contract that was guaranteed for only $507,711, half of the full season’s salary, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reported. The Spurs will be responsible for that amount if he clears waivers. It’s the latest fall from grace for the popular and once-heralded prospect who’s failed to gain traction in the NBA since the Kings drafted him in 2011.
The partially guaranteed contract meant that a spot on the regular season roster was no certainty, even though his partial guarantee was the league’s third largest for this season. A vaunted outside shooter coming out of college, he averaged only 2.0 points and 13.2 minutes per contest in two preseason appearances for San Antonio, failing to connect on all three of his three-point attempts. He made just 18.8% of his three-pointers last year with the Pelicans, though he’s a 38.1% shooter from behind the arc for his four-year NBA career.
Fredette’s scoring and minutes per game have decreased each year since he put up a modest 7.6 PPG in 18.6 MPG for the Kings in 2011/12. Sacramento waived his rookie scale contract in a buyout deal shortly after the trade deadline in 2014, and he signed with the Bulls soon thereafter. He rarely made it off the bench in Chicago and inked a one-year, fully guaranteed contract for the minimum salary with New Orleans in the summer of 2014.
The move will leave San Antonio with 17 players, since they’re also waiving Deshaun Thomas and Youssou Ndoye, as Charania reported earlier. The Spurs have 13 full guarantees plus a $749,594 commitment to Matt Bonner that represents the league’s largest partial guarantee for 2015/16.
Do you think we’ll see Fredette get another chance in the NBA? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Spurs Waive Deshaun Thomas, Youssou Ndoye
1:00pm: The moves are official, the team announced via press release.
10:11am: The Spurs have waived Deshaun Thomas and Youssou Ndoye sources tell Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The team has yet to make an official announcement, though Charania indicates the moves have already taken place. Ndoye went undrafted out of St. Bonaventure this year, while the Spurs picked Thomas 58th overall in the 2013 draft, so releasing him means the team is relinquishing his draft rights. Both have non-guaranteed contracts, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. The subtractions will leave San Antonio with 18 players, meaning at least three more cuts have to take place before opening night. The Spurs have 13 fully guaranteed salaries, as our roster count shows.
Thomas, a 24-year-old combo forward, totaled nine points on 2 for 9 shooting in about 29 minutes of play spread over two preseason appearances. The former Ohio State standout who averaged 19.8 points in his final season with the Buckeyes appeared intent on joining the Spurs this season after playing two years overseas, and he signed for the terms of the required tender San Antonio had to make to keep his draft rights. While a release from the Spurs today would give any NBA team a crack at Thomas, San Antonio can elect to keep his D-League rights.
It appears San Antonio will be doing just that with Ndoye, as the expectation when he and the team reached agreement was reportedly that he would end up with the D-League Austin Spurs. Ndoye still plans on signing with San Antonio’s D-League affiliate should he clear waivers, as Charania writes in a full story. The 24-year-old center averaged 3.3 PPG in 10.0 MPG across three preseason appearances.
Bucks Waive Gutierrez, Landry, Powell
The Bucks have waived Jorge Gutierrez, Marcus Landry and Josh Powell, the team announced, taking the roster down to the 15-man regular season maximum. The trio had non-guaranteed contracts while the other 15 Bucks are on fully guaranteed deals, so today’s moves come as no surprise. Damien Inglis and Johnny O’Bryant, both high second-round picks from 2014, were the Bucks players with the smallest guarantees, each promised less than $1MM, but their places on the roster appear safe for now.
Gutierrez was a holdover from last season, having joined the team on a pair of 10-day contracts that led to a multiyear deal. The 26-year-old former Nets point guard dished out 11 assists against only three turnovers in about 47 minutes of preseason action, totaling 12 points along the way, but it wasn’t enough for him to stick.
Landry, 29, was attempting an NBA comeback after last having seen regular season action during 2009/10 with the Knicks and Celtics. A native of Milwaukee, the combo forward averaged 2.5 points in 10.5 minutes per game during his four preseason appearances and looked sharp in practice, according to Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times (Twitter link).
Powell was also trying to revive his NBA playing career after spending last season as a player development coach with the Rockets. The 32-year-old former Lakers power forward has appeared in only one regular season game since the 2010/11 season. He went scoreless in about 23 minutes total over four preseason games with the Bucks.
