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Mavs Sign Bernard James To 10-Day Contract

February 11th, 2015 at 10:20am CST by Chuck Myron

WEDNESDAY, 10:20am: The deal is official, as Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com tweets. It’ll run just the standard 10 days, since the Mavs have a game tonight and return from the All-Star break with a back-to-back on December 19th and 20th, fulfilling the three-game requirement.

TUESDAY, 8:09am: The Mavericks will sign Bernard James to a 10-day contract once he receives his FIBA letter of clearance to make the jump back from China, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. James had been playing with the Yao Ming-owned Shanghai Sharks since shortly after the Mavs waived him at the end of the preseason, but the Sharks failed to make the Chinese Basketball Association playoffs, allowing the 30-year-old big man to become a free agent last week. The FIBA letter of clearance is a standard procedural step that players go through when they move between countries, and it’s unlikely that it serves as a stumbling block.

Stein and ESPN colleague Tim MacMahon reported this past weekend that Mavs GM Donnie Nelson and company would seek to add a big man on a 10-day contract while they waited for Jermaine O’Neal, for whom Dallas is by all accounts the front-runner, to ready himself to play. The Mavs have an open roster spot, as our roster counts show, though the team is prepared to clear a second spot to add Amar’e Stoudemire if he works a buyout with the Knicks, as Stein and MacMahon wrote.

James, who turned 30 this past weekend, played the previous two seasons with Dallas, which first acquired the rights to the former Air Force staff sergeant the same night that Cleveland drafted him 33rd overall in 2012. James averaged just 4.9 minutes per game across 30 appearances last season after he started 11 games as a rookie, but Dallas saw fit to re-sign him to a fully guaranteed contract for the minimum salary this past summer. That commitment bit the team in October, when non-guaranteed camp invitee Charlie Villanueva beat James out for a spot on the opening-night roster. James proceeded to put up 19.1 points and 11.2 rebounds in 30.0 minutes per game for Shanghai.

The 10-day contract that James signs with the Mavs might last longer than 10 days depending on when he signs it. All 10-day deals must cover at least three games, a rule that normally doesn’t come into play. However, with the expanded All-Star break this year, it would last 11 days if James signed either today or on Thursday.

Hawks Trade Adreian Payne To Wolves

February 10th, 2015 at 1:57pm CST by Chuck Myron

1:57pm: The pick going to Atlanta will become a second-rounder if it’s not conveyed within the protected years, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link).

1:34pm: The Hawks have traded Adreian Payne to the Timberwolves for a first-round pick, the Wolves and have announced. The Hawks have also acknowledged the deal via press release. Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported that Payne would leave the Hawks, Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune had him going to the Wolves, and Vivlamore noted the inclusion of the first-rounder (All Twitter links). It represents a sharp turnaround for the Hawks on Payne, whom the Hawks drafted 15th overall out of Michigan State just this past June. The first-rounder that Atlanta receives is for 2017, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Minnesota only had its own first-rounder for that year. The pick will be lottery protected through 2020, sources tell Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (Twitter link).

“We are extremely excited to welcome Adreian to Minnesota,” Timberwolves coach/executive Flip Saunders said in the team’s statement. “Adreian fits the mold of a young, athletic and talented player who we believe will fit in well with our young and talented core. We’ve liked him for a while and look forward to seeing him grow with us in a Wolves uniform.”

The Wolves were indeed high on Payne going into last year’s draft, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press. The power forward has gone on D-League assignment four times this season and has appeared in only three NBA games as the Hawks haven’t found much use for him amid their ascent to the top of the Eastern Conference standings.

The move opens a roster spot for Atlanta, which had been carrying a full 15-man roster. It’s possible, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link), that the Hawks would fill it with Ray Allen, whom they’ve sought, or Gary Neal, who worked under Hawks coach and acting GM Mike Budenholzer when they were both with the Spurs. The Timberwolves are reportedly exploring the idea of a buyout or trade involving Neal, whom they just acquired earlier today from the Hornets. The move also helps make way for the Hawks to sign Edy Tavares, a center whom the team drafted 43rd overall in 2014, when the offseason rolls around, Wojnarowski notes (on Twitter).

