Blazers Waive Diante Garrett, Darius Morris
The Blazers have officially waived Diante Garrett and Darius Morris, the team announced via Twitter. These moves reduce Portland’s preseason roster count to 15, meaning they won’t be required to release any other players prior to the regular season beginning. Morris’ contract didn’t come with any guaranteed cash, but the team will owe Garrett $30K per their arrangement.
Garrett was on the fringe of the rotation for the Jazz last season, averaging 3.5 points and shooting 37.5% from three-point range in 14.8 minutes per game. That was after a season in which he spent the entire campaign on the Suns roster but only appeared in 19 contests.
The 23-year-old Morris reportedly turned down an offer from a Serbian team earlier this summer and took his shot at making the Blazers squad. In 94 career contests, the 6’4″ point guard has averaged 3.7 PPG and 1.5 APG. His career slash line is .399/.354/.653.
Nets Waive Casper Ware
The Nets have officially waived Casper Ware, the team has announced. Brooklyn had acquired Ware yesterday in the deal that sent Marquis Teague to the Sixers. Ware’s contract was non-guaranteed so the move won’t cost the team any cash. This also reduces the Nets’ preseason roster count to 15, which is the regular season maximum.
The 24-year-old Ware was playing in Italy last season before he signed a pair of 10-day contracts with the Sixers, who then signed him to a low-risk multiyear deal. The Nets never figured to keep Ware, and he was acquired strictly as a means to remove Teague’s fully guaranteed deal from their books.
In nine career games, all with the Sixers, Ware has averaged 5.3 PPG, 1.0 RPG, and 1.1 APG. His slash line is .429/.333/.833.
Raptors Waive Will Cherry, Jordan Hamilton
The Raptors have officially waived Will Cherry and Jordan Hamilton, the team announced (Twitter link). These moves reduce Toronto’s preseason roster count to 15 players, which is the league’s regular season limit. Both players had their deals partially guaranteed for $25K, so the Raptors are on the hook for a total of $50K as a result. Presumably, that means Greg Stiemsma has made the opening-night roster on his $25K partially guaranteed deal.
The 6’1″, 23-year-old Cherry 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.
Hamilton is a player who is sure to garner interest from other NBA teams looking for some help on the wing. The 24-year-old out of Texas for his career has appeared in 126 games, averaging 5.8 PPG, 2.8 RPG, and 0.8 APG. His slash line is .406/.358/.671.
Knicks To Pick Up Option On Shane Larkin?
OCTOBER 25TH, 10:51am: The Knicks may have changed their minds about exercising Larkin’s option, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). New York might be leaning towards keeping as much cap space free as possible for next summer, Wojnarowski notes.
11:00pm: The Knicks have indeed exercised their team option on Larkin, as is indicated by the RealGM transactions log. The team has not made any formal announcement as of yet.
OCTOBER 16TH, 10:03am: The Knicks have decided to exercise their team option to keep point guard Shane Larkin on his rookie scale contract for 2015/16, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Larkin will make $1,675,320 that season, the third of his four-year contract, as our Rookie Scale Team Option Tracker shows. The deadline is October 31st for the team to make the move official.
The Mavs sent Larkin to New York as part of the Tyson Chandler trade this summer. The 18th pick in the 2013 draft didn’t see much playing time as a rookie, averaging 2.8 points and 1.5 assists in 10.2 minutes per game. He’s seen nearly twice as many minutes in preseason games with the Knicks, averaging 20.9, but he’s still put up just 2.5 PPG and 1.5 APG. Phil Jackson and his staff are nonetheless satisfied with what they’ve seen from him the past few weeks, Wojnarowski writes.
Jackson is trying to keep the team’s cap sheet as clean as possible for 2015/16 as he plans a run at marquee free agents. The Knicks only have about $31.4MM in commitments for that season, so adding Larkin’s salary to that wouldn’t make much of a dent against a projected $66.5MM salary cap. Still, that figure doesn’t include a nearly $6.4MM player option that J.R. Smith possesses and more than $1.4MM in non-guaranteed salary for Pablo Prigioni. It also leaves out the team option on Tim Hardaway Jr., worth more than $1.3MM, that the Knicks will almost assuredly pick up. Iman Shumpert is up for a rookie scale extension this month, but it doesn’t appear as though the sides will come to terms.
