Wolves Cut Raduljica, Sign Lorenzo Brown
4:36pm: The Wolves have released Raduljica, the team has announced.
WEDNESDAY, 4:02pm: The Wolves have officially signed Brown to a 10-day deal, the team has announced (Twitter link). No official announcement has been made regarding Raduljica being released yet. Unless the Wolves have released Raduljica without making a formal announcement, it seems there’s more to the story, since the team wouldn’t have room on its roster unless the league granted an extra roster spot via hardship
TUESDAY, 11:13am: The Wolves are ending their 10-day contract with Miroslav Raduljica early to clear the way for the team to sign Lorenzo Brown, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). Brown has indeed committed to ink with Minnesota in spite of interest from the Pistons as well as the Heat, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter links). The team has been planning to sign Brown to a 10-day deal, likely in advance of the team’s game on Wednesday, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Raduljica’s deal isn’t up until the end of Wednesday, but it appears Minnesota will eat the last day or two of his 10-day deal, worth $48,028, to have Brown in place.
Brown rejoins the club that drafted him 52nd overall out of N.C. State in 2013. The Wolves brought him to training camp that year, but they cut him before opening night. The combo guard hooked on with the Sixers, but he saw just 8.6 minutes per game across 26 appearances for Philadelphia, which waived him in March. He’d been averaging 16.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 31.8 MPG for Detroit’s D-League affiliate this season after the Pistons had him on their NBA roster for the preseason.
Raduljica won’t go on waivers and will simply become a free agent immediately when the team makes the move, as is the case when clubs terminate 10-day pacts. He’s seen just 4.6 minutes per game in five appearances on a pair of 10-day contracts with Minnesota. Raduljica occupies the final roster spot for the Wolves, who have 14 other players signed for the balance of the season, so his deal is the easiest for coach/executive Flip Saunders to let go.
Jazz Sign Chris Johnson To 10-Day Contract
WEDNESDAY, 11:17am: The deal is official, the team announced.
TUESDAY, 2:04pm: The Jazz are setting up a 10-day contract for swingman Chris Johnson, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The former member of the Grizzlies, Celtics and Sixers is not to be confused with the three-year NBA veteran center by the same name who recently signed to play in Turkey. The Chris Johnson who’s apparently headed to Utah would fill the roster spot vacated when the team’s second 10-day deal with Elliot Williams expired Monday night, so there won’t be a need for a corresponding move. Utah isn’t planning another deal for Williams, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported late Monday (on Twitter).
Johnson has been playing with the D-League affiliate of the Rockets since December, not long after the Sixers waived him the previous month. He spent the preseason with the Celtics, who released him before opening night, but Philly claimed him off waivers and kept him for a little more than two weeks. The 24-year-old averaged 20.8 minutes per game during his brief time in Philly, so it was surprising to see the Sixers let him go. He put up 6.3 points per game in 19.7 MPG across a career-high 40 appearances for Boston last season.
The Jazz are in need of help on the wing, with Alec Burks expected to miss the rest of the season and Rodney Hood out until at least the All-Star break. Rookie Joe Ingles, who’s on a minimum-salary deal, has started the past 12 games.
Knicks Re-Sign Langston Galloway
1:40pm: The deal is official, the team announced (Twitter link).
11:43pm: The money is partially guaranteed for next season, Berman now says (on Twitter).
11:40am: The sides have agreed to a deal that covers this season and next with full guarantees, Berman reports (on Twitter). Begley corroborates that the deal is indeed done (Twitter link). It’ll be for the minimum salary, since that’s all the Knicks can hand out.
11:17am: The deal isn’t done yet, but it should be soon, league sources tell Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com (Twitter link).
10:33am: The Knicks have reached a deal to re-sign Langston Galloway, reports Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv (Twitter link). It’ll cover at least the rest of the season, since Galloway has already played through a pair of 10-day contracts with the team, and the sides were reportedly negotiating about additional years as part of his new deal. The Knicks were hesitant to give the combo guard the guaranteed salary for next season that he was seeking, as Marc Berman of the New York Post reported Monday, but the terms of the deal they’ve apparently struck aren’t immediately clear.
Other teams were poised to jump in if the Knicks couldn’t secure the undrafted 23-year-old out of St. Joseph’s, according to Shams Charania of RealGM, an indication of the strong impression he made while with New York on his pair of 10-day contracts, the last of which expired after Monday. Galloway averaged 12.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 28.0 minutes per game over eight appearances for the Knicks, and he started half of those games. He was with the Knicks during the preseason and played for New York’s D-League affiliate prior to his first 10-day deal.
