Raptors Sign Greg Stiemsma

12:16pm: The deal is believed to be partially guaranteed, according to Josh Lewenberg of TSN 1050 Toronto (Twitter link).

11:25am: It’s a one-year, $1MM deal, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com hears (Twitter link). He’s likely rounding up from $981,084, the minimum for Stiemsma, a four-year veteran. If that’s the case, it would only count on the Raptors books for the two-year veteran’s minimum of $915,243, since it’s just a one-year contract. The league would pay the rest.

11:08am: The Raptors have signed Greg Stiemsma, the team announced via press release. The terms aren’t immediately clear, but it’s likely a minimum-salary camp invitation, perhaps with a partial guarantee thrown in.

The center, who turns 29 this month, had been a free agent ever since the Pelicans cut him loose just a few days before the end of the regular season this year in a move designed to enhance the team’s flexibility for trades. The Mark Bartelstein client recently worked out for the Lakers, but chatter about his next destination had otherwise been scarce, even though his 20 starts last season were the sixth most for any player still without an NBA deal as of Wednesday, as I noted.

Stiemsma had to wait more than three years after he went undrafted out of the University of Wisconsin in 2008 for his first NBA regular season action, which came with the Celtics in 2011/12, when he averaged 2.9 points and 2.3 rebounds in 13.9 minutes per game. He made close to $2.6MM the next season with the Timberwolves and signed another deal that gave him almost $2.7MM from the Pelicans last season, but he appears in line for a pay cut this year.

The Raptors had been carrying 13 guaranteed deals and three with partial guarantees, as our roster counts show, so there’s a reasonable chance that Stiemsma will make the opening-night roster. Still, he had a run-in last season with Jonas Valanciunas, whom he’d presumably back up, as Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun notes (Twitter links).