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Month: November 2024

Bucks Sign Jon Horford To Camp Deal

September 16th, 2015 at 2:24pm CST by Chuck Myron

SEPTEMBER 16TH, 2:24pm: The signing has taken place, though the team has made no official announcement, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). It’s for one season at the minimum salary and is non-guaranteed with limited injury protection, Pincus adds, so it’s an Exhibit 9 contract.

SEPTEMBER 11TH, 8:56am: The Bucks are expected to sign power forward Jon Horford to a deal for training camp, reports Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops (Twitter link). The 23-year-old who went undrafted out of Florida this year is the younger brother of Al Horford, Scotto notes. He’ll ostensibly round out Milwaukee’s camp roster, since his deal would be the team’s 20th.

Jon Horford spent the bulk of his college career at Michigan before transferring for his senior season to Florida, where his brother had won back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007. The Gators gave the younger Horford his first crack at being a full-time starter, though he saw only 20.0 minutes per game and averaged 6.5 points and 4.8 rebounds per contest. He played with the Hawks, his brother’s current team, during summer league, but he went scoreless in a single five-minute appearance.

Al Horford is a free agent after this coming season, so it’s possible the Bucks are bringing in his brother with that thought in mind, though the presence of Greg Monroe would make the addition of the older Horford cumbersome. In any case, the Bucks already appear to have their opening night roster in order, with 15 fully guaranteed contracts. Jorge Gutierrez, Marcus Landry, Charlie Westbrook and Josh Powell will join Horford in trying to unseat one of those 15. Milwaukee has no D-League affiliate, so the team is without means to maintain a link to any of the players it cuts.

Can Jon Horford make a contribution in the NBA, or is he destined to play out his pro career elsewhere? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

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Bucks Sign Charlie Westbrook For Camp

September 16th, 2015 at 2:23pm CST by Eddie Scarito

SEPTEMBER 16TH, 2:23pm: The signing has taken place, though the team has made no official announcement, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). It’s for one season at the minimum salary and is non-guaranteed with limited injury protection, Pincus adds, so it’s an Exhibit 9 contract.

AUGUST 31ST, 2:29pm: The Bucks have reached an agreement with unrestricted free agent guard Charlie Westbrook, Shams Charania of RealGM reports (Twitter link). The length and terms of the pact are not yet known, but it is likely a minimum salary training camp deal with little or no guaranteed money included, though that is merely my speculation.

Westbrook, 26, went undrafted back in 2012 out of South Dakota where he averaged 18.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 2.2 assists as a Senior. His slash line was .464/.389/.766. Westbrook was signed to a training camp deal by the Heat back in 2013, but was waived prior to the commencement of the regular season. He has since played overseas for both the Italian club Tezenis Verona and Hyères-Toulon of France, as well as stateside in the NBA D-League.

The addition of Westbrook will give the Bucks a roster count of 18, including 15 players possessing fully guaranteed deals. It’s highly unlikely that the 6’4″ shooting guard makes Milwaukee’s regular season roster given the team’s current depth chart, and the Bucks don’t have a one to one D-League affiliation currently, so stashing Westbrook there for a season isn’t an option.

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Pacers Sign C.J. Fair For Camp

September 16th, 2015 at 2:18pm CST by Eddie Scarito

SEPTEMBER 16TH, 2:18pm: The signing has taken place, though the team has made no official announcement, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). It’s non-guaranteed with limited injury protection, Pincus adds, so it’s an Exhibit 9 contract.

SEPTEMBER 10TH, 5:56pm: The Pacers have agreed to a deal with unrestricted free agent small forward C.J. Fair, agent Joel Bell tells Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter). It is a one year, minimum salary arrangement notes Charania.

Fair, 23, went undrafted out of Syracuse in 2014, after averaging 16.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 37.8 minutes per contest as a Senior. His career collegiate numbers were 11.6 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 0.8 assists to accompany a slash line of .462/.343/.723. The forward attended training camp with Indiana last season, though he was unable to secure a spot on the team’s regular season roster. Fair spent the remainder of the 2014/15 season with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA D-League.

