Will Bynum Signs To Replace Mudiay In China
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
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, 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
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
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
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.
Lakers To Sign Earl Clark
SATURDAY, 9:42am: Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak has filed for a disabled player exception for Henry, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News tweets. Los Angeles has also filed for a hardship exception that would allow the team to temporarily add a 16th player until Kelly returns from his hamstring injury, Medina adds. This could indicate that the Lakers are holding off on signing Clark until they are granted that hardship exception, and Henry might not necessarily be waived to accommodate the addition of Clark, though that is just my speculation.
WEDNESDAY, 3:08pm: The Lakers will sign forward Earl Clark, Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times reports. The deal will be a one-year, fully guaranteed pact, notes Bresnahan, and Los Angeles is likely to waive the injured Xavier Henry in order to open up the required roster spot for Clark. Shams Charania of RealGM had first reported the likelihood of the Lakers adding Clark earlier today, and Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports had then relayed that Clark’s deal would be for a pro-rated portion of the veteran’s minimum and would be fully guaranteed. These moves will still leave the Lakers with the league-maximum 15 players on their roster.
Clark’s arrival cannot come soon enough for a Lakers team that has been besieged by a rash of maladies. Steve Nash and Julius Randle were already lost with season-ending injuries when Henry went down in practice Monday with a ruptured left Achilles tendon. Coupled with Ryan Kelly being out for at least another 4 weeks with a torn right hamstring, the Lakers were in dire need of frontcourt help, which Clark will be able to provide.
The 26-year-old Clark was averaging 28.8 points and 7.3 rebounds in 35.8 minutes per game in four appearances so far for the Rockets D-League affiliate this season. Houston briefly had him on its NBA roster after claiming his training camp deal off waivers from the Grizzlies, but the Rockets waived him before opening night. In 251 career NBA contests Clark has averaged 4.4 PPG and 3.0 RPG. His career slash line is .404/.331/.167.
If Henry is indeed waived, he’ll still receive the remainder of his $1.082MM fully guaranteed contract for 2014/15, Bresnahan adds. Henry is expected to recover in time for the start of 2015/16, and he was already set to become an unrestricted agent at the end of this season. It’s unclear how the injury will affect the market for his services next summer, but more than likely it will force Henry to accept a shorter deal than he would have desired in order to prove that he’s fully recovered from such a serious injury, though that is just my speculation.
Pacers Waive A.J. Price
The Pacers have waived A.J. Price, the team announced. The move is no surprise, since the team’s hardship provision for a 16th roster spot had expired, and with players on their way back from injury, the team apparently elected not to attempt to renew it. Price joined the team as its 16th player earlier this month, presumably on a non-guaranteed contract, though that detail was never confirmed. His release brings Indiana back to 15 players.
Price was a capable fill-in during his 10-game stint, averaging 10.5 points, 2.7 assists and 1.0 turnover in 19.3 minutes per contest. The 28-year-old opened the season on the Cavs roster, but Cleveland let him go within the first week of the regular season to sign Will Cherry instead. A Chinese team reportedly made an offer to Price, and he was just “days away” from signing it when the Pacers swooped in, writes Wheat Hotchkiss.com of Pacers.com. The Excel Sports Management client has acknowledged that he’s ready to play overseas, though he’d like to land another deal in the NBA and Pacers coach Frank Vogel has said that he’s deserving of an NBA roster spot somewhere.
The league gave the Pacers a pair of 10-day clearances to carry 16 players, since they met the criteria for such a provision, which required the team to have four players who were expected to miss time with injury after three had already sat out at least three games. Paul George is likely to miss the entire season, George Hill continues to be out indefinitely with a bruised left knee, but Vogel said today that David West will return to action tonight against the Magic, tweets Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. Roy Hibbert will miss the game with a sprained left ankle, Robbins also notes, but C.J. Watson will return, according to Autumn Allison of the Indianapolis Star (Twitter link). Still, the Pacers could have spared Price and selected another player to release to trim the roster to the conventional 15-man limit, as the Thunder did when they cut Sebastian Telfair rather 16th man Ish Smith when their hardship exception ran out.
Thunder Waive Sebastian Telfair, Keep Ish Smith
The Thunder have waived Sebastian Telfair, the team announced in a press release. With its hardship exception expiring, Oklahoma City needed to pare down its roster from 16 players to the league-maximum 15, and will instead keep Ish Smith, Royce Young of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). Smith was signed back on November 7th, and the team’s second 10-day window for a 16th roster spot under the injury hardship provision was set to expire Thursday, as Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman points out (Twitter link). The Thunder’s injured players have been working their way back, and among them are Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant, who could play Friday, as Mayberry notes in a full story.
Oklahoma City will be on the hook for the remainder of Telfair’s fully guaranteed salary of $915,243 for this season. In 15 appearances the 29-year-old guard averaged 8.6 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 2.9 assists while logging 20.9 minutes per game. With the rash of injuries in the league Telfair’s services are likely to be in demand. Minnesota is one team that could be interested in signing him, as the Wolves desperately need help at the point with Ricky Rubio out indefinitely, though that is just my speculation.
Apparently the Thunder believed that Smith was a better fit for the team after he averaged 2.2 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 0.8 assists in five appearances while averaging 6.4 minutes per game. His career numbers are 2.9 PPG and 2.0 APG. His career slash line is .390/.222/.585.
Al Harrington Leaves China Amid NBA Interest
China’s Fujian Sturgeons have signed DJ White to replace Al Harrington, who has opted out of his contract, the team announced (translation via Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). Harrington left the team to pursue “immediate NBA offers,” according to David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link), and the GM of the Sturgeons acknowledged that the NBA was a possibility for Harrington as he spoke to reporters, Carchia writes. Still, it’s unclear which NBA teams have interest in the 34-year-old power forward. Many former NBA players who sign to play in China are bound to their respective clubs for the abbreviated Chinese season, but the deal that Harrington inked in August contained an out clause, according to Evan Wang of Hupu.com (Twitter link). The terms of the deal for White aren’t immediately clear.
Harrington was in fine form in the early going this season for Fujian, averaging 32.8 points and 10.8 rebounds with 37.5% three-point shooting in 38.7 minutes per game. The 16-year NBA veteran said in August that he had drawn interest from some non-contending NBA teams but that he hoped to re-sign with the Wizards, the team he played for last season, when he returned from China. The Wizards have a full 15-man roster, but they have Glen Rice Jr. on a partially guaranteed deal, and Rasual Butler‘s contract is non-guaranteed. Nene, who plays Harrington’s position, is dealing with plantar fasciitis in right foot, as Todd Dybas of The Washington Times notes, though the team doesn’t expect the injury to keep him out for long. Harrington struggled to find playing time last year with the Wizards after spending most of 2012/13 recovering from the effects of a staph infection that he contracted while undergoing knee surgery in April 2012. The Dan Fegan client was a key cog for the Nuggets prior to the operation, averaging 14.2 PPG and 6.1 RPG in 27.5 MPG during the 2011/12 season.
White, whose one-month deal with Spain’s Laboral Kuxta expired a few weeks ago, had reportedly been looking for a chance to latch on with an NBA team, but he’ll instead return to China, where he spent much of the previous two seasons. He’s been able to parlay his Chinese stints into NBA work both years, joining the Celtics at the end of the 2012/13 season and the Hornets (then Bobcats) last spring.