Clippers Sign Nikoloz Tskitishvili For Camp
SEPTEMBER 25TH, 7:50pm: The Clippers have officially announced the signing.
SEPTEMBER 14TH, 10:50am: The RealGM transactions log confirms the signing took place, but the Clippers still haven’t made an official announcement.
SEPTEMBER 10TH, 1:06pm: The Clippers have signed 2002 No. 5 overall pick Nikoloz Tskitishvili to a non-guaranteed deal that covers one season, reports international journalist David Pick (Twitter link). The team has yet to make a formal announcement. It’ll be for the minimum salary, since that’s all the Clippers have to offer. The deal nonetheless represents a comeback for a player considered one of the all-time draft busts. Tskitishvili, 32, has been eyeing another go at the NBA of late, having been out of the league since 2006, as Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post recently chronicled.
The 7-footer averaged just 2.9 points and 1.7 rebounds in 7.2 minutes per game during his four-year NBA career, spent mostly with the Nuggets, who made that fateful draft pick, passing over Amar’e Stoudemire, among others. He also played for the Warriors, Timberwolves and Suns, passing briefly through the hands of the Trail Blazers before a camp deal with the Knicks in the fall of 2006 that was his last NBA contract.
Tskitishvili spent the past season with Champville of Lebanon, racking up 21.0 points and 11.6 rebounds in 37.6 minutes per game, as Pick notes (on Twitter). He told Dempsey that he hoped that the Nuggets would give him the chance to come back to the NBA and erase the memories of his earlier flameout in Denver, but instead it’s the Clippers who will give him an opportunity.
“You can blame me or you can find some reasons to blame,” Tskitishvili said to Dempsey. “When they draft you as a No. 5 pick, really I shouldn’t have taken it, and stayed in Europe a couple more years. But you can’t say no to the No. 5 pick. You might never come to the NBA. I was afraid for the future. This was my opportunity to be in the NBA. This was guaranteed. I had to take it. If I played overseas for a couple years or three years [though], I would be much better.”
The Clippers have 14 fully guaranteed contracts plus a non-guaranteed deal with Chuck Hayes, and they’re also reportedly bringing undrafted center Yanick Moreira to camp. So, Tskitishvili has at least a somewhat reasonable chance to make the opening night roster nearly a decade after his last regular season game.
Do you think Tskitishvili will finally make an impact in the NBA, or will his comeback be short-lived? Comment to tell us.
Clippers Sign Luc Mbah a Moute
FRIDAY, 7:48pm: The signing is official, the team announced.
THURSDAY, 6:16pm: The Clippers have reached an agreement with unrestricted free agent forward Luc Mbah a Moute, Dan Woike of The Orange County Register reports (Twitter link). The terms of the arrangement are not yet known, though Woike refers to it as a training camp deal, which likely means that it includes little or no guaranteed money. The addition of Mbah a Moute will give Los Angeles a roster count of 17 players.
Mbah a Moute had previously signed a deal with the Kings, but that agreement was voided after the forward failed his physical. The National Basketball Players Association was reportedly going to file a grievance against the Kings questioning how valid it was for the franchise to void the deal. Mbah a Moute’s representatives at Wasserman Media Group and NBPA officials, using independent medical examinations that say Mbah a Moute was cleared to play, and disputed the legitimacy of the Kings’ procedure and conclusion, according to the report by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
The forward made 67 appearances for the Sixers last season, including 61 as a starter. He averaged 9.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.0 assist to go along with a slash line of .395/.307/.589. His career numbers through seven NBA seasons, which include stints with the Kings and Bucks, are 6.8 PPG, 4.9 RPG, and 1.0 APG.
Blazers Sign Omari Johnson
The Trail Blazers released their official training camp roster, and it indicates that Portland has signed forward Omari Johnson, whose name appears on the team’s official rundown of players. No details regarding his contract have been reported, though it is likely a minimum salary arrangement that includes little or no guaranteed salary, but that is merely my speculation.
