Semaj Christon To Play In D-League
Second-round draft pick Semaj Christon has agreed to play for the Thunder’s D-League affiliate this year, agent Doug Neustadt tells Shannon Russell of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The Thunder will retain the NBA rights to the point guard, whom they acquired via trade from the Hornets, after Charlotte originally picked him up from the Heat. News about this year’s No. 55 overall pick was scarce during the summer, and Oklahoma City left him off its training camp roster, indicating that Christon was destined either for the D-League or an overseas deal.
The 6’3″ Christon, who turns 22 next month, was more of a scoring guard than a traditional point man in college for Xavier, having put up 17.0 points in 35.3 minutes per game as a sophomore this past season while balancing 4.2 assists against 2.6 turnovers each night. He added proficiency from behind the arc to his game this year, nailing 38.8% of his three-point attempts.
The Thunder are taking advantage of a new D-League rule that allows them to retain the D-League rights to Christon, who would have been subject to the D-League draft in years past. That’ll prevent the Oklahoma City Blue, the Thunder’s D-League team, from having to trade to secure his rights, as they did last year with Thunder second-rounder Grant Jerrett. Two of the three players the Thunder acquired through this year’s NBA draft will play for their D-League team this year, as Christon will join No. 29 overall pick Josh Huestis.
Bucks To Release Chris Wright
Small forward Chris Wright has left the Bucks to accept an offer to play overseas instead, coach Jason Kidd told reporters, including Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Twitter links). Kidd said it was Wright’s choice to leave, so it appears the team will accommodate his request and release him. The coach said he didn’t know which team Wright would join, but Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times indicates (via Twitter) that Wright is headed to Greece, the home of Panathinaikos, a team that’s reportedly been in pursuit of the 26-year-old in recent days.
Milwaukee followed up a pair of 10-day contracts with Wright last season and inked him to a deal that extended into 2014/15 with a non-guaranteed minimum salary. The former Dayton Flyer appeared in eight games last season, his second in the NBA after a stint with the Warriors in 2011/12, and he averaged 6.0 points and 2.5 rebounds in 15.8 minutes per contest for the Bucks. Still, it looked like he had little shot of remaining with the team, since Milwaukee has 14 fully guaranteed contracts plus a non-guaranteed deal with Kendall Marshall, who’s likely to be part of the team’s rotation this year.
The departure of the Octagon Sports client nonetheless seemingly gives Elijah Millsap and Micheal Eric a boost in their longshot bids to make the opening-night roster, since it eliminates competition. Wright is not to be confused with the former Mavs shooting guard by the same name.
Warriors Sign Jason Kapono
1:00pm: The Warriors have received FIBA clearance and have signed Kapono, the team has announced via press release. Contract details haven’t been announced yet, so it’s unclear if any guaranteed money is involved.
OCTOBER 4TH, 10:40am: The signing has not taken place yet because Kapono and the Warriors are still awaiting FIBA clearance since Kapono last played overseas, Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group notes.
SEPTEMBER 26TH, 4:34pm: The Warriors have reached an agreement with free agent Jason Kapono, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports is reporting (Twitter link). Length and terms of the deal were not disclosed but Wojnarowski termed it a training camp deal, which means that it’s likely for the minimum with little or no guaranteed money included.
Golden State now has 18 players on the roster, with 17 of them carrying some level of guarantee. Regardless of if any partial guarantee is included in Kapono’s arrangement, he’s going to have to battle to stick on the roster until opening night. His outside shooting acumen certainly fits the Warriors style of play, which can’t hurt Kapono’s chances at the very least.
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 Kapono obviously believes he has something left in the tank.
Wizards Waive David Stockton, Vander Blue
10:47pm: Both players have been officially waived, the team has announced.
10:20pm: The Wizards began paring down their preseason roster tonight by deciding to waive Vander Blue and David Stockton, Chris Mannix of SI.com is reporting (Twitter link). Both of the guards came to camp on non-guaranteed deals. These moves will reduce Washington’s preseason roster count to 18, with 13 fully guaranteed contracts and one that is partially guaranteed still on the books. Blue and Stockton were longshots to make the regular season roster for a Wizards team that is projected to be one of the top five teams in the Eastern Conference this season.