The forward is a longshot to make the team’s opening night roster, with the Pacers currently having 15 players possessing fully guaranteed deals. He will compete with Glenn Robinson III, Solomon Hill, Chase Budinger, and C.J. Miles, who are all in the mix at small forward behind Paul George, who is also expected to see minutes at the four this season.

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Suns Sign Terrico White To Camp Deal

September 16th, 2015 at 2:15pm CST by Chuck Myron

SEPTEMBER 16TH, 2:15pm: The signing has taken place, though the team has made no official announcement, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). It’s for one year at the minimum salary and non-guaranteed with limited injury protection, Pincus adds, making it an Exhibit 9 contract.

AUGUST 20TH, 1:51pm: The Suns and shooting guard Terrico White have agreed to a deal, reports Shams Charania of RealGM. Agent Daniel Hazan has confirmed the pact, Charania adds. Detroit made White the 36th overall pick in 2010 and he was under contract with the Pistons for more than a year, but he never made a regular season appearance, thanks to the broken right foot he suffered in his first NBA preseason game. White, now 25 years old, has played primarily overseas since, but he’s looking to return to the NBA on what appears to be a training camp deal.

New Orleans signed White shortly after the Pistons let him go in the 2011 preseason, but the former Ole Miss standout didn’t make the regular season roster. He saw NBA summer league action in 2012, 2013 and 2014, but he didn’t sign an NBA deal in any of those years. Ironically, he’s landing this deal with Phoenix despite not having played summer league ball this year. The former Ole Miss standout spent this past season with Enisey Krasnoyarsk of Russia, where he averaged 11.4 points and 3.4 rebounds in 28.3 minutes per game, with 37.2% three-point shooting. He’s also played in Israel, Serbia and Turkey.

Phoenix has been carrying 13 contracts, all of them with fully guaranteed salaries this season, as our roster counts show. White would appear to have a decent chance to stick for the regular season, though the trade demand of Markieff Morris makes it hard to predict exactly what the Suns roster will look like at the start of the season.

Do you think White belongs on an NBA regular season roster? Leave a comment to let us know.

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Nuggets Sign Matt Janning For Camp

September 16th, 2015 at 2:13pm CST by Chuck Myron

SEPTEMBER 16TH, 2:11pm: The signing has taken place, though the team has made no official announcement, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). It’s a one-year, minimum salary arrangement with limited injury protection, Pincus adds, so it’s an Exhibit 9 contract.

SEPTEMBER 8TH, 8:43am: The Nuggets and one-year NBA veteran Matt Janning have a non-guaranteed deal for training camp, reports international journalist David Pick (Twitter links). The 27-year-old shooting guard, who was on the Suns roster briefly during the 2010/11 season after he went undrafted out of Northeastern in 2010, picked Denver over a chance to join the Hawks as well as offers from overseas teams, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (on Twitter).

Janning played with Turkish powerhouse Anadolu Efes this past season, averaging 9.2 points in 24.4 minutes per game with 37.9% three-point shooting combined between Turkish league and Euroleague play. He didn’t make it in a game during his 2010 stint with the Suns, who waived him a few weeks after opening night that year. He’s chiefly played overseas since, though he’s made multiple appearances in NBA summer league, the last coming in 2014 with the Timberwolves.

Denver has 14 full guarantees, plus Erick Green, who has a partial guarantee of $100K, and Kostas Papanikolaou, whose contract is non-guaranteed. Conflicting reports exist on whether the Nuggets are poised to waive Papanikolaou. The Nuggets could use some shooting, Wolfson tweets, pointing to that as one reason for Janning to choose them over Atlanta. The Hawks have only 13 full guarantees, though they have partial guarantees out to Mike Muscala, Lamar Patterson and Terran Petteway plus a non-guaranteed deal with Jason Richardson.

Who do you think deserves the final roster spot for the Nuggets? Leave a comment to tell us.