The Wolves had immediate plans for the roster spot they opened up in their Mo Williams trade earlier today, as Krawczynski reported earlier today, and Payne restores the team to 15 players, including Lorenzo Brown, who’s on a 10-day contract. It represents a chance for the team to buy low on a highly regarded prospect, and the protection on the pick heading to Atlanta means Minnesota won’t give up a pick higher in the order than the one the Hawks used on Payne last year.

Photo courtesy USA Today Sports Images.

Hornets Acquire Mo Williams

February 10th, 2015 at 12:28pm CST by Chuck Myron

12:28pm: The Timberwolves have followed with a official announcement of their own (on Twitter).

12:09pm: The trade is official, the Hornets announced. Williams, Daniels and some cash go to Charlotte. Neal and the Heat’s 2019 second-round pick that the Hornets had acquired from a previous trade go to Minnesota, according to the statement. The Hornets have released Elliot Williams from his 10-day contract to make room on the roster, the Hornets also announced.

“We are excited to be adding two quality players to our organization,” Hornets GM Rich Cho said. “Mo Williams is a proven NBA player who gives us additional versatility and depth in the backcourt, both while Kemba Walker is out and after Kemba returns. Troy Daniels is an outstanding shooter who we are already familiar with from having had him in our training camp last season.”

11:50am: The Hornets and Wolves have reached agreement on a deal that would send Mo Williams and Troy Daniels to Charlotte and Gary Neal plus a second-round pick to Minnesota, league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Shams Charania of RealGM originally reported the deal was close (Twitter link). The move represents Charlotte’s effort to make the playoffs and avoid having Lance Stephenson play point guard in the absence of the injured Kemba Walker, Wojnarowski tweets.

The Wolves acquired Daniels via trade from the Rockets on December 19th, so they can’t aggregate his salary in any deal until February 19th, the day of the trade deadline. However, since Williams’ salary of $3.75MM is within 150% plus $100K of Neal’s $3.25MM salary, that part of the swap can go as its own trade, and Charlotte can take in Daniels, who makes the minimum, using the minimum-salary exception. The Daniels part can function as its own trade, meaning he can go out on his own and the trade can become official before the deadline.

Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities on Monday identified the Hornets as a likely suitor for Williams, shortly before Wojnarowski reported that talks between the Wolves and Hornets regarding Williams and Daniels had reached an impasse after having taken place recently. It seems the sides worked out their differences within the past day, with Charlotte, coming off back-to-back losses to the Sixers and Pacers, likely the party that reignited talks, though that’s just my speculation.

Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported late last month that rival teams believed Wolves were making Williams available in exchange for a draft pick, and Wolfson identified the Cavs, Clippers and Heat among the “teams to watch” regarding the 32-year-old point guard. There was also a slight chance the Pistons would become involved, according to Wolfson. Ultimately it was the Hornets who emerged with him, and Williams tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports that he can see himself finishing his career in Charlotte (Twitter link). However, Williams, who’ll be a free agent at season’s end, said earlier this week that he wouldn’t ask for a trade and wanted to sign a multiyear deal with Minnesota, as Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press wrote.

“This was a difficult decision because of what Mo brought to our team and the impact he had on our young guys,” Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders said of the move in the team’s statement. “As a coach, you wanted to keep him because of his professionalism and understanding of what you wanted out of him as a player. He scored 52 points against Indiana and did everything we asked him to do. On the other side, we knew we were moving in a different direction with our youth so we felt it was in our best interest to make the deal. We thank Mo and Troy for their contributions and wish them the best of luck in Charlotte.”

The Hornets were reluctant to give up future-focused assets for a short-term fix, GM Rich Cho told Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer shortly after the Walker injury, but Bonnell argues the 2019 second-rounder isn’t much of a compromise from that position (Twitter link). Daniels, who’s averaged just 2.8 points in 7.3 minutes per game split between Houston and Minnesota this season after a breakout performance in the playoffs last year, comes at the cost of a guaranteed minimum salary for next season, but that, too, isn’t much of a sacrifice.

