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Jazz Sign Patrick Christopher

December 10th, 2014 at 1:13pm CST by Chuck Myron

1:13pm: The deal is official, the team announced. Utah didn’t cut anyone, so the roster is now at 15 players.

8:52am: The Jazz are set to bring aboard Grizzlies camp cut Patrick Christopher, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Utah has an open roster spot, so no corresponding move is required. It’s unclear just what sort of terms the shooting guard will see on his deal, or whether any salary will be guaranteed, but it’s likely a prorated minimum-salary arrangement, even though the Jazz have the capacity to give more.

Christopher, 26, has been with the Grizzlies’ D-League affiliate since shortly after Memphis waived his non-guaranteed NBA contract at the end of the preseason. It was the second straight year that Christopher had signed a deal for camp with an NBA team, though Chicago cut him on just the second day of camp in 2013 after having used his presence on the roster to facilitate the addition of others on Exhibit 9 contracts that limited the team’s liability in case of injury. He spent last season in the D-League, racking up 13.6 points in 33.5 minutes per game on sizzling 44.6% three-point shooting. Christopher has made only 39.0% of his attempts from behind the arc in a limited sample size of seven D-League games this year, but his scoring is up to 15.0 PPG in increased playing time of 36.4 MPG. He was a D-League All-Defensive Second Team selection last year, and before going undrafted in 2010, he was twice an All-Pac-10 First Team selection at the University of California.

The Jazz have only 12 fully guaranteed contracts on their roster. Toure’ Murry, who hasn’t played for Utah yet this season, has already earned more salary than his $250K partial guarantee, so he’s on a de facto non-guaranteed contract. It’s conceivable that the Jazz would let him go to sign Christopher and maintain an open roster spot, though there’s no indication that they’ll actually do so. Joe Ingles has a non-guaranteed pact, but he’s averaging 17.6 minutes per game as part of the Jazz’s rotation.

Will Cherry To Play In Lithuania

December 7th, 2014 at 2:00pm CST by Eddie Scarito

SUNDAY, 2:00pm: Zalgiris Kaunas confirmed the deal via Twitter.

FRIDAY, 4:55pm: Free agent Will Cherry is finalizing a deal to join the Lithuanian team Zalgiris Kaunas, David Pick of Eurobasket reports (Twitter link). Cherry was waived on November 30th by the Cavs in order to clear a roster spot so that Cleveland could claim A.J. Price off waivers. Gino Pilato of D-League Digest reported earlier today that Cherry was headed overseas rather than intending to rejoin the D-League.

Pick also tweets that the deal isn’t likely to be completed until Monday, which is when Cherry would clear D-League waivers, which he is expected to do. The point guard had signed a D-League deal with the affiliate of the Cavs shortly after the Raptors let him go at the end of the preseason and before Cleveland signed him for the big club in the first week of the regular season. The Cavs affiliate rescinded its rights to Cherry so that he wouldn’t have to pay a buyout to head overseas, according to Pilato (Twitter link).

The 6’1″, 23-year-old Cherry appeared in eight games for the Cavs this year, averaging 1.9 points and logging 8.6 minutes per night. Cherry had notched 12.8 PPG and 4.0 RPG while playing 25.3 minutes per contest in five games for the Cavs Summer League team in Las Vegas. He had also played for the Cavs’ D-League affiliate last season, when he provided 11.6 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and 4.5 APG in 30.4 MPG.

Pelicans Sign Gal Mekel

December 5th, 2014 at 5:28pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Pelicans have signed free agent Gal Mekel, the team announced in a press release. Roey Gladstone of Israeli Channel 5 TV was the first to report the news. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Gladstone tweets that it is a two-year deal which contains a team option for the second season, and Marc Stein of ESPN.com adds (Twitter link) that the contract is non-guaranteed. This signing will increase New Orleans’ roster count to the league-maximum 15 players.

New Orleans had one open roster spot available after waiving Patric Young and Darius Miller on Sunday and inking Dante Cunningham to a deal yesterday. Mekel will add depth at the point guard position behind Jrue Holiday.

The 26-year-old guard joined the Mavs in 2013 after putting up 13.3 points, 5.4 assists and 2.5 turnovers in 32.3 minutes per game during 2012/13 for Maccabi Haifa in his native Israel. He inked a fully guaranteed three-year contract for the minimum salary to come stateside, but Dallas instead chose to eat the salaries for the final two years to instead sign J.J. Barea shortly after opening night.

