Pistons Sign Jordan Bachynski For Camp
SEPTEMBER 28TH, 11:24pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
SEPTEMBER 25TH, 5:56pm: The signing has indeed taken place, according to the RealGM transactions log, though the team has yet to make an announcement.
SEPTEMBER 16TH, 12:14pm: The Pistons and former Arizona State big man Jordan Bachynski have agreed to a non-guaranteed deal, a source tells Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). It’ll be the first official NBA contract for the 7’2″ Bachynski, who was with the Raptors and Magic for summer league this year. He’s the 20th Piston with either a signed contract or a verbal agreement to join the team, meaning the Pistons are at the preseason roster limit.
Bachynski, now 26, averaged 11.5 points, 8.2 rebounds and an impressive 4.0 blocks in 30.9 minutes per game as a senior for the Sun Devils in 2013/14. He played four games with Turkey’s Ekishehir Basket early last season before surfacing stateside with the D-League affiliate of the Knicks. The Westchester Knicks gave him limited burn, as he notched 6.6 PPG, 5.3 RPG and 2.2 BPG in 19.0 MPG. He managed even less playing him in summer league, averaging 4.8 PPG, 3.4 RPG and 1.4 BPG in just 10.0 MPG across eight appearances.
Detroit was one of several NBA teams to work him out prior to the 2014 draft, though he went unselected. Bachynski’s odds of sticking with the Pistons for opening night don’t look strong, since the Pistons have 17 fully guaranteed contracts, more than any other team in the league, as I examined last month. The team also has Adonis Thomas, who has a $60K partial guarantee, and Eric Griffin on a non-guaranteed deal, as our roster count shows.
Do you think Bachynski deserves a spot on an NBA regular season roster? Leave a comment to tell us.
Pistons Sign Eric Griffin To Camp Deal
SEPTEMBER 28TH, 11:23pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
2:30pm: It’s a one-year deal for the minimum with limited injury protection, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. That indicates that it’s an Exhibit 9 contract.
SEPTEMBER 14TH, 10:46am: The signing took place Friday, according to the RealGM transactions log, though the Pistons have made no formal announcement.
SEPTEMBER 1ST, 9:34pm: The Pistons have agreed to a deal with unrestricted free agent small forward Eric Griffin, Shams Charania of RealGM reports (Twitter link). The length and terms of the deal are unknown, but Charania does add that the pact is non-guaranteed, which means that it is likely a minimum salary training camp arrangement, though that is merely my speculation.
The 25-year-old will certainly have his work cut out for him in order to remain on the roster for the beginning of the regular season. Detroit currently has 18 players on its roster, which isn’t uncommon this time of the year. What is unusual is that 17 of those players possess fully guaranteed pacts, and if Griffin were to make the final cut, then the Pistons would need to eat a total of three fully guaranteed salaries in order to clear a slot for him. It is possible that Detroit inked Griffin with an eye on sending him to its D-League affiliate for the 2015/16 campaign, though that is merely my speculation.
Griffin went undrafted out of Campbell University back in 2012. He was a camp invitee for the Mavericks last season, and the forward later inked a deal to play in Puerto Rico for Leones de Ponce. He played summer league ball for both the Clippers and the Cavaliers this offseason.
Spurs Sign Rasual Butler, Deshaun Thomas
The Spurs revealed they’ve signed Rasual Butler today, listing him on a roster they handed out to reporters at media day, according to Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News. Deshaun Thomas, the team’s second-round pick from 2013, has also signed with San Antonio, the roster reveals. That roster also serves as the team’s first acknowledgement of previously reported deals with Youssou Ndoye and Keifer Sykes.
The leadership of the 36-year-old Butler, as well as his shooting, impressed the Spurs during voluntary workouts recenty, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). San Antonio had evidently been eyeing the veteran swingman for a while, as The Oregonian’s Jason Quick identified the team’s interest shortly after free agency began in July. Butler had reportedly been wanting to re-sign with the Wizards or join the Heat or the Trail Blazers, but he’s ultimately chosen San Antonio, which has no more than the minimum salary to give him.