Neal, who’s enduring the worst three-point shooting season of his five-year career, departs Charlotte almost a year after the then-Bobcats acquired him from the Bucks in part because of the long-range threat he represented. He’s set to hit free agency in the summer, though Minnesota appears ready to trade him or work a buyout, so there’s a decent chance his stay with the Wolves will be a brief one.

Elliot Williams was on day No. 7 of the 10-day contract that the Hornets waived Jannero Pargo in order to accommodate. Today’s trade leaves the Hornets with 15 contracts that are guaranteed through the end of the season.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Heat Re-Sign Tyler Johnson For Season

February 8th, 2015 at 2:26pm CST by ChrisCrouse

2:26pm: The deal is official, the team announced.

12:07pm: Johnson’s deal will be a two year contract, Charania reports (Twitter link).

8:43am: The Heat will re-sign Tyler Johnson for the remainder of the season, according to Shams Charania of RealGM. Johnson signed his first 10-day deal with the team on January 12th and his second 10-day contract expired Saturday night.

Charania adds that multiple teams were prepared to engage in contract negotiations with the Pedro Power client if he would fail to reach an agreement with Miami. To date, Johnson is averaging 7.5 points and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 50.0% from the field during his six games playing for the team, including an 18 point performance against the Spurs on Friday night. The Heat could certainly use all the offense they can get, as they rank 29th in the league in scoring, averaging 92.4 points per game.

Miami now has a full 15-man roster. The Heat previously expressed their desire to keep an open roster spot in order to maintain flexibility. With Dwyane Wade‘s injury and the team losing five of its last six games, it appears flexibility has become a secondary concern.

Spurs Ink Reggie Williams To 2nd 10-Day Deal

February 8th, 2015 at 9:45am CST by Eddie Scarito

9:45am: The signing is official, according to the team’s twitter feed.

FRIDAY, 10:53pm: The Spurs intend to sign Reggie Williams to a second 10-day contract, Shams Charania of RealGM reports (Twitter link). Williams’ initial 10-day deal expires tonight. If the swingman is indeed re-signed, then he will continue to occupy San Antonio’s 15th and final roster spot.

The 28-year-old was with the Heat on a training camp deal, but he failed to make the opening night roster and then caught on with the Oklahoma City Blue, the Thunder’s D-League affiliate, last month. When initially inked by San Antonio, Williams had taken the place of JaMychal Green, with whom the Spurs failed to reach agreement on a new deal after his initial 10-day arrangement had expired.

In just two appearances for the Spurs this season, Williams has averaged 1.0 point in 4.0 minutes of action per contest. His career numbers through five seasons in the NBA are 8.4 PPG, 2.6 RPG, and 1.6 APG. Williams’ career slash line is .459/.368/.745.

Pacific Notes: Lakers, Scott, Suns

February 7th, 2015 at 8:59pm CST by ChrisCrouse

An easy schedule is good news unless you’re better off losing, which is where the Lakers find themselves, according to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles has dropped 11 of its last 12 games to move into fourth place in the Hoops Rumors Reverse Standings, which carries an 11.9% shot at the top pick. However, Bresnahan has analyzed the remaining schedule and notes that 17 of L.A.’s last 32 games are against teams with losing records. The Lakers’ pick will go to the Suns if it slips out of the top five.

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

Lakers coach Byron Scott understands what it’s like to be fired, but he isn’t worried about being ousted by team executives, writes Bill Oram of the Orange County Register. “Sometimes the ownership gets a little antsy. They tell you it’s a four-year plan; all of the sudden it’s a two-year plan and you’re on the outs,” Scott said. “But to me it wasn’t a question. Because my feelings for this organization, I was more than willing to say, OK, give me two years, three years, whatever the case may be, because I’m in it for the long haul.”
The Suns have assigned Reggie Bullock and Archie Goodwin to their D-League affiliate, the Bakersfield Jam, according to the team’s twitter feed. This will be Bullock’s second assignment and Goodwin’s fourth assignment on the season. Bullock scored 51 points during his earlier two-game stint, while Goodwin has averaged 21.1 points while shooting 45.2% from the field during his first three D-League assignments.
The Suns have also recalled Tyler Ennis and T.J. Warren from the Bakersfield Jam, according to the team’s website. During his two games for the Jam, Ennis averaged 14.5 points per game while shooting 38.7% from the field. Warren averaged 27.5 points and 9.0 rebounds per game during his two games in Bakersfield.