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Nuggets Sign Oleksiy Pecherov, Devin Sweetney

September 16th, 2015 at 2:10pm CST by Eddie Scarito

SEPTEMBER 16TH, 2:10pm: The signings have taken place, though the team hasn’t announced them, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). They’re for one year at the minimum salary and non-guaranteed with limited injury protection, Pincus adds, making them Exhibit 9 contracts.

SEPTEMBER 8TH, 10:43pm: The Nuggets have agreed to deals with unrestricted free agents Oleksiy Pecherov and Devin Sweetney, Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post reports (Twitter link). The length and terms of the pacts are unknown, but Dempsey classified them as training camp deals, which means both players have likely agreed to minimum salary pacts with little or no guaranteed salary, though that is merely my speculation. The additions of Pecherov and Sweetney will bring Denver’s roster count up to 19 players, which is one below the preseason maximum.

Pecherov, 29, has been out of the NBA since the 2009/10 campaign when he appeared in 44 games for the Timberwolves. The center has career NBA averages of 3.9 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 0.2 blocks to go along with a slash line of .386/.290/.793. The seven-footer, who spent last season with the Estonian club BC Kalev/Cramo, has reportedly been eyeing an NBA comeback for the coming season, and he had originally worked out for Denver at the end of June.

The 27-year-old Sweetney went undrafted out of Saint Francis back in 2010. In four seasons with the Red Flash, the swingman averaged 14.0 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.7 assists, and he had a shooting line of .423/.268/.785. Sweetney spent the 2014/15 season playing for a pair of teams in Switzerland, where he notched averages of 20.0 PPG, 5.1 RPG, and 2.3 APG in 19 total contests, before finishing up with Huracanes of the Dominican Republic on a four-game stint in which he put up 9.3 PPG, 2.8 RPG and 1.0 APG in 27.3 MPG.

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Southwest Notes: Gordon, Lawson, Motiejunas

September 16th, 2015 at 12:59pm CST by Chuck Myron

Eric Gordon says the talent surrounding him on the Pelicans and the replacement of coach Monty Williams with Alvin Gentry were the reasons that he picked up his option of more than $15.514MM to stay with the team, he tells SB Nation contributor Nick Weldon. Gordon says he was frustrated with Williams for failing to better define his role, according to Weldon.

“Oh, I was very happy when I heard Gentry was a candidate,” Gordon said to Weldon. “I mean, very happy.”

Gordon is set to hit free agency next summer, but he can’t envision leaving New Orleans, Weldon adds. See more from the Southwest Division, where a pair of Rich Paul clients finally agreed to sign:

  • The acquisition of Ty Lawson was Houston’s most significant offseason move, but coach Kevin McHale is making no promises that the trade netted the team a starter, observes Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. Lawson and Patrick Beverley, whom the Rockets re-signed this summer for $23MM over four years, will compete for the starting point guard job, McHale said Tuesday, as Feigen notes. McHale said that last season Lawson “had a very average year in Denver compared to what he had done before” and called upon him to improve his defense, according to Feigen.
  • Donatas Motiejunas probably won’t be ready for the start of training camp as he continues to recover from the back injury that forced surgery and prematurely ended his 2014/15 season, McHale confirmed, as Mark Berman of Fox 26 relays on Twitter. Motiejunas and the Rockets face a November 2nd deadline to sign an extension, as I examined in detail last month.
  • The extension that Rick Carlisle signed in 2012 reportedly includes an option for 2016/17, but it otherwise runs to term at the conclusion of this coming season. That could make Carlisle, who’s proven an elite bench boss with the Mavericks, the most intriguing free agent not named Kevin Durant next summer, opines Tim Bontemps of the New York Post (on Facebook).
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All Those Traded Celtics: Where Are They Now?

September 16th, 2015 at 10:29am CST by Chuck Myron

The Celtics have made three trades since the 2015/16 season officially began on the NBA calendar on July 1st, a healthy number but a paltry amount in comparison to the 11 they made in 2014/15. Still, president of basketball operations Danny Ainge seems poised to start dealing again before too long, especially given the team has one more fully guaranteed contract than the 15-man regular season roster limit will allow. Ainge’s penchant for deals is well-known, as the 28 players whom he either traded, traded for, or both last season can attest.