Celtics Waive Clarke, Miller, Randolph
4:12pm: All three players have officially been released, the Celtics announced.
3:07pm: The Celtics will waive Coty Clarke, Malcolm Miller and Levi Randolph today, according to Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald (Twitter link). Corey Walden, the team’s other camp invitee, will remain for the time being, but all are expected to end up signing with Boston’s D-League affiliate, Bulpett says. Miller, Randolph and Walden have matching $25K guarantees, while Clarke is on a non-guaranteed contract. The release of Clarke, Miller and Randolph will take Boston down to 17 players, 16 of whom have fully guaranteed deals, as our roster count shows.
Clarke, a 23-year-old combo forward, and Miller, a 22-year-old small forward, went scoreless in preseason cameos that encompassed less than a minute of playing time, while the 23-year-old Randolph, a shooting guard, managed three points in slightly more time on the court. The Celtics also got a look at Miller on their summer league team in July, when he averaged 4.0 points in 12.1 minutes across seven appearances.
More pressing for the Celtics is their decision regarding the final preseason cut, which will involve letting go of a full season’s salary unless they work a trade. Perry Jones III has appeared to be most at risk for a release among the 16 Celtics with full guarantees, as Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe said to Hoops Rumors last month, but Jones has drawn praise from Celtics coach Brad Stevens and others.
Who do you think should be the final cut for the Celtics? Leave a comment to let us know.
Lakers Waive Robert Upshaw, Michael Frazier
The Lakers have waived Robert Upshaw and Michael Frazier to drop their roster to 17 players, the team announced. Upshaw, a troubled but intriguing prospect, has a $35K partial guarantee while Frazier is assured of $50K. The Lakers will be responsible for those amounts if they clear waivers. The team still has 12 fully guaranteed contracts plus five more without full guarantees, so more decisions await before the team has to cut down to 15 players for opening night.
It appeared Upshaw would sign with the Lakers much sooner than he did this past offseason as he continued to deal with personal matters. Both Fresno State and Washington dismissed the now 21-year-old center as he dealt with substance abuse issues, and he went undrafted this past June in spite of talent that would suggest he would have merited a pick. He struggled on offense, as Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times points out (Twitter link), averaging just 2.5 points in 14.1 points per game across four preseason appearances, laying to rest speculation that he would beat out Robert Sacre, who has a fully guaranteed salary, for a regular season roster spot.
Frazier, 21, also struggled to score in his four preseason games, posting 2.0 PPG in 13.4 MPG. The shooting guard went undrafted out of Florida this year, though he was the 55th-best prospect, according to Chad Ford of ESPN.com.
Tarik Black, Jabari Brown, Marcelo Huertas and Metta World Peace are still with the Lakers on non-guaranteed deals, while Jonathan Holmes has a partial guarantee worth $100K. Holmes dislocated his right shoulder during Monday’s game, and he’ll be immobilized for the next couple of weeks, according to Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times. The partial guarantee covers about a month’s worth of games, but if he’s still unable to play after that, the Lakers will have to shell out more of his salary until he’s able to play, regardless of whether they waive him, as Pincus explains.
Who do you think the Lakers should keep for opening night? Leave a comment to let us know.
Nets Release Boatright, Miller, Daniels
The Nets have waived point guard Ryan Boatright, small forward Quincy Miller and center Chris Daniels, the team announced via press release. The moves take Brooklyn’s roster down to 17 players, including 13 with full guarantees. Boatright’s contract includes a partial guarantee of $75K and Miller’s has a $50K partial guarantee, while the salary for Daniels is non-guaranteed, so Brooklyn stands to be eat $125K in salary, barring waiver claims.
Boatight, 22, reached a two-year, minimum-salary agreement with Brooklyn shortly after he went undrafted out of Connecticut this year. He averaged 4.2 points, 3.8 assists and 1.0 turnover in 13.9 minutes per game, numbers that aren’t shabby but nonetheless inferior to those that free agent signee Donald Sloan put up, so it appears Sloan has won the third point guard job for the team.
The 22-year-old Miller came from the Pistons in the Steve Blake trade. He played in as many preseason games this fall as he did regular season games for the Pistons last season, scoring six points in nearly 30 total minutes of preseason play.