The same is true for Thomas, to whom the Spurs made their required tender of a one-year, non-guaranteed offer for the minimum salary earlier this month, as international journalist David Pick reported. It’s not clear whether Thomas signed that tender or the sides worked out different terms, but it’s no surprise to see him end up in Spurs camp, since he recently posted photos to Instagram showing him in Spurs workout gear and had been willing to play for the team if it made an offer, as Pick noted. The 24-year-old big man played in France and Spain the past two seasons after the Spurs made him the 58th overall pick in 2013.
Wojnarowski first reported that Ndoye, a 24-year-old center who went undrafted out of St. Bonaventure this summer, would join the Spurs for camp, though he noted that expectation was that Ndoye would ultimately end up with the Spurs D-League affiliate. San Antonio can keep the D-League rights to as many as four of the players it cuts at the end of the preseason.
Sykes seems ultimately destined for the D-League, too, though that’s just my speculation. The 21-year-old point guard went undrafted out of Wisconsin Green Bay in June. Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports first reported his deal.
The moves give the Spurs a full 20-man camp roster, though only 13 have fully guaranteed deals.
Heat Sign John Lucas III
SEPTEMBER 28TH, 10:51am: The signing is official, the Heat announced via press release.
3:30pm: Lucas has agreed to a non-guaranteed training camp deal with the Heat, Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel reports (Twitter links). Lucas was close to signing a deal with the Clippers prior to Los Angeles adding Pablo Prigioni, Winderman also relays.
SEPTEMBER 17TH, 2:55pm: Eight-year veteran John Lucas III is working out in the Heat’s practice facility with players from the team as they ready for the start of training camp, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). It’s not uncommon for free agents to work out in team facilities during the offseason, but that usually ends around Labor Day. Stein’s report doesn’t specify whether the Heat are auditioning him, but he’s a “natural roster target” for Miami, given that the team is said to be seeking guard depth, Stein tweets.
Chatter about the Bernie Lee client has been quiet since mid-July, when Stein reported that the Magic, Spurs, Mavericks and Clippers were interested in him, as were the Pistons, with whom Lucas finished this past season. Lucas joined Detroit on a pair of 10-day contracts before signing on a deal that covered the rest of 2014/15, as our 10-Day Contract Tracker shows, averaging 4.7 points and 2.9 assists against 0.8 turnovers in 12.9 minutes per game in 21 contests.
The Heat have 13 fully guaranteed contracts, four non-guaranteed deals, and Tyler Johnson, who’s assured of at least half of his one-year veteran’s minimum salary. Johnson figures to serve as the third point guard, but he’d be in line as the primary backup to Goran Dragic if Miami trades Mario Chalmers, which the team hasn’t ruled out doing as soon as next month, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald recently reported. Thus, the Heat would be in need of a point guard like Lucas.
Would Lucas be the right guy for the Heat? Leave a comment to let us know.
Andrew Harrison To Sign In D-League
Second-round pick Andrew Harrison will sign with the D-League affiliate of the Grizzlies, the team that holds his NBA rights, according to Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal (Twitter link). Memphis announced its 20-man camp roster earlier today, and it doesn’t include Harrison, this year’s 44th overall selection. The Grizzlies can still sign him at any point to the NBA roster, though they’d have to make a corresponding move, since they don’t have an open roster spot.
The Suns made Harrison the 44th overall selection this June and traded his rights shortly thereafter to Memphis for Jon Leuer. The Kevin Bradbury client can’t negotiate with any other NBA teams, though he did have the option of signing a one-year, $525,093 minimum salary tender without a guarantee that the Grizzlies had to make this month to retain his draft rights. The point guard who turns 21 next month has evidently decided against that, and he’ll instead start the year on a D-League contract making no more than $25,500.
Harrison was the fifth-ranked prospect in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index coming out of high school in 2013, but his stock fell precipitously in college. He joins No. 48 pick Dakari Johnson, No. 51 pick Tyler Harvey, No. 52 pick Satnam Singh and No. 53 pick Sir’Dominic Pointer among this year’s second-rounders expected to sign in the D-League, as our draft picks signings page indicates. Harrison’s twin brother, Aaron, went undrafted but is with the Hornets on a deal that’s partially guaranteed for $75K.