The Michael Siegel client is set to become the 13th player signed through the end of the season on New York’s roster. The Knicks are also carrying Lou Amundson and Lance Thomas on their second 10-day contracts with the club. Amundson’s deal expires at the end of Thursday, and Thomas’ comes up on Friday.
Sixers Sign Larry Drew II To Second 10-Day Pact
The Sixers have signed Larry Drew II to his second 10-day contract with the team, Philadelphia announced via press release. His initial 10-day deal expired at the end of Sunday. This will be the final 10-day arrangement this season between the Sixers and the point guard, who’ll have to decide whether to ink a deal for the rest of the season or part ways when his latest contract runs out.
Drew has seen fairly heavy use during his time with the Sixers, appearing in six contests for an average of 18.7 minutes per game. He’s putting up 4.7 points and 4.3 assists per night, his solid ball-distribution representative of his time for the Heat’s D-League affiliate earlier this season. The ASM Sports client set a D-League record for assists in a single game with 23 on Christmas Day.
The 24-year-old Drew will continue to help bolster a Sixers team that’s lost backup point guard Tony Wroten to a torn ACL. Drew’s new contract puts Philadelphia back up at 16 players, one more than the standard 15-man limit. Andrei Kirilenko‘s presence on the suspended list gives the team the extra roster spot.
Jazz Sign Elijah Millsap To Three-Year Deal
SUNDAY: The Jazz have officially signed Millsap, the team announced.
SATURDAY: The Jazz and Elijah Millsap have agreed to a three-year deal, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (on Twitter). While Charania doesn’t disclose financial details, he does add that the final two years of the deal are team options, although that might simply mean they’re non-guaranteed. Utah has about $4.8MM in cap space.
Millsap’s second 10-day contract with the Jazz was set to expire at day’s end tomorrow, and in order for Utah to keep the Hazan Sports Management client around, they needed to come to terms on a deal that covered at least the rest of this season since teams can only hand out two 10-day pacts per player each season. Clearly, Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey was impressed with Millsap’s performance this year, so much so that he’s extended him a multi-year offer.
Utah’s roster will stand at the league-maximum 15 players once Millsap signs his contract, but Elliot Williams is with the club on a 10-day contract set to expire January 27th. Millsap, the younger brother of Paul Millsap, spoke with Hoops Rumors’ Zach Links prior to the start of the 2014/15 season. The 27-year-old swingman went undrafted out of the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2010 and has spent the last four seasons prior to 2014/15 in the D-League.
Clippers Re-Sign Dahntay Jones
SATURDAY, 2:35pm: The Clippers have signed Jones to a second 10-day contract, the team has announced.
FRIDAY, 8:26am: The Clippers will re-sign Dahntay Jones to another 10-day contract after his first one expires at the end of today, coach/executive Doc Rivers told reporters last night, including Dan Woike of the Orange County Register and Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter links). It’s the last 10-day contract the Mark Bartelstein client is eligible to sign this year with the Clippers, who must decide whether to keep him for the rest of the season or leave him in free agency once the deal is up.
The 11th-year veteran has seen his first regular season NBA action since the 2012/13 season while on his initial 10-day contract with the Clips, though the swingman’s playing time has been sparce. He’s scored four points in 23 minutes total across four appearances, but it seems the Clippers are content to keep the 34-year-old around, with chemistry a key factor, as Jill Painter Lopez of Fox Sports West details. He was averaging 14.4 points in 29.3 minutes per game for the D-League Fort Wayne Mad Ants this season after the Jazz cut him prior to opening night.
Jones occupies the 13th spot on the Clippers roster. Teams can drop down to 12 players for two weeks at a time, but they’re otherwise obligated to carry at least 13 men. Jordan Farmar‘s buyout left the Clippers a little more than $1.638MM shy of their hard cap, enough to sign multiple players to prorated minimum-salary contracts that cover the rest of the season. However, Rivers has said he expects to sign a pair of veterans next month, so it appears he’d like to maintain flexibility for the time being. Whether or not that means Jones will stick around once his second 10-day contract is up remains to be seen.
Pelicans Sign Wolters To Second 10-Day Deal
SATURDAY, 11:12am: The signing is official, the Pelicans have announced via a press release.
8:58pm: Karnes has confirmed the deal via his Twitter account.
THURSDAY, 8:52pm: The Pelicans are expected to sign guard Nate Wolters to a second 10-day contract, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The first is set to expire at the end of Friday. New Orleans will have to decide whether to keep the 23-year-old for the rest of the season at the end of his next 10 days with the team, since clubs can only sign any one player to two 10-day contracts in a single season.