Johnson, 25, went undrafted out of Oregon State back in 2011 after averaging 7.2 points and 6.2 rebounds as a senior. His career NCAA numbers were 6.4 PPG, 4.0 RPG, and 0.7 assists to accompany a slash line of .418/.293/.600. The 6’9″ forward spent the 2014/15 campaign playing for the Celtics’ D-League affiliate in Maine where he made 49 appearances, and notched averages of 15.6 PPG, 6.7 RPG, and 1.3 APG in 26.2 minutes per night.
The addition of Johnson increases Portland’s preseason roster count to 18 players, including 13 possessing fully guaranteed salaries.
Rockets To Sign Jeremy Tyler
The Rockets have agreed to a deal with unrestricted free agent power forward Jeremy Tyler, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reports (Twitter link). The length and terms of the pact are unknown, though Wojnarowski does refer to it as a training camp deal, meaning it likely is for the minimum salary and includes little or no guaranteed money. The addition of Tyler gives Houston a roster count of 19 players, including 14 with fully guaranteed deals.
The 24-year-old’s last NBA regular season action came during the 2013/14 campaign when he played in 41 contests for the Knicks, averaging 3.6 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 0.5 blocks in 9.7 minutes per outing. The Lakers signed him for the preseason last fall, waiving him shortly before opening night. His career numbers through 104 regular season games are 3.6 PPG, 2.6 RPG, and 0.4 BPG to accompany a slash line of .450/.000/.557. Tyler was the No. 39 overall pick back in 2011.
Tyler played for the Mavericks’ entry in the Las Vegas Summer League this year, notching averages of 11.8 PPG, 8.3 RPG, and 1.8 SPG in six contests. He reportedly worked out for the Lakers back in August, but no deal was struck.
Grizzlies Sign Dan Nwaelele, Waive Christopher
FRIDAY, 5:58pm: The Nwaelele signing has taken place, and the Grizzlies have indeed waived Christopher, according to the RealGM transactions log. The team has yet to make any official announcement regarding either move.
THURSDAY, 8:47am: The Grizzlies will bring shooting guard Dan Nwaelele to training camp, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Agent Dave Gasman confirms the deal via Twitter. The 31-year-old Nwaelele, who went undrafted out of the Air Force Academy in 2007, will replace Patrick Christopher, who won’t be with the team, according to Stein, despite having signed earlier this month. Memphis also reportedly struck a non-guaranteed deal Wednesday with Ryan Hollins, so the Grizzlies have signed contracts or verbal agreements with 19 players, not including Christopher. Fourteen of them have fully guaranteed deals.
Nwaelele has yet to appear on an NBA regular season roster, but he was with the Spurs for camp in 2013. He spent his first five post-college years serving an Air Force commitment, and he made the D-League affiliate of the Warriors at an open tryout in 2012. He returned to the Warriors D-League team after his preseason stint with the Spurs, and in 2013/14, he averaged 12.4 points and 4.4 rebounds in 31.1 minutes per game, with strong 41.6% three-point shooting.
Christopher was on a non-guaranteed minimum-salary contract, so Memphis isn’t eating any money as it lets him go. The swingman made his official NBA debut with the Jazz last season, but he has a history with the Grizzlies, who had him for the preseason last year but waived him prior to opening night.
Warriors Officially Add Four For Camp
The Warriors have officially signed free agent guards Ian Clark and Juwan Staten along with free agent forwards Tony Mitchell and Jarell Eddie, the team announced via a press release. Clark and Eddie will receive approximately half of their salaries if they make the Warriors’ opening night roster, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders noted. Clark would receive $474K on the contract he signed, while Eddie would make $423K. The length and terms of the pacts for Staten and Mitchell have not yet been relayed. Golden State has a roster count of 19 players, including 13 possessing full guarantees.