Do you see Andrew Harrison panning out once he gets to the NBA? Leave a comment to tell us.
Grizzlies Sign Five For Camp
The Grizzlies have formally signed Yakhouba Diawara, Ryan Hollins, Michael Holyfield, Lazeric Jones and Daniel Nwaelele, the team announced via press release. All five moves were expected, based on previous reports. The moves give Memphis a full 20-man roster for the preseason, as our roster count shows. All are making the minimum salary, since the Grizzlies don’t have the capacity to give more after signing Brandan Wright for the mid-level exception earlier in the offseason, and all are reportedly non-guaranteed
Diawara, 33, returns to the NBA after an absence of more than five years. The native of France played last season in Italy. Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports first reported the deal between Memphis and the swingman.
Hollins, who turns 31 next month, gives the Grizzlies depth on the interior. Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports first reported the deal, and he and Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal had details about the arrangement, which covers one season.
Holyfield went undrafted this year out of Sam Houston State but joined the Grizzlies for summer league this year before formally signing with the team. Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders first reported the deal for the center who turns 23 in November, revealing that it’s a one-year pact.
Jones is a 25-year-old point guard who went undrafted out of UCLA in 2012 and has spent time overseas since then, playing in Israel, Greece and Hungary. Charania first reported the deal, and Pincus reports that it’s a one-year contract.
Nwaelele is a 31-year-old Air Force veteran who’s spent much of his time since going undrafted in 2007 serving out his military commitment. Marc Stein of ESPN.com first reported the deal, which is a one-year arrangement, according to Pincus.
Hawks Waive Jason Richardson
The Hawks have waived the retiring Jason Richardson, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). The move took place Friday, according to Pincus, though the team made no formal announcement. Atlanta signed the 34-year-old swingman last month, so even though he walked away before the start of training camp, the release still had to take place. He was on a one-year contract for the minimum salary without any guaranteed money, so the Hawks aren’t on the hook for any money.
Richardson said in December that “retirement is three or four years away from now,” but knee trouble and an aversion to making simply a token appearance on a roster evidently led to a change of heart. The fifth overall pick in the 2001 draft was much more than roster filler for much of his career, but that wasn’t the case for the majority of his tenure with the Sixers, who acquired him in 2012 as part of the Dwight Howard trade. He made his return to the court last season after missing more than two years because of injuries and appeared in 19 games, averaging career lows in points and minutes per game as well as field goal percentage.
It was in stark contrast to the high-flying scoring force he was for much of his career. Richardson topped 20 points per game three times, including his best scoring average of 23.2 PPG in 2005/06 with the Warriors, his original team. He went on to play with the Bobcats, Suns and Magic before finishing up in Philadelphia. Thanks to the more than $6.6MM he made this past season, the Jim Tanner client topped $100MM in career earnings across his 14 seasons in the league, totaling about $105.356MM, according to Basketball-Reference. His Hawks salary would have been the lowest of his career.
What stands out to you about Richardson’s career? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Raptors Sign Anthony Bennett
MONDAY, 8:16am: The signing is official, the team announced (Twitter link).
SUNDAY, 1:03pm: Bennett has taken a physical and put pen to paper with the Raptors, tweets Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. Toronto has yet to make an official announcement.
4:29pm: Barring a snag, Toronto is expected to sign him to a one-year deal, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
FRIDAYm 4:05pm: The Raptors will sign Anthony Bennett, reports Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The former No. 1 overall pick just cleared waivers, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter). The Blazers, Sixers, Cavaliers and Jazz, the four teams with the flexibility to claim Bennett off waivers, all passed on doing so, though only Portland and Philadelphia reportedly joined Toronto with interest in the combo forward. Minnesota is on the hook for $3.65MM to Bennett this season via the terms of his buyout deal with the team, and the Raptors will pay him the minimum salary of $947,276, since that’s all they can give outside free agents after using up their cap space and other exceptions.