Wolters has seen fewer minutes per game for the Pelicans than he did with the Bucks before they released him to sign Kenyon Martin instead, but that figures to change with New Orleans starting point guard Jrue Holiday sidelined for two to four weeks. The Pelicans have given Wolters 10.5 MPG, but the Jared Karnes client started 31 games as a rookie last season for Milwaukee.
A need at the point guard position has cropped up for the Bucks since they let Wolters go, as Kendall Marshall tore his ACL last week, knocking him out for the season. Still, Milwaukee apparently intends to keep Martin around as its 15th man, as the Bucks have reportedly agreed to a deal for the rest of the season with him, even though his second 10-day contract just began on Monday. Wolters has been occupying the 14th spot on the New Orleans roster, so the Pelicans remain flexible.
Celtics Sign Andre Dawkins To 10-Day Deal
FRIDAY, 11:47am: The deal is official, the team announced, adding that it has assigned Dawkins to the D-League.
WEDNESDAY, 10:44am: The Celtics and Andre Dawkins have reached agreement on a deal for a 10-day contract, reports Shams Charania of RealGM. Boston has an open roster spot, so no corresponding move would be necessary. The signing is expected to take place Thursday, according to Charania, though Dawkins is likely to spend most if not all of those 10 days on D-League assignment, as A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com reported Tuesday. In any case, it’s no surprise the sides have struck a deal, since the C’s had been planning to bring Dawkins to Boston this week to meet with him as they considered inking him to a 10-day contract, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported Monday.
The 23-year-old joined Miami’s D-League team just last week shortly after the Heat waived him from the NBA roster rather than guarantee his rookie minimum salary for the season. He’s impressed in 11 appearances with the Sioux Falls Skyforce both at this past weekend’s D-League showcase and while on D-League assignment from the Heat, knocking down 53 of 104 three-point attempts to solidify his reputation as a premier outside shooter. The former Duke Blue Devil went undrafted this summer, but he joined the Rockets and Heat for summer league and made Miami’s opening-night roster out of training camp.
The Heat were reportedly interested in bringing back the John Spencer client on a 10-day contract at some point this season, but now it appears they’ll have to wait to see how it turns out for Dawkins with Boston. The Celtics will look to re-sign him to a second 10-day contract if his first one goes well, and he’d spend more time with the NBA team rather than their D-League affiliate on his second 10-day, as Blakely writes in a full story.
Grizzlies Sign Tyrus Thomas To 10-Day Deal
THURSDAY, 3:37pm: The Grizzlies have officially inked Thomas to a 10-day contract, the team has announced in a press release.
WEDNESDAY, 2:49pm: Memphis is expected to sign Thomas to his 10-day deal on Thursday, GM Chris Wallace confirms to Ronald Tillery of the Commercial Appeal, who writes in a subscription-only piece.
TUESDAY, 3:59pm: The Grizzlies are signing Tyrus Thomas to a 10-day contract, reports Chris Broussard of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Broussard indicates that the former No. 4 overall pick has already put pen to paper, though the team has yet to make any announcement. Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reported earlier that the sides were talking about such a deal, which will be the first for Thomas since Charlotte waived him using the amnesty clause in the summer of 2013.
Thomas had joined Memphis’ D-League affiliate, the Iowa Energy, last week, in an effort to showcase his talents for NBA teams. This move obviously worked, with Thomas averaging 14.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks in two appearances for the Energy. Memphis had an open roster spot, so no additional move will be required to bring Thomas aboard.
In 400 career NBA games, Thomas has averaged 7.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks. His career slash line is .438/.235/.732.
Knicks Re-Sign Lou Amundson, Lance Thomas
WEDNESDAY, 8:43am: The Knicks have indeed signed Thomas to another 10-day contract, too, the team announced (on Twitter).
TUESDAY, 1:07pm: The deal with Amundson is official, the Knicks announced (Twitter link), though the team has yet to make announcement regarding Thomas.
MONDAY, 8:32pm: Lou Amundson and Lance Thomas have both reached agreements on second 10-day contracts with the Knicks, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). Amundson has played in just one game for New York, scoring six points and grabbing six rebounds. Thomas has also played one game, registering seven points and four boards.
Amundson and Thomas both joined the Knicks in a three-team deal on January 5th involving the Cavaliers and Thunder. Both players were waived by New York on January 7th, but signed 10-day contracts three days later.
This is Amundson’s ninth season in the NBA and his 10th NBA team. He has averaged 3.5 points and 3.5 rebounds during his time in the league. Thomas spent three seasons in New Orleans with the Hornets and Pelicans, and signed with the Thunder in September. His career averages are 3.4 points and 2.5 rebounds per game.