Clark, 24, had hoped the Nuggets would re-sign him after his summer league performance, in which he averaged 13.4 points per game and made 12 of 24 total three-point attempts, but Denver renounced its rights to him to clear cap room. The guard’s career NBA averages through 53 contests are 2.4 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 0.5 assists to accompany a slash line of .369/.344/.875.
Staten, 23, was the 81st-best draft prospect this year in Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider rankings, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress had him at No. 98 about a week before the draft. His playing time shrunk this past season as a senior compared to his junior year, when he averaged six more minutes per game. The 5’11” Ohio native put up 14.2 points, 4.6 assists and 2.0 turnovers in 31.3 minutes per contest for the Mountaineers this year.
Mitchell has yet to make his mark at the NBA level. In 2013/14, the forward saw just 3.8 minutes per game for the Pistons with averages of 1.0 PPG and 1.2 RPG. This past season, Mitchell did not see a single second of NBA action as Pistons coach/exec Stan Van Gundy kept him in the D-League for seasoning to start the year. A late December trade sent Mitchell to the Suns, but he dropped from the roster early on in the New Year. In February, Mitchell signed on with a Puerto Rican club when there was apparently little or no NBA interest.
Eddie, who turns 24 in October, made his mark as a three-point shooter while in the D-League for most of last season, nailing 127 of his 281 in-game attempts, a sizzling 45.2%, for the affiliate of the Spurs. He averaged 12.9 points in 26.2 minutes per game, but nonetheless made only 18 starts in 44 appearances for that team and didn’t receive a call-up to San Antonio. The Spurs and the Pacers both had him on their summer league squads last month, and he continued his sharpshooting, connecting on 46.3% of his 67 shots from behind the arc.
Thunder Officially Ink Three For Camp
The Thunder officially announced the signings of Dez Wells, Julyan Stone, and Talib Zanna via a press release. Zanna’s deal is reportedly a one-year deal for the league minimum that includes no guaranteed salary. The length and terms of the deals for Wells and Stone have not been reported, but it would be surprising if the terms were different from Zanna’s. Oklahoma City enters training camp with a roster count of 18 players.
Wells had previously been extended a training camp invite by the Wizards, as well as by five other unnamed teams. He reportedly turned down Washington’s offer because they already possess 15 players on guaranteed pacts, and he wanted better odds at landing a regular season roster spot. In 28 appearances during his senior season with the Terrapins, Wells averaged 15.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 2.8 assists to go along with a slash line of .464/.510/.806.
Stone, 26, saw his last NBA action come during the 2013/14 campaign when he appeared in 21 contests for the Raptors and averaged 0.9 points in 5.7 minutes per game. His NBA career has also includes parts of two seasons spent with the Nuggets. Stone’s career NBA numbers overall are 1.3 PPG, 1.0 RPG, and 1.1 APG to go along with a slash line of .440/.211/.722. The 6’6″ guard spent the 2014/15 season playing for Umana Reyer Venezia of Italy.
Zanna, who turns 25 in October, split summer league between the Thunder and Cavs, putting up 6.0 points and an efficient 4.7 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per game. Indeed, at 6’9″, he showed a touch on the boards in the D-League this past year, pulling down 11.0 RPG to go with 13.3 PPG in 27.7 MPG. It’s a skill he didn’t show as much of in college, where he topped out at 8.6 RPG in 30.3 MPG as a senior.
Hawks Officially Sign Three For Camp
The Hawks have officially signed Earl Barron, DeQuan Jones and Edgar Sosa, the team announced via a press release. All three moves were expected, and though only Sosa’s pact was reported to be non-guaranteed, neither Jones’ or Barron‘s deals are likely to include any guaranteed salary, though that is merely my speculation. Atlanta now has the preseason maximum of 19 players on its roster. This number doesn’t include swingman Jason Richardson, who announced his retirement on Thursday.