Daniels, who’s played in China the last two seasons, scored effectively for the Nets, averaging 7.4 points in 13.0 minutes per game, but despite injury concerns for fellow Nets big men Andrea Bargnani and Willie Reed, it wasn’t enough to save the 31-year-old’s job.
Reed and Sloan have partial guarantees of $500K and $50K, respectively, while Justin Harper and Dahntay Jones are on non-guaranteed contracts. Those four players are ostensibly competing for two regular season spots.
Who do you think the Nets will keep for opening night? Leave a comment to weigh in.
Jazz Waive Bryce Cotton, Treveon Graham
The Jazz have waived Bryce Cotton and Treveon Graham, the team announced (Twitter link). The moves reduce Utah to 15 players, the regular season limit, ostensibly a sign that Jeff Withey, Chris Johnson and Elijah Millsap will stick around for opening night despite the lack of full guarantees on their respective contracts. Graham has a $75K partial guarantee on his salary, though it’s more surprising to see Utah release Cotton and his non-guaranteed deal, since the move leaves the Jazz with only two healthy point guards.
Cotton totaled 13 points but just one assist against three turnovers in more than 34 minutes of action combined over two preseason games. The 23-year-old was a holdover from last season, when he joined the Jazz on a pair of 10-day contracts and eventually a deal for the rest of the season that included non-guaranteed salaries for 2015/16 and 2016/17. Graham, a 21-year-old swingman, signed a three-year deal with the Jazz in August after going undrafted out of VCU in June. He scored one point in more than 18 minutes of preseason action. The length of their respective deals makes it unlikely a team claims them off waivers, since many teams can’t claim any deal that runs longer than two.
The Jazz have 12 fully guaranteed contracts, as our roster count shows, plus Withey on a $200K partial guarantee. Johnson and Millsap don’t have any guaranteed salary. Utah isn’t obligated to carry more than 13 players for opening night, though most teams keep 15. Still, Johnson and Millsap will be in tenuous position until the leaguewide guarantee date in January. That’s especially so if the Jazz decide they want more depth at the point. Shooting guard Alec Burks seems likely to see time handling the ball in the meantime.
Warriors Sign Swingman Xavier Henry
The Warriors have signed swingman Xavier Henry to an undisclosed contract, the club announced Monday via press release. The Warriors apparently view Henry as an insurance policy. He was signed for the purpose of eventually playing for the team’s D-League affiliate in Santa Cruz, Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group tweets.
The 24-year-old Henry averaged 2.2 points and 9.6 minutes in nine games with the Lakers last season before rupturing his left Achilles tendon in practice last November. The Lakers waived Henry in late December while he was in the early stages of his recovery.
The 6’6” Henry has also played for the Grizzlies and Pelicans organizations. Originally selected by the Grizzlies as the No. 12 overall pick in the 2010 draft, Henry has appeared in 185 games during his career.
Presumably, Henry could eventually work his way into the mix on the Warriors’ 15-man roster if Golden State has injuries and Henry can show that he’s all the way back from his injury.
Golden State’s training camp roster now stands at 19 players.
Warriors Sign Chris Udofia
MONDAY, 6:02pm: The club has announced the signing of Udofia via press release, which also indicates the team has inked Xavier Henry.
FRIDAY, 10:13am: The Warriors are in the midst of signing small forward Chris Udofia, a source tells Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops (Twitter link). The 23-year-old went undrafted out of the University of Denver in 2014 and played for the Rockets in the 2014 summer league. The move will take Golden State, which waived point guard Juwan Staten late Thursday, back to 18 players, with 13 fully guaranteed salaries.
Udofia’s school played in three different NCAA Division I conferences during his time there, and he won Defensive Player of the Year honors in two of them. Still, his shot attempts per game and scoring average declined in both of his last two college seasons. He posted 12.3 points and 5.4 rebounds in 34.4 minutes per game as a senior in 2013/14.
He’ll ostensibly join Ian Clark, Chris Babb and Jarell Eddie in a competition for a regular season roster spot that I explained earlier today, though it’s not a given that any of them will make it to opening night, since the Warriors are a taxpaying team and don’t have to carry more than 13 players. The Warriors can claim the D-League rights to as many as four of the players they waive, so that will be an option with Udofia if Golden State doesn’t keep him on the NBA roster.