The Bucks have reached an agreement with Orlando Johnson, tweets Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops. The 6’5″ shooting guard will join Milwaukee in time for training camp.
Johnson, 27, has been with four teams in four seasons after being drafted in the second round by the Kings in 2012. He signed two 10-day contracts last season, one with the Suns in February and one with the Pelicans in March. He appeared in two games with Phoenix and five with New Orleans.
Milwaukee, which recently added free agent Jason Terry and re-signed Steve Novak, has 15 players with guaranteed contracts. However, Scotto says the Bucks are still looking for ways to improve their depth at the wing position.
With training camp a little more than three weeks away, the Cavaliers aren’t sure of the status of Mo Williams, writes Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer. Cleveland decided this week not to use the stretch provision on Williams’ $2.2MM contract, but no one seems sure if he will be in camp. There have been retirement rumors, but Pluto says neither Williams or his agent have given the Cavaliers any indication that he is quitting. However, there also is no sign that Williams is preparing for another season. He is the only experienced backup point guard on the Cavs’ roster after the sign-and-trade deal that sent Matthew Dellavedova to Milwaukee. A 13-year veteran, Williams battled knee and thumb injuries last season and appeared in just 41 games. Pluto believes retirement is the most likely outcome as Williams has been “disconnected” from the team during the offseason.
Pluto offers a few more Cavaliers tidbits in his latest column:
Cleveland has no interest in trading Kevin Love and hasn’t considered the idea since midseason. Love, who still has four years and more than $93.5MM left on the contract he signed last summer, has accepted his role with the Cavaliers and was an important part of last year’s championship team. He is scoring less than he used to in Minnesota, but is helping the team with better rebounding, defense and other intangibles. Pluto notes that a trade might have been considered if the Cavs had fallen short of a title, but GM David Griffin wants to keep the team together as much as possible.
DeAndre Liggins has an outside shot to make the roster after being named D-League Defensive Player of the Year last season. The 28-year-old swingman impressed the organization during summer league with his aggressive defense. The Kentucky product’s NBA career includes short stints with the Magic, Thunder and Heat.
Another summer star, rookie Kay Felder, has a good chance to make the team, but Pluto doesn’t expect him to be the primary backup at point guard if Williams doesn’t return. The writer says Cleveland will continue to pursue other alternatives.
Dorell Wright and Rasual Butler are among the players invited to a workout the Timberwolves have scheduled next week for veteran free agents, tweets Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News in Minneapolis.
Wright, 30, spent most of last season in China before signing with the Heat in mid-April. He didn’t play any regular season games with Miami, but did appear in five playoff contests, averaging 3.2 points and 3.8 minutes per game. The Heat elected not to bring back the 6’9″ small forward after the postseason ended.
The 37-year-old Butler appeared in 46 games for the Spurs last season before being waived in March. The 6’7″ swingman has been with eight franchises in his 14-year NBA career.
September 3rd, 2016 at 3:59pm CST by Eddie Scarito
Hoops Rumors lets you keep up with your favorite teams as they plot their moves, and we also provide ways to easily follow the latest on all of your favorite players and trade candidates. You can get news about players wherever you go with our Trade Rumors app, available for iOS and Android devices. The app is free and allows you to add a feed for any player and set up notifications that will alert you whenever we write about him.
Every player we’ve written about has his own rumors page. You can find any player by using our search box (located in the right sidebar); by clicking his tag at the bottom of a post in which he’s discussed; or, by simply typing his name in your address bar after hoopsrumors.com, substituting dashes for spaces. For example, Kevin Durant’s page is hoopsrumors.com/kevin-durant.
You can also set up an RSS feed for any of our player pages by adding /feed to the end of the page URL, like this: hoopsrumors.com/j.r.-smith/feed. Entering that URL into the reader of your choice should enable you to get updates whenever we write about J.R. Smith. It works for teams, too. If you’re a Cavs fan, you can enter hoopsrumors.com/cleveland-cavaliers/feed into your reader and stay on top of all the latest from Cleveland.
In addition to players and teams, there are a number of other subjects you can track by clicking on the tags that we use at the bottom of posts. You can keep tabs on news related to the draft right here. Items about the salary cap can be found on this page. You can simply scan our top stories here. Again, you can set up a feed with any of these pages by adding /feed to the end of the URL.
September 3rd, 2016 at 2:46pm CST by Eddie Scarito
With the free agent signing period winding down and teams looking ahead to the preseason, we at Hoops Rumors will be tracking the Salary Cap figures for each team around the league. These posts will be maintained throughout the season once financial data is reported. They will be located on the sidebar throughout the year, once all the teams’ cap figures have been relayed. You can always check RosterResource.com for up-to-date rosters for each franchise, with the Thunder’s team page accessible here.