The 34-year-old Barron hadn’t drawn much interest in free agency this summer, as our rumors page for him indicates, but he’s shown a knack for making his way onto NBA rosters despite limited playing time. Last season’s 16 games with the Suns were the most Barron had played in an NBA season since 2010/11, when he totaled 21 appearances split among three teams. The center’s best season was 2007/08, when he appeared in 46 contests, and 15 of them as a member of the starting lineup, for the Heat.
Jones, 25, went undrafted out of Miami back in 2012. He then secured a training camp invite from the Magic which he parlayed into a regular season roster spot for the 2012/13 campaign. Jones made 63 appearances for Orlando that season, including 17 starts, and averaged 3.7 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 0.3 assists to go along with a slash line of .436/.257/.667. The forward spent the 2014/15 season with Pallacanestro Cantù of the Lega Basket Serie A.
Sosa, 27, went undrafted out of Louisville back in 2010 after posting career NCAA numbers of 9.7 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 2.8 assists. He joined the Pistons summer league entry that season, but he ended up signing overseas with the Italian club Angelico Biella. The point guard spent the 2014/15 campaign playing for Dinamo Sassari in Italy. Sosa’s numbers last season were 10.7 PPG, 1.5 RPG, and 3.5 APG to accompany a slash line of .387/.320/.789.
Nets To Sign Yanick Moreira?
SEPTEMBER 25TH, 3:46pm: Moreira’s name does not appear on the team’s official training roster, which indicates that the agreement has indeed been called off.
SEPTEMBER 18TH, 19:14: Moreira has a minor ligament tear in his left foot which will sideline him for four to six weeks, and thus cause him to miss training camp, Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com tweets. No formal announcement has been made by the team, but this presumably means that the agreement between the two sides will be called off.
SEPTEMBER 16TH, 7:13pm: The Nets have agreed to a training camp deal with unrestricted free agent center Yanick Moreira, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports reports (Twitter link). The length and terms of the arrangement are not yet known, but Charania does note that the contract will be non-guaranteed. Moreira went undrafted this year out of SMU after averaging 11.1 points and 6.4 rebounds per contest as a Senior.
It had been reported back in July that Moreira had agreed to a training camp deal with the Clippers, though no official announcement was ever made by the team or the player. It’s unclear if the two sides ever had an arrangement, or if one party decided to back out of a proposed deal. What is clear, however, is that Moreira will have an easier path to securing a regular season roster spot with the Nets, who currently have 12 fully guaranteed pacts, than the Clippers, who possess 14 players with full guarantees on their contracts.
Moreira, 24, had worked out for the Celtics, Jazz, Suns and Nets leading up to this year’s NBA Draft, and he was a starter on the Clippers summer league team, averaging 9.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in 25.1 minutes per game.
Jordan McRae Signs Required Tender From Sixers
Jordan McRae has signed his required tender from the Sixers, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). That means the No. 58 overall pick from the 2014 draft is with the team on a non-guaranteed contract for the minimum salary that covers one season. Philadelphia has yet to make an announcement. The development is troublesome for the team, which already had signed contracts or verbal agreements with 20 other players, as our roster count shows, and teams can’t formally sign more than 20.
Conflicting reports existed on whether McRae was likely to end up signing with the Sixers this year. It appeared most recently that McRae would pass on the tender and that Philadelphia wasn’t expecting him to take it, but apparently he’s jumped on the offer. The Sixers can just as easily cut him loose and proceed without him, but that would come at the cost of the shooting guard’s draft rights.
The Tandem Sports & Entertainment client is the third second-round pick who’s taken the required tender from the Sixers in the last two years. K.J. McDaniels, the 32nd overall pick in 2014, signed his required tender last fall before the Sixers traded him in the middle of the season to the Rockets, while J.P. Tokoto, this year’s No. 58 overall pick, took his required tender from the Sixers earlier this month. McRae and Tokoto surely hope to parlay the move into a deal as lucrative as the three-year, $10MM contract McDaniels signed with the Rockets in restricted free agency this summer.