Jazz Opt In With Trey Burke, Rudy Gobert
The Jazz have exercised their third year team options for Trey Burke and Rudy Gobert, the team has officially announced. This doesn’t come as a surprise since both players factor into Utah’s longterm rebuilding plans. Burke is set to make $2,658,240 and Gobert $1,175,880 during the 2015/16 season. By exercising these options the Jazz now have approximately $47.6MM in guaranteed money on the books for that campaign.
Burke is continuing to develop after being selected in 2013 with the ninth overall pick. During his rookie season he appeared in 70 games, including 68 as a starter, averaging 12.8 PPG, 3.0 RPG, and 5.7 APG. His slash line was .380/.330/.903. The pressure is on Burke to improve his outside shooting and cut down on his 1.9 turnovers per game. Utah drafted Dante Exum with the No. 4 pick in this year’s NBA Draft, and Exum projects more as a point guard at this stage of development.
The 7’1″ Gobert was also part of the 2013 draft class, being selected 27th overall. During his rookie campaign, Gobert appeared in 45 games, averaging 2.3 PPG and 3.4 RPG, while logging 9.6 minutes a night.
Warriors Waive Five Players
The Warriors have waived Aaron Craft, Jason Kapono, Sean Kilpatrick, James Michael McAdoo, and Mitchell Watt, the team announced in a press release. These moves will reduce Golden State’s preseason roster count to 15, which is the regular season maximum. None of these moves come as a surprise as all were longshots to make the regular season roster. All of the players except for Kapono had partial guarantees for $35K. Kapono’s deal was non-guaranteed, so the Warriors aren’t on the hook for any money for him.
Craft averaged 8.9 PPG and 4.7 APG during his four seasons at Ohio State. He put up 7.4 points in 22.0 minutes per contest in July during Las Vegas summer league play for the Warriors after going undrafted in June. The 22-year-old also joined the Sixers for the Orlando summer league, though he didn’t see nearly as much playing time. Craft appeared in four preseason games, averaging 3.0 points, 2.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.00 steal in 14.7 minutes per contest.
The veteran Kapono appeared in five preseason games, averaging 3.2 and 1.6 rebounds in 8.7 minutes per game. The 6’8″, 33 year-old swingman last played in the NBA during the 2011/12 season when he appeared in 27 games for the Lakers. Kapono’s career numbers over nine seasons are 6.7 PPG, 1.7 RPG, and 0.8 APG. His career slash line is .442/.434/.835. He had officially announced his retirement back in May of this year, but decided to give making the Warriors a shot.
The undrafted Kilpatrick signed with the Warriors on October 20th but did not see any action in the preseason. McAdoo appeared in five preseason games, averaging 5.6 PPG, 3.6 RPG and 1.2 SPG in 13.0 minutes per contest. Watt appeared in two preseason games, averaging 3.5 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists and a team-leading 1.5 blocks while logging 9.5 minutes per game.
Spurs Sign Robert Vaden, Fuquan Edwin
The Spurs have signed Robert Vaden and Fuquan Edwin, the team has announced. The length and terms of the deals were not disclosed, but they’re likely minimum-salary arrangements with perhaps small partial guarantees. These moves bring San Antonio’s preseason roster count up to 18 players, leaving the team three over the regular season maximum. Both players were likely signed with an eye on sending them to the D-League, as teams can retain the D-League rights for up to four players.
The 6’5″ Vaden technically has one year of NBA experience, even though he’s never appeared in a regular season or playoff game. The Thunder signed him to a multiyear deal in the final days of the 2010/11 season and traded him the following preseason to the Timberwolves, who cut him before opening night. He was most recently with Belfius Mons-Hainaut in Belgium where he appeared in 10 games, logging 9.0 PPG and 1.6 RPG in 27 minutes per night. Vaden was originally drafted with the No. 54 pick in the 2009 NBA draft by the Hornets (then known as the Bobcats). In four college seasons split between Indiana and UAB, Vaden averaged 15.8 PPG and 4.6 RPG. He also spent two seasons in the NBA D-League for the Tulsa 66ers, averaging 11.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game.
