Hawks Rumors

Hawks Claim Jose Calderon Off Waivers

The Hawks have claimed Jose Calderon off waivers, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.

Atlanta had been hoping to add Calderon as a backup to Dennis Schroder, either by submitting a claim or signing him once he cleared waivers. Hawks officials decided to go with the safest route and enter their own claim on Calderon.

The move will cost Atlanta $247,991 for the rest of the season, tweets Bobby Marks of the Vertical. That will cover the salary that Golden State gave Calderon when it signed and released him on Wednesday, and that money will come off the Warriors’ cap.

Calderon played 24 games for the Lakers this season before agreeing to a buyout on Monday. He had a salary of slightly more than $7.7MM, and L.A. will still be responsible for the money it owes him for the rest of the season. Calderon didn’t make any salary concessions in his buyout agreement, according to Marks (Twitter link).

The Hawks had an open roster spot after waiving Lamar Patterson, so another move won’t be necessary to add Calderon. He is expected to be in uniform for Sunday’s game with the Pacers, tweets Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The 35-year-old will be eligible for the playoffs after the league ruled that Golden State waived him in time. He is now with his seventh NBA team, if the Warriors are included.

Mike Dunleavy Diagnosed With Right Ankle Synovitis

Mike Dunleavy has been diagnosed with right ankle synovitis, the Hawks announced in a press release. Per the team’s injury report: “An MRI taken at the Emory Orthopaedics and Spine Center on Feb. 28th revealed the injury and a second opinion by Dr. Richard Ferkel of the Southern California Orthopedic Institute also confirmed the diagnosis.”

Dunleavy will be out for an undetermined length of time.

Dunleavy, who initially sought a buyout after being traded to Atlanta, has performed well under Mike Budenholzer. Dunleavy has averaged 5.9 points while shooting 44.2% on 3-pointers with the Hawks, receiving 16.2 MPG.

After tonight, Dunleavy will have missed the Hawks’ last four games.

Hawks Hoping To Sign Jose Calderon

The Hawks hope to sign point guard Jose Calderon by Saturday, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.

If the deal goes through, Atlanta would be Calderon’s third team this week. He agreed to a buyout with the Lakers on Monday, then was signed and released by the Warriors on Wednesday. The league notified teams this week that Calderon was waived by Golden State in time to be eligible for the playoffs (Twitter link).

Calderon’s waiver process will expire at 5 pm on Saturday, Stein notes (Twitter link). Atlanta can either submit a waiver claim or hope that he clears waivers and sign him as a free agent.

Rumors have linked the Hawks to Calderon in recent days as they search for a backup to Dennis Schroder. Atlanta has an open roster spot after waiving Lamar Patterson