Week In Review 9/6/15-9/12/15

The NBA’s Board of Governors unanimously approved changes to how teams qualify for the playoffs and how they will be seeded. The eight playoff teams in each conference will now be seeded based on the order of their regular-season records. Previously, every division winner was guaranteed a top four seed in its conference regardless of record but did not receive home-court advantage if its playoff opponent had a better regular season mark. The new seeding structure will commence this season.

The Board also approved changes to tiebreaker criteria for playoff seeding and determining home-court advantage. Head-to-head results have become the first criteria to break ties for playoff seeding and home-court advantage between two teams with identical regular season records, with the second criteria being if a team won its division. Under the old system, a division winner was awarded the higher seed and received home-court advantage in series between two teams with identical records.

Here’s more from the week that was…

Free Agent Signings

• Jerrelle Benimon agreed to a training camp deal with the Cavaliers.
• The Nets signed Dahntay Jones.
• The Grizzlies signed a training camp deal with point guard Lazeric Jones.
• The Nuggets agreed to a training camp contract with Matt Janning.
• D.J. Stephens agreed to a training camp deal with the Cavaliers.
• The Wizards agreed to a deal with Ish Smith.
• The Pelicans signed shooting guard Sean Kilpatrick.
• The Nuggets agreed to training camp deals with unrestricted free agents Oleksiy Pecherov and Devin Sweetney.
• The Pacers agreed to a deal with small forward C.J. Fair.
• The Clippers agreed to a deal with 2002 No. 5 overall pick Nikoloz Tskitishvili.
• The Knicks agreed to a pact with undrafted Michigan State point guard Travis Trice.
• The Warriors and undrafted West Virginia point guard Juwan Staten agreed to a one-year deal.
• The Bucks are expected to sign power forward Jon Horford to a deal for training camp.

You can stay up to date on all of the signings with Hoops Rumors’ free agent tracker.

Miscellaneous News

• The Timberwolves named assistant coach Sam Mitchell as interim head coach while Flip Saunders continues to battle cancer.
• Several players and key figures within the Clippers organization reportedly feel that president of business operations Gillian Zucker is overstepping her bounds and usurping the authority of coach/president of basketball operations Doc Rivers.
• The Nets declined to extend the required tender necessary to keep the draft rights to Xavier Thames, the 59th overall pick from 2014, so he’s now free to negotiate a deal with any NBA team.
• Casper Ware, who last played in the league in 2013/14 as a member of the Sixers, signed a $350K deal with Tianjin Steel of China.
• Former Raptors and Lakers point guard Dwight Buycks has turned down multiple non-guaranteed offers from NBA teams and agreed to a deal to play in China for the 2015/16 season.
• Sixers 2015 second-round pick J.P. Tokoto signed a one-year, non-guaranteed deal with the team.
• The NBA hit Markieff Morris with a fine of $10K for publicly demanding a trade from the Suns.
• The Pacers purchased the D-League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
• Joe Johnson split with the Wasserman Media Group amid the departure of longtime agent Arn Tellem and signed with Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management.
• The Sixers made their required tender of a one-year, non-guaranteed, minimum salary offer to Jordan McRae that will allow the franchise to retain his draft rights.