Bennett’s deal represents a homecoming for the Toronto native, though the Blazers had appeared to have the edge. Portland assistant coaches Jay Triano and David Vanterpool double as coaches for the Canadian national team, and Bennett looked strong playing for that squad this summer. Bennett put up 15.6 points in about 26 minutes per contest in the Pan-American Games, though his numbers went down to 7.6 PPG in nearly 17 MPG during the FIBA Americas Championship.
Toronto has been carrying 14 fully guaranteed contracts plus four partially guaranteed deals, as our roster count shows. The level of guarantee on Bennett’s pact isn’t immediately clear, though his addition would seemingly make it that much more difficult for Michale Kyser, Ronald Roberts Jr., Shannon Scott and Axel Toupane, the quartet with partially guaranteed deals, to stick for opening night.
The Raptors are seemingly poised to start DeMarre Carroll as a small-ball power forward, with Patrick Patterson and Luis Scola behind him. James Johnson, another combo forward, also figures to pose a challenge to Bennett as he seeks playing time.
Do you think the Raptors are the right team for Bennett? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Nuggets Waive Kostas Papanikolaou
SEPTEMBER 28TH, 7:52am: The move indeed took place Friday, according to the RealGM transactions log, though the team still hasn’t made an official announcement.
SEPTEMBER 25TH, 4:12pm: The Nuggets have waived Papanikolaou, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link).
AUGUST 3RD, 8:01am: Papanikolaou’s camp is unaware of any pending waiver, according to Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops.net. Denver’s plan is to keep him until the Eurobasket tournament begins in December, and evaluate him then, sources tell Varlas. Nuggets GM Tim Connelly and assistant GM Arturas Karnisovas are set to head to Europe to scout Papanikolaou and others.
AUGUST 2ND, 3:03pm: Papanikolaou is not being waived by the Nuggets at this time, Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post tweets.
AUGUST 1ST, 2:30pm: The Nuggets will waive Kostas Papanikolaou, a source told David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). His $4,797,664 deal was non-guaranteed.
Papanikolaou played for the Rockets last season and was traded to Denver as part of the Ty Lawson swap last month. Pablo Prigioni, Joey Dorsey, Nick Johnson and a protected 2016 first-round pick were also forwarded to the Nuggets in the deal. Houston exercised its option on Papanikolaou in June and his salary would have been guaranteed if he remained on Denver’s roster past October 4th.
With plenty of other forward options, the Nuggets had no intention of keeping Papanikolaou and wanted his non-guaranteed contract in order to shed salary.
The 6’9” forward was a regular part of the Rockets’ rotation during the first half of the 2014/15 season, but the acquisition of Josh Smith cut into the 24-year-old’s minutes and he also battled an ankle injury. He averaged 6.1 points and 3.9 rebounds in 24.6 minutes per game before Smith joined the team and 2.3 PPG, 1.5 RPG and just 12.1 MPG in 21 appearances afterward.
Sixers Waive Gerald Wallace
SUNDAY, 2:11pm: The Sixers made the move official in an emailed press release.
SATURDAY, 4:14pm: The Sixers have waived forward Gerald Wallace, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter). MassLive’s Jay King first reported the move was coming (Twitter link). Philadelphia will still be on the hook for Wallace’s fully guaranteed salary of $10,105,855 for the 2015/16 season, which is the final year of the veteran’s current contract. The team could possibly recoup some of that amount via set-off rights if Wallace were to sign with another team.
The move is not an unexpected one for Philadelphia, as Wallace likely didn’t fit it into its long-term plans. The 33-year-old was acquired from Golden State at the end of July in the deal that sent Jason Thompson to the Warriors. Waiving a player is also a necessary move for the Sixers, who have contract agreements with 21 players, which is one over the preseason maximum.
Wallace appeared in 32 games for Boston last season, averaging 1.1 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 0.3 assists in 8.9 minutes per contest. He was the No. 25 overall pick in the 2001 NBA Draft, and his career averages are 11.9 PPG, 5.8 RPG, and 2.1 APG to accompany a shooting line of .469/.312/.709.