Six of those players are still with the Celtics, but the rest are spread all over the globe. A dozen NBA teams — the Clippers, Grizzlies, Kings, Mavericks, Nuggets, Pelicans, Pistons, Rockets, Sixers, Timberwolves, Wizards and Warriors — all have players on their respective rosters who were part of a Celtics trade at some point since July of last year. Others are playing in China, Russia and Turkey. Four remain in free agency. Chris Douglas-Roberts is technically the fifth free agent, but he reportedly agreed just this week to join the Pelicans on a non-guaranteed deal.

Here’s a look at where each player involved in a recent Celtics trade is now:

Which of the players who isn’t still with the Celtics do you think they should have kept? Leave a comment to tell us.

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Southeast Notes: Batum, Kaminsky, Wizards, Heat

September 16th, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Hornets coach Steve Clifford wants to have more players involved in the offense this season, and he envisions trade acquisition Nicolas Batum as a facilitator for much of that in a manner similar to how the Magic used to run offense through Hedo Turkoglu, observes Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer.

“He’s in a similar place to where Turkoglu was in Orlando as far as size and exceptional feel for the game,” Clifford said. “If he’s open, he shoots it. If he’s not, he’ll drive. He’s as instinctual as you can ask of a player, and you can’t coach that.” 

Clifford was an assistant coach during Turkoglu’s time in Orlando. See more on the Hornets and the rest of the Southeast Division:

  • Frank Kaminsky has more experience than most lottery picks, having gone to college for four years, but he’s having a rough adjustment to NBA competition during informal scrimmages so far, Clifford said, as Bonnell relays in the same piece. “The kid has a chance to be really something as a player, [but] right now he’s a kid and they’re beating up on him [in scrimmages],” Clifford said. “They’re 28 or 29 and he’s 22.” Charlotte reportedly turned down an offer of four first-round picks to hold on to the ninth selection and draft Kaminsky this year.
  • The start of construction is set for next year on a new practice facility for the Wizards that is to open in the fall of 2018, the team announced. The Wizards hope it will help them attract free agents, including Kevin Durant when he’s on the market next summer, as Jonathan O’Connell of The Washington Post wrote earlier this week. Wizards owner Ted Leonsis said the franchise wants to house a D-League team there, as Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com notes.
  • The Heat should sign a veteran whom they could bank on rather than relying on a young player at the end of their bench, given their questionable depth, opines Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel.
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Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround 9/15/15

September 15th, 2015 at 11:00pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Bucks announced yesterday that they have extended the contract of GM John Hammond through the 2017/18 season. Hammond’s deal was originally set to expire at the end of this coming campaign. “A great deal of our team’s success and progress is due to the vision and hard work of John,” Bucks owner Wes Edens said of his GM. “He’s assembled a talented and competitive roster and we’re very pleased that he will continue to lead basketball operations.”

Hammond has been the team’s GM since April of 2008, and during his tenure the franchise has an overall regular season record of 240-318. During his tenure Milwaukee has made three playoff appearances, all resulting in first round exits, but the Bucks are certainly a franchise on the rise, and the roster is packed with young, talented players who have intriguing upsides. All of these players were either drafted or acquired on Hammond’s watch, including Giannis Antetokounmpo, who the team outright stole with the 15th overall pick back in 2013. But before I praise Hammond too much for being a draft whiz, he was also the man who made the call to take Joe Alexander with the No. 8 overall pick back in 2008. That was Hammond’s first draft as a GM, so I’ll cut him some slack on that pick, though I’m not so sure Bucks fans will be so quick to forgive. The GM is also responsible for landing one of the bigger free agent prizes of this offseason in Greg Monroe, who surprised quite a few people when he announced his decision to join the Bucks.

This is a good spot to segue into the topic of the day: What are your feelings on John Hammond’s contract extension with the Bucks, as well as the job he has done thus far with the team?

Are you a believer in Hammond and his ability to shape the Bucks into a title contender? Or are you on the other side of the debate, and question if he is the right man for the job? What were his best and worst moves since arriving in Milwaukee? Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the subject. We look forward to what you have to say.

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