Sixers Sign Malcolm Lee, Waive Drew Gordon

December 5th, 2014 at 4:12pm CST by Chuck Myron

4:12pm: The signing of Lee is official, the Sixers announced in a press release. The team also confirmed that Gordon has been waived in the same announcement.

3:03pm: The Sixers are signing Malcolm Lee and waiving Drew Gordon to make room, reports Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). Pompey’s tweet indicates that the move has already taken place, though the team has yet to make an official announcement. Philadelphia wanted to add a point guard with both Tony Wroten and Alexey Shved out with injuries for tonight’s game against Oklahoma City, Pompey adds (on Twitter). Gordon signed a four-year non-guaranteed deal for the minimum salary nearly a month ago, while Lee returns to the team after having spent the preseason with Philadelphia.

Lee, a two-year NBA veteran, has been playing with the Sixers D-League affiliate since Philly kept his D-League rights when it waived him in October. The 24-year-old was averaging just 6.0 points, 4.0 assists and 2.0 turnovers in 22.5 minutes per game in four D-League appearances this season. His production in the minor league is relatively similar to the numbers he put up in 35 NBA games over two seasons with the Timberwolves, for whom he averaged 4.0 PPG, 1.4 APG, 0.8 TPG in 15.2 MPG.

Gordon has been in his second stint with the Sixers, who brought him to camp and originally released him at the same time they made identical moves with Lee. The power forward, who’s also 24 years old, saw little playing time in nine games with Philadelphia over the past few weeks, putting up 1.9 PPG and 2.0 rebounds per game in 7.9 MPG. He’s the brother of Magic rookie Aaron Gordon, this year’s No. 4 overall pick.

The Sixers will continue to carry 15 players in the wake of this move, though only eight have full guarantees and two more have partially guaranteed pacts. Philadelphia also appears to be close to adding draft-and-stash prospect Furkan Aldemir, a 6’9″ rebounding ace who plays Gordon’s position of power forward.

Will Bynum Signs To Replace Mudiay In China

December 5th, 2014 at 8:32am CST by Chuck Myron

Will Bynum has officially signed with China’s Guangdong Southern Tigers, the team announced (translation via Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, via Twitter). The guaranteed deal is worth more than $1MM, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports wrote overnight. Bynum will replace marquee draft prospect Emmanuel Mudiay while he recovers from his sprained ankle, initially on a temporary basis, and the team will decide later whether to make the move permanent based on how the ankle responds and the way Bynum plays, Givony notes (Twitter link). Wojnarowski first reported the sides were nearing a deal late Thursday.

Mudiay’s timetable for recovery is three to four weeks, according to the club, and with 13 games this month, Guangdong wants to have a capable replacement, while Mudiay wants to take a cautious approach, as Givony explains (Twitter links). Mudiay hasn’t been making as much progress as Guangdong would have liked with the injury, which has kept him out since November 24th, and there was some disagreement over his recovery timetable, according to Givony (on Twitter). The 18-year-old played 10 games before the injury, averaging 17.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.9 assists, and NBA executives told Wojnarowski that his performance helped his draft stock. Mudiay, who abruptly scuttled plans to play for Southern Methodist University this season to sign a one-year deal worth $1.2MM with Guangdong this past summer, is No. 2 in the prospect rankings of both Givony and Chad Ford of ESPN.com. The Spurs and Suns were among several teams to scout Mudiay early in the season, but the ankle injury kept others from traveling to observe the 6’5″ point guard, Wojnarowski writes.

Bynum, a Mark Bartelstein client, is landing an attractive overseas deal after the Celtics waived his guaranteed contract, worth nearly $2.916MM, in a crunch for roster space shortly after acquiring him from the Pistons in a preseason trade. The Chinese deal should allow Boston to recoup a small portion of that amount through set-off rights, though that amount wouldn’t be nearly as much as what Bynum’s new contract gives him. The seven-year NBA veteran will presumably be eligible to return stateside for the stretch run of the regular season, if not sooner.

Pelicans Sign Dante Cunningham

December 4th, 2014 at 12:20pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Pelicans have signed Dante Cunningham, the team announced via press release. The team reportedly worked him out this past weekend and had been doing their “due diligence” to investigate domestic assault charges against Cunningham that were dropped over the summer, as Jimmy Smith of the The Times-Picayune wrote earlier this week. The NBA is unlikely to punish Cunningham, a league spokesman tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The NBA recently took a tough stand against domestic violence with a 24-game suspension for Jeff Taylor, but Taylor had pleaded guilty to the charges against him. Cunningham is getting a one-year deal for the minimum, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com hears (Twitter links), though it’s unclear if there’s any guaranteed salary involved.