Arthur Hill contributed to this post.

Bucks Sign Jorge Gutierrez To Second 10-Day

February 7th, 2015 at 7:20pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Bucks have signed Jorge Gutierrez to a second 10-day contract, the team announced (Twitter link). Uncertainty over the length of Larry Sanders‘ suspension loomed as a potential stumbling block to a new deal for Milwaukee and Gutierrez, but it appears Sanders will remain on suspension for a while longer, allowing the Bucks to once more carry a 16th man. The point guard’s first 10-day pact expired at the end of Friday.

Gutierrez had been the team’s 16th player, an allowance the league grants when a team has a player on the suspended list, as is the case with Sanders, who served the 10th game of his suspension Friday. The NBA had set the minimum length of the center’s suspension at 10 games and stated that it would end once Sanders is in full compliance with the league’s anti-drug program, so evidently Sanders has not yet satisfied the requirements.

Kidd has given the 26-year-old Gutierrez a fair amount of playing time, including one start, and the second-year NBA veteran has put up 4.5 points, 1.5 assists and 1.0 turnover in 14.8 minutes per game over four appearances. He posted similar results in a 15-game stint with the Nets at the end of last season.

Milwaukee will have to either sign Gutierrez for the season or let him sit in free agency once his second 10-day contract with the team expires. He parlayed a pair of 10-day contracts with the Nets into a deal that carried into this season with salary that became partially guaranteed when he remained under contract for training camp, but the Sanders situation figures to again serve as a complication once the latest 10-day deal runs out. The Bucks have the option of terminating Gutierrez’s 10-day contract early if the NBA lifts Sanders’ suspension soon, though they’d still be on the hook for the full amount, likely $48,028, of Gutierrez’s short-term deal.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Wolves Sign Lorenzo Brown To Second 10-Day

February 6th, 2015 at 4:45pm CST by Chuck Myron

4:45pm: The deal is official, the team has announced.

8:00am: The Timberwolves and Lorenzo Brown have agreed upon a second 10-day deal, league sources tell Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). The point guard’s first 10-day expired at the end of Thursday. This will be the last 10-day deal Brown can sign with the Wolves, who’ll have to either sign him for the season or let him sit in free agency once the deal runs to term.

Minnesota is keeping Brown in spite of this week’s return of starting point guard Ricky Rubio. Backup Mo Williams, whom the team is rumored to be willing to trade, has a sore hip that has him listed as questionable for tonight’s game, but it nonetheless appears as though there isn’t as much call for Brown as there had been when the team signed him. Brown started and played all but five seconds of Minnesota’s game against the Cavs on Saturday, but he saw only a minute and a half of action the next time out, which was the game in which Rubio came back, and Brown didn’t play at all in the Wolves’ last game.

The Pistons were also reportedly interested in the 24-year-old Joel Bell client before the Wolves snapped him up. Minnesota is at 15 players with Brown on the roster, and the other 14 players are signed through the end of the season.

Sixers Sign Tim Frazier To 10-Day Contract

February 5th, 2015 at 1:50pm CST by Eddie Scarito

THURSDAY, 1:50pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release. The statement makes no reference to a corresponding move, so the team remains at 16 players, with Kirilenko’s presence of the suspended list giving the team the chance to carry one more than the 15-man limit.

WEDNESDAY, 10:40pm: The Sixers intend to sign Tim Frazier to a 10-day contract on Thursday, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). Philadelphia’s current roster count sits at 16 players, including the suspended Andrei Kirilenko. But Larry Drew II‘s second 10-day deal ends today, and with the team set to bring Frazier aboard, it doesn’t look like Drew will be signed by Philly for the remainder of the season, though that is just my speculation.