Blue went undrafted out of Marquette in 2013 and spent the bulk of last season splitting time between Maccabi Rishon LeZion of the Israeli League and the NBA D-League, where he appeared in a total of 27 games for three teams. Blue’s D-League stats were 16.8 PPG, 4.4 RPG, and 2.9 APG. His slash line was .393/.327/.763. Blue joined the Celtics in January on a 10-day contract, making three appearances and logging 1.7 PPG.
Stockton, the son of NBA legend John Stockton, went undrafted this year after four seasons at Gonzaga. His college numbers were an unimpressive 4.8 PPG, 1.6 RPG, and 3.1 APG. His career slash line was .424/.306/.700. Stockton played for the Suns in the summer league, scoring a total of six points in less than 19 minutes over two games.
Western Notes: Beasley, Allen, Kings
Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace says Michael Beasley is one of six guys in training camp with a chance to show the team they deserve to snag the last regular-season roster spot, Teresa M. Walker of The Associated Press writes. “It’s up to him to show us, make the case for himself then we’ll see where this goes,” Wallace said. “We’re just at the beginning of it with training camp started, and obviously he’s someone that’s very talented … His career hasn’t gone the way he would’ve liked but this is the perfect place for him to rebound.”
Here’s more from out west:
- Clippers coach Doc Rivers said that free agent Ray Allen was not a candidate to take the team’s final roster spot since Los Angeles has a glut of shooting guards already, Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times reports (Twitter link). Allen hasn’t announced if he will play this season or retire despite numerous teams having interest in his services.
- Rivers also added that Joe Ingles and Jared Cunningham are candidates for the team’s final regular-season roster spot, tweets Bolch. Both players are in training camp on non-guaranteed deals.
- In his season preview for the Kings, Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio predicts a 40-win season and Sacramento missing out on the playoffs. Amico believes that the Kings are still one star player away from becoming a factor in the west.
Pelicans Sign D.J. Stephens For Camp
WEDNESDAY, 1:14pm: The deal is official, the Pelicans announced via press release.
MONDAY, 8:27am: The Pelicans and former Bucks swingman D.J. Stephens have reached agreement on a deal for training camp, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). It’ll have to be a minimum-salary deal for the one-year veteran, since the sliver of the mid-level exception that New Orleans has left is only enough for the team to exceed the minimum for a rookie. It’s not clear whether there’s any guaranteed money involved.
The 23-year-old was set to work out for Utah earlier this month, but it appears he’ll wind up in New Orleans instead. Stephens appeared in three games for Milwaukee on a 10-day contract last spring, scoring seven points and grabbing five rebounds in a total of 15 minutes. He saw significantly more playing time overseas last season after going undrafted out of Memphis in 2013, averaging 8.4 points and 7.0 rebounds in 23.8 minutes per game in 25 combined games with Ilisiakos BC of Greece and Anadolu Efes of Turkey.
New Orleans had been carrying 18 players, so the addition of Stephens leaves room for one more player to join the team in advance of Tuesday’s start of camp. A dozen Pelicans have fully guaranteed deals and three more are on partially guaranteed arrangements, and the team has Dionte Christmas, Kevin Jones and Vernon Macklin on non-guaranteed pacts, making it tough to see a clear path to opening night for Stephens.
Bucks Sign Elijah Millsap For Camp
OCTOBER 1ST: Milwaukee still has yet to make an official annoucement, but it’s a one-year deal, for the minimum salary, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
SEPTEMBER 25TH: The signing has taken place, according to the RealGM transactions log. Millsap spoke with Zach Links of Hoops Rumors about his expectations for Bucks camp.
SEPTEMBER 8TH Free agent forward Elijah Millsap has signed a non-guaranteed deal with the Bucks, agent Daniel Hazan tells Shams Charania of RealGM (on Twitter). Millsap was in summer league this offseason with the Sixers.
The shooting guard/small forward has spent parts of the last four seasons in the D-League and the last three with the Los Angeles D-Fenders. In January, Millsap signed with Maccabi Ashdod for the rest of the season but returned to the states in March to hook up with the D-Fenders once more.