Here’s a breakdown of where the Thunder currently stand financially:
September 3rd, 2016 at 1:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito
Scouting players and predicting how their skills will translate to the NBA is one of the more difficult tasks front offices have on their plates. Looking back over past drafts and how many lottery picks never evolved into stars, or even made a significant impact in the league, illustrates just how often stats, combine numbers and pure gut instinct often come up short.
Of course, we get the opportunity to critique these moves with the benefit of hindsight — a luxury that GMs don’t have on draft night. Having said that, it’s still fun to go back in time and take a theoretical look at how these drafts should have/could have gone.
We’ve been revisiting 2008 draft, which had a number of players who have gone on to post big numbers in the league. This was the year of Derrick Rose (No. 1 overall), Russell Westbrook (No. 4), Kevin Love (No. 5), Brook Lopez (No. 10) and Nicolas Batum (No. 25). Over the next few weeks, we’ll be posting a series of polls asking readers to vote on whom teams should have selected in each spot.
We’ve arrived at the No. 15 overall pick, which was held by the Suns. Phoenix had acquired the pick via a 2005 trade with the Hawks. The details of that swap were: Phoenix nabbed Atlanta’s first round picks in 2006 and 2008, plus Boris Diaw, in exchange for Joe Johnson. In the “real world” draft, the Suns nabbed center Robin Lopez. With Lopez off the board already to Indiana at pick 13, the team will have to go in a different direction in our draft.
So cast your vote for who the Suns select and check back on Sunday to see the results, as well as to vote on whom the Sixers should have taken with the No. 16 pick. Also, don’t limit yourself to a simple button click. Take to the comments section below and share your thoughts on the pick and why you voted the way that you did. If we fail to list a player who you think should be selected, feel free to post that in the comments section and we’ll be certain to tally those votes as well.
September 3rd, 2016 at 12:40pm CST by Zachary Links
This weekend is absolute madness in the NFL world. By 3:00pm CT today, all 32 teams will have cut their rosters down from 75 to 53, meaning that more than 700 transactions will take place. Luckily, you can keep up with every cut and every trade by following @pfrumors on Twitter and staying tuned to ProFootballRumors.com.
There will be a dizzying amount of news today concerning your favorite team. In fact, we often see big names get cut on deadline day, and some moves can even impact your fantasy team. Don’t miss on a single piece of news – follow @pfrumors on Twitter today!
September 3rd, 2016 at 12:00pm CST by Eddie Scarito
Lakers point guard D’Angelo Russell and former coach Byron Scott did not have a good relationship last season, but the second year player has nothing but raves for new head coach Luke Walton, as he told Serena Winters of LakersNation. “He’s one of the best people I know, as far as off the court,” Russell said of Walton. “We communicate on and off the court as much as possible. I feel like I can call him anytime. He’s not like a head coach that will sit back and just watch his other coaches and colleagues just train other players, he’s always involved. He’ll get out there and play with you if he wants. It’s just great to have a young coach like him in the building.”
Here’s more from the Western Conference:
The Spurs have a number of new faces on their bench heading into the season and the players are still trying to get to know each other and build chemistry, Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News writes. “We’re still trying to figure out some guys’ first and last names,” said Jonathon Simmons. “In another week, everything should be coming together.” San Antonio is also trying to fill a major leadership void now that Tim Duncan has retired, McDonald adds. Speaking about the players’ offseason practice and workout sessions, Kyle Anderson said, “Some days [in the past], they’d [the coaching staff] leave it up to Tim to run it. It’s a little weird without him there.”
In a recent chat where he answered reader questions, Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News opined that rookie small forward Nicolas Brussino‘s upside makes him a player worth watching this season for the Mavs. The scribe did note that how well the 23-year-old from Argentina will adapt to the American style of play remains a major question mark.
The Rockets, Spurs, Lakers and Pacers are among the teams who are interested in Carl Landry, who was waived by the Sixers this week, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN tweets.
September 3rd, 2016 at 9:00am CST by Eddie Scarito
With 2016’s offseason winding down and the preseason on its way, here’s a look back at all the notable news and events from around the NBA this past week:
Lakers forward Julius Randle will be out of action for at least 14 days after suffering a laceration to his right hand during practice that required seven stitches.
Pelicans point guard Jrue Holidaysigned with agent Jason Glushon of Glushon Sports Management.