Agent Joel Bell told Jon Krawczynski of the Associated Press this fall that he estimated that Cunningham would have received annual salaries of more than $4MM had it not been for the charges. That figure was debatable, but it was surprising that, according to Bell, Cunningham hadn’t received so much as a minimum-salary offer as of October. It demonstrated the chilling effect that the NFL’s much-criticized handling of domestic violence among its players had on the NBA market, even for Cunningham, whose charges were dropped in August.

The now 27-year-old Cunningham pulled down a career-high 5.1 rebounds per game and came close to a career mark with 8.7 points per contest last season for the Wolves, who were reportedly in talks with him about a new deal shortly after the charges against him were dropped. Still, it seemed even at that point that the Timberwolves were a long shot to re-sign him, since Minnesota’s roster was already full. The Wolves added power forward Jeff Adrien instead last week when the league granted them an extra roster spot.

The Pelicans made space on their roster Sunday, when they let go of Patric Young and Darius Miller. The addition of Cunningham, who’ll begin his sixth year in the NBA, still leaves one open roster spot for New Orleans, which has reportedly been aggressive in its pursuit of trades lately.

Sixers, Furkan Aldemir Agree To Four-Year Deal?

December 1st, 2014 at 2:50pm CST by Chuck Myron

DECEMBER 1ST, 2:50pm: Galatasaray has agreed to let go of Aldemir, Raznatovic tweets (hat tip to Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi), adding that his client is set to come stateside as early as Tuesday. Raznatovic also makes reference to a signed document, presumably referring to the FIBA letter of clearance.

NOVEMBER 30TH, 3:00pm: Despite his Turkish club’s insistence on keeping him, Aldemir remains committed to the NBA and will travel to Philadelphia within the next week, a source tells Shams Charania of RealGM (via Twitter).

NOVEMBER 28TH, 7:52am: A source told Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News that the sides are perhaps weeks away from reaching any sort of agreement. That’s an odd development, considering all of the details that have been reported so far. Perhaps the source was referring to the time at which an official signing might take place, but that’s just my speculation. In any case, Cooney’s latest report jibes with the lack of clarity that Brown pointed to earlier this week.

TUESDAY, 8:09am: There is a team option on the deal in addition to the non-guaranteed salary involved, according to John Gonzalez of CSNPhilly.com. The deal is pending FIBA clearance, and while it’s expected to become official within the next few days, there’s a decent chance it takes as long as a week, Gonzalez writes. In any case, the NBA has filed a request for a FIBA letter of clearance, Raznatovic tweets (hat tip to Mark Porcaro of Secret Rival). The letter of clearance is a standard document that must be obtained whenever a player moves from a league in one country to another.

MONDAY, 6:14pm: Sixers coach Brett Brown cautioned that the team’s situation with Aldemir isn’t as clear-cut as the reports have made it seem, tweets Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News.

4:16pm: The final two seasons of the deal are non-guaranteed, according to Tom Moore of Calkins Media (on Twitter).

1:26pm: The Sixers and draft-and-stash prospect Furkan Aldemir have agreed to a four-year deal that features two guaranteed seasons, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Wojnarowski adds that the final two seasons are team options, but since only one year may be an option season, it sounds like it’ll be non-guaranteed for at least year three. It’s possible that year four is both a team option and non-guaranteed. Misko Raznatovic, the agent for the 6’9″ power forward, told Cem Pelister of CNNTurk.com that his client had terminated his contract with Turkey’s Galatasaray and the 6’9″ power forward wrote on his Facebook page that he had opted to explore a future in the NBA, as we noted earlier. The Sixers, who obtained the NBA rights to Aldemir in the 2013 Royce White trade with the Rockets, must unload one of their 15 players before their deal with Aldemir can become official.

Aldemir does his best work on the boards, as evidenced by his 9.1 rebounds in 22.7 minutes per game in 11 contests so far this season for Galatasaray, which was reportedly behind on payments in the three-year, $5.3MM deal that Aldemir had signed in the offseason. The 23-year-old has played exclusively overseas since entering the draft in 2012, when the Clippers made him the 53rd overall pick before sending him to the Rockets the next day.

