MAY 3: The Nets have made it official, announcing in a press release that they’ve signed James to his second 10-day contract.
MAY 2: The Nets plan to sign guard Mike James to a second 10-day contract, Marc Stein of the New York Times tweets.
James’ initial 10-day deal with Brooklyn will expire on Sunday night, so he’ll be able to sign his new deal on Monday. The 30-year-old’s second 10-day would expire during the last week of the regular season, at which point he’d be eligible to sign a standard contract if the Nets want to keep him around for the playoffs.
James averaged 7.4 points, 4.2 assists and 19.6 minutes per game during his first 10-day deal, appearing in a total of five contests. He shot 36% from the floor and 27% from deep in those outings.
Brooklyn signed James to a 10-day deal last month after releasing veteran LaMarcus Aldridge, who retired after dealing with health concerns. The team owns the second-best record in the East at 43-22 and plays Milwaukee for a second straight game on Tuesday.
His numbers above don’t look great, but he had an amazing performance against the Raptors on Tuesday in the fourth quarter, so he earned his spot. You wouldn’t know it from reading some of the comments on the fan site, though. It seemed like the same people who were saying that he was playing like Harden and that the Nets should buy out his contract with CSKA Moscow were saying he doesn’t belong in the NBA during the game against the Bucks. He showed he belongs, but if and when Harden and, possibly, Dinwiddie return, he will probably fall out of the rotation.
Harden has never suffered an injury that has kept him out this long during his entire NBA career. It seems very unlikely that he will return before the playoffs begin. But the Nets should have little or no problem getting to the second round without him. Hopefully he will be back by the end of the month to help his team reach the ECF, and possibly the NBA Finals.
Nope. He’s still Harden.
The last time he and KD were teammates they reached the Finals.