Edwin went undrafted this year after spending four seasons at Seton Hall. In 127 career games for the Pirates, he averaged 12.9 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and 1.4 APG while playing 30.3 minutes a night. Edwin played for the Thunder in the summer league, appearing in three games, and notching 1.3 PPG in 7.5 minutes per night.
Pelicans Opt In With Davis, To Decline Rivers
The Pelicans have exercised their fourth year team option for Anthony Davis, the team has announced. However, the team will not exercise its third-year option for guard Austin Rivers, Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune reports (Twitter links). According to Smith, the team likes Rivers as a player, but the Pelicans are declining the option because of potential salary cap implications down the line.
Davis’ salary for 2015/16 is set to be $7,070,730, and that increases New Orleans’ salary commitments to $36.9MM for that season, though that figure doesn’t include Eric Gordon‘s $15.5MM player option. Rivers’ salary would have added another $3,110,796 to the team’s cap figure. Since the team has declined his option, Rivers will now become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
The 6’10” Davis was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, and has quickly grown into one of the league’s top big men. It looks like he’s not content to stop there, and after a stellar showing in the FIBA World Cup this summer, he’s poised to take the next step towards becoming a superstar. Davis’ career numbers are 17.3 PPG, 9.1 RPG, and 2.3 BPG. His career slash line is .518/.133/.777.
Rivers came into the league after one season at Duke, where he didn’t quite measure up to the recruiting-trail hype. The 6’4″ guard hasn’t lived up to having been 2012’s 10th overall selection during his two seasons in the league. His career numbers are 7.0 PPG, 1.8 RPG, and 2.2 APG, and his career shooting numbers are .390/.346/.601.
Rockets Claim Earl Clark Off Waivers
5:13pm: The transaction is official, the team announced via press release.
4:59pm: The Rockets have claimed Earl Clark off waivers from the Grizzlies, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). Clark had been on a one-year, non-guaranteed deal for the minimum salary with Memphis, so Houston will assume control of it. The Rockets opened a spot on their 20-man preseason roster when they waived Josh Powell on Thursday.
Clark’s free agent stock plummeted after he performed poorly when the Cavs gave him a two-year, $8.5MM contract last season and the starting small forward job on opening night. The second year of the deal was non-guaranteed, helping Cleveland ship him to the Sixers at the deadline, after which Philadelphia promptly waived him. He signed a pair of 10-day contracts with the Knicks, but they didn’t retain him for the rest of the season, and he was out of the league from that point until the Grizzlies brought him to camp. Still, there evidently remains at least some level of NBA interest in the 14th overall pick from 2009, as witnessed by Houston’s move today as well as his workout with the Spurs a couple of months ago.
Houston’s opening-night roster is still shrouded in mystery, since the team is carrying 15 fully guaranteed deals plus a non-guaranteed contract for starting point guard Patrick Beverley. The Rockets are also among the teams linked to trade candidate Chase Budinger.
Rockets Waive Josh Powell
FRIDAY, 5:11pm: The Rockets have followed with a formal announcement of Thursday’s move, via press release.
THURSDAY, 8:55pm: The team has waived Powell, as is indicated by the RealGM transactions log. The Rockets have made no formal announcement as yet.
10:54am: The Rockets are waiving Josh Powell, a source tells Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). Charania indicates the move has already taken place, though the team has yet to make an announcement. The eight-year veteran was on a non-guaranteed deal that he signed with the team shortly before the end of the 2013/14 season.
Powell appeared in just one regular season game with Houston and put up four points in more than 19 minutes of work, but he didn’t make it into any of the Rockets’ playoff games. Houston didn’t give the 31-year-old any run in the preseason, either, so it appeared he was around chiefly so his contract could serve as ballast for a potential trade, though that’s just my speculation. He hadn’t appeared in an NBA regular season game since 2010/11 before the Rockets picked him up.
The move will drop the Rockets to 19 players, leaving much work to do before opening night. Patrick Beverley‘s contract is the only one that’s known to be without any guaranteed money remaining on Houston’s books. The Rockets added Geron Johnson and cut Akil Mitchell earlier today.