10:10am: The Hawks don’t intend to use their newly-opener roster spot right away, but eventually want to convert Tyler Cavanaugh‘s two-way contract into a standard NBA deal, per Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link).
10:03am: The Hawks have opened up a spot on their roster by waiving second-year forward Nicolas Brussino, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (Twitter link). Atlanta now has a total of 16 players under contract, but only 12 have fully guaranteed NBA salaries — two are on partially guaranteed contracts, and a couple more are on two-way deals.
Brussino, 24, signed with the Mavericks last summer and spent the 2016/17 season with the team, averaging 2.8 PPG and 1.8 RPG in 54 contests (9.6 MPG). Dallas didn’t want to guarantee Brussino’s salary for the 2017/18 campaign, so the club waived him July, at which point he was claimed by the Hawks. He appeared briefly in just four games for Atlanta this season.
Brussino’s minimum salary for this season became guaranteed in the summer, so the Hawks will remain on the hook for that amount, assuming the 6’7″ Argentinian goes unclaimed on waivers. Brussino’s contract also includes a $1,544,951 salary for 2018/19, but that figure is non-guaranteed.
It’s not clear if the Hawks have another roster move on tap after cutting Brussino. If not, they’ll have some flexibility going forward. NBA teams can begin signing players to 10-day contracts next month, so if Atlanta doesn’t fill its open roster spot before then, the club could use the opening to take fliers on multiple young players in the second half.
This could be a move to open up a spot in order to claim Derrick Jones Jr or Sean Kilpatrick off waivers