Frazier, a 24-year-old point guard, has been playing for the Maine Red Claws, the Celtics’ D-League affiliate. In 27 games, Frazier has averaged 15.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 8.9 assists in 35.8 minutes per contest. His slash line is .450/.271/.783.

Frazier went undrafted out of Penn State in 2014, and had worked out for both the Wolves and the Celtics this past summer. The 6’1″ guard attended training camp with Boston, but was waived a week after joining the team.

Magic Fire Jacque Vaughn

February 5th, 2015 at 12:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

12:01pm: The firing is official, the team announced via press release, confirming that Borrego is taking over on an interim basis. The statement doesn’t mention Unseld, Gunning and Guthrie, the assistants whom Schmitz reports (below) that the team has also decided to fire.

“Jacque has been a trusted friend and colleague,” Hennigan said in the statement. “We thank him immensely for his contributions and sacrifices in bringing our team to this point, and we greatly appreciate his unwavering commitment to our organization. We have tremendous respect for Jacque and certainly wish him the best as he embarks on the next phase of his career.”

11:33am: The Magic have fired coach Jacque Vaughn, as Brian K. Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel reports (Twitter link), though the club has yet to make an official announcement. A news conference is scheduled for this afternoon, Schmitz tweets. Assistant coach James Borrego is expected to take over on an interim basis, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Team officials by last week had made up their minds about firing Vaughn and were simply looking for the best time to do so, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports and Chris Broussard of ESPN.com reported then. That was shortly after Schmitz heard that the front office was “not at all happy” with the coach’s performance. Vaughn was on a deal that was to run through 2015/16 after the team picked up his option this past offseason.

Scott Skiles looms as a “serious candidate” to eventually take over as coach of the Magic, league sources tell Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Several executives around the league speculated that Skiles would become a favorite to formally succeed Vaughn, as Broussard reported last week, also identifying Mark Jackson among the “names to watch” in regard to the job. There’s a “real chance” that Orlando hires a replacement during the All-Star break later this month, Wojnarowski hears (Twitter link).

Vaughn, 39, was in the midst of his third season as coach of the Magic after having served a brief apprenticeship as an assistant coach with the Spurs. Orlando has shown only incremental improvement during each year of Vaughn’s tenure, starting with a league-worst 20-62 record in his first campaign, and the Magic are 15-37 this season, nine games in the loss column behind the final playoff position in the Eastern Conference. Vaughn’s career record is 58-158, giving him a winning percentage of .269, the second lowest for anyone who’s ever coached 200 or more regular season games, according to Basketball-Reference, as Schmitz and Sentinel colleague Josh Robbins point out in a full story.

GM Rob Hennigan didn’t give Robbins a direct answer when he asked Hennigan last month whether Vaughn’s job was safe through the end of the season. The GM did describe the coach’s performance as “solid,” but while the team believed a month or so ago that inexperience was at the root of its problems, the club had since become increasingly concerned not just that the team was losing, but how it was losing, Robbins wrote last week. The Magic put up a stiff challenge to the Spurs on Wednesday, but Orlando fell for the 10th consecutive game, the longest current losing streak in the NBA.

The Magic are also firing assistants Wes Unseld Jr., Brent Gunning and Zach Guthrie, Schmitz tweets. Borrego, their fellow assistant who instead receives the short-term promotion to the head job, spent time as an assistant with the Spurs and Pelicans before joining Vaughn’s staff for the 2012/13 season.

Skiles was last in the NBA during that same 2012/13 campaign, when he was fired as coach of the Bucks at midseason. The 50-year-old Skiles is 443-433 in parts of 13 seasons as an NBA head coach, with stops in Phoenix and Chicago preceding his stint with Milwaukee. Jackson, 49, the other name connected to the vacancy, was let go after a three-year run with the Warriors in which he helped turn the franchise around and led them to a 121-109 record.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.