The deal marks one of the first attempts that Philadelphia has made to cash in on its store of overseas talent that includes the rights to No. 12 overall pick Dario Saric and two other 2014 draftees. The Sixers have plenty of cap room to have lavished Aldemir with more than the minimum salary, but it seems unlikely that it took a significant chunk of money to lure him, particularly given Philly’s willingness to guarantee the first two seasons of the deal. The Sixers have been carrying only eight players known to have fully guaranteed salary for this season, one in which they’ve lost their first 13 games in the midst of a radical rebuilding project.

Cavs Claim A.J. Price, Waive Will Cherry

November 30th, 2014 at 6:14pm CST by Zachary Links

6:14pm: The Cavs made it official with a press release.

4:32pm: This time, it’s Price displacing Cherry from the Cavs’ roster. The Cavs have waived Cherry, according to Chris B. Haynes of Cleveland.com (via Twitter).

Cherry, 24 in February, appeared in eight games and played a total of 69 minutes for the Cavs this season. In that limited time, he averaged 1.9 PPG and 1.0 APG. Cherry signed a two-year, non-guaranteed deal for the minimum salary with Cleveland just weeks ago.

The guard averaged 12.8 PPG and 4.0 RPG while logging 25.3 minutes per contest in five games for the Cavs Summer League team in Las Vegas. Cherry also played for the Cavs’ D-League affiliate last season, when he provided 11.6 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and 4.5 APG in 30.4 MPG.

4:27pm: The Cavs have claimed A.J. Price off waivers, a league source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter). The guard was let go by the Pacers last week.

It’s a return to Cleveland for Price, who opened the season on the Cavs roster only to be let go within the first week of the regular season in favor of Will Cherry. The 28-year-old performed well in his brief 10-game stint with the Pacers, averaging 10.5 points, 2.7 assists and 1.0 turnover in 19.3 minutes per contest.

Even though Price played well, someone had to go in Indiana as the team’s hardship provision for a 16th roster spot had expired. Pacers coach Frank Vogel was complimentary of Price and said that he’s deserving of an NBA roster spot somewhere. The Excel Sports Management client has acknowledged that going overseas could be a possibility for him, but he’s undoubtedly happy to stay in the Association.

Pelicans Waive Darius Miller, Patric Young

November 30th, 2014 at 4:50pm CST by Zachary Links

4:50pm: The Pelicans are being aggressive in trade talks around the league and Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links) wouldn’t be surprised if there is a forthcoming move after New Orleans freed two roster spots. He adds that many around the league expect a move to happen.

4:18pm: The Pelicans announced that they have waived Darius Miller and Patric Young. Both players were on minimum salary deals with only partial guarantees on the first season.

Miller, a 2012 draft pick of New Orleans, was not extended his $1.15MM qualifying offer in June. However, in July, the Pelicans worked out a deal could pay him as much as $1.897MM over two years. The first year of the deal was only guaranteed for $400K, however, while the second year was completely non-guaranteed. Miller averaged 3.3 points in 14.6 minutes per contest over his first two seasons in New Orleans but he has played sparingly in year three. So far this season, the small forward has seen just 43 minutes of action across five games.

Young, a former Florida standout, went undrafted in 2014 before hooking on with the Pelicans in July. In four seasons with the Gators, the big man averaged 8.7 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 1.1 BPG while playing 24.3 minutes per contest.

With today’s moves, New Orleans’ roster now stands at 13.

Wolves Sign Jeff Adrien

November 29th, 2014 at 3:33pm CST by Eddie Scarito

3:33pm: The signing is official, the team announced.

2:36pm: The Timberwolves have signed free agent forward Jeff Adrien, Shams Charania of RealGM reports. Minnesota is inking Adrien using a hardship exception, notes Charania. It had previously been reported that Minnesota president Flip Saunders was considering filing for the hardship exception, and if Adrien is being brought on board, then it’s likely the team has received approval from the league to temporarily add a 16th player to its roster. Terms of the deal were not released, but it is most likely a minimum-salary arrangement.

Minnesota has lost the services of Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin, Nikola Pekovic, and Ronny Turiaf to injuries. Martin is out six to eight weeks after having wrist surgery, and Rubio isn’t likely to return until January at the earliest after injuring his ankle. Both Pekovic and Turiaf will both be reevaluated next week.

The 28-year-old Adrien has appeared in 136 career games, averaging 4.8 points and 4.3 rebounds per contest. He was in training camp with the Rockets this year prior to being waived, after appearing in 25 games for the Hornets last season.