In 114 D-League games, Millsap has averaged 17.1 PPG, 5.9 RPG, and 3.1 APG in 31.7 minutes per contest. The 27-year-old was also named to the D-League All-Star team in 2011/12 in his first campaign with Los Angeles.
Cavs Sign Stephen Holt To Camp Deal
WEDNESDAY, 9:52am: The deal is official, the team announced.
SATURDAY, 3:21pm: Holt had cut ties to Ludwigsburg and had been receiving interest from some Euroleague teams, Pick tweets.
3:11pm: The Cavs and guard Stephen Holt have reached an agreement on a training camp deal, David Pick of Eurobasket reports (Twitter link). Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it’s likely a standard minimum salary arrangement with little or no guaranteed money included. This would bring the Cavs preseason roster count to 16 players, with 11 fully guaranteed and two partially guaranteed deals included in that number. Holt had reportedly turned down a training camp invite from the Hawks to sign with a German team, so it’s unclear if he reached a buyout arrangement or was let go by that team if the signing occurred.
The Cavs have been busy today, trading the recently acquired Keith Bogans to the Sixers in addition to completing their first training camp practice. Cleveland is still setting their training camp roster, and Holt will compete for the final roster spot, though he’s an extreme longshot to make it to opening night. The other roster wildcard involved is Ray Allen, who the Cavs have pursued despite Allen being non-committal on returning for another season. His signing would change a number of roster plans.
The 6’4″, 23 year-old Holt went undrafted out of Saint Mary’s back in 2012, after averaging 10.8 PPG, 4.2 RPG, and 2.4 APG for his career. His shooting numbers were .443/.381/.808.
Rockets To Pick Up Option On Jones, Motiejunas
The Rockets plan to exercise their fourth-year team options on the rookie scale contracts of both Terrence Jones and Donatas Motiejunas, reports Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. The team will wait until the October 31 deadline to do so for the duo, both of whom are entering their third seasons in Houston and will compete for minutes at power forward alongside center Dwight Howard.
Jones, 22, really came into his own last season in his sophomore campaign out of Kentucky, averaging 12.1 points and 6.9 rebounds in 71 starts for the Rockets. Montiejunas, from Lithuania, occupied more of a reserve role, playing 15.4 minutes off the bench. As Feigen notes, the seven-footer was dropped from the rotation in the playoffs. Both players are former first round picks. Jones was selected 18th by the Rockets in 2012 while Montiejunas was taken 20th by Minnesota in 2011.
Once the options are officially exercised, the 2015/16 salaries for Jones ($2.489MM) and Motiejunas ($2.288MM) will become guaranteed, locking in over $50MM in total commitments for Houston next season. With all of the changes to the Houston roster this offseason, there was some speculation that the seven-foot Motiejunas could be dealt. While this news makes that less likely, it’s hard to rule anything out when it comes to the always-active Rockets.
Sixers Waive Pierre Jackson
The Sixers have waived Pierre Jackson today, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (via Twitter). This move comes as no surprise after Jackson didn’t show up on the team’s training camp roster yesterday. Philly traded for Jackson in June and then curiously signed him to a partially-guaranteed deal a month later after he ruptured his Achilles tendon in summer league. Jackson starred last season for the D-League’s Idaho Stampede, averaging 29.1 points and 6.2 assists in 41.5 minutes per contest.
As Stein suggests in a separate tweet, it now appears that the $400K that the Sixers guaranteed to Jackson, who will undoubtedly miss the entire upcoming season rehabbing his injury, might have been intended to encourage the Baylor product to rejoin the team next summer. Philly, of course, loses the rights to Jackson by waiving him.
It was actually the Sixers who drafted Jackson out of Baylor in 2013 second round before dealing him to New Orleans. He joined the Pelicans for summer league but went unsigned through the fall before being selected in the D-League draft. Once he emerged as a force for Idaho, New Orleans allowed Jackson to reach out to other teams to see if they’d be interested in trading for his rights. After nothing materialized, he signed with European powerhouse Fenerbahce Ulker before the Sixers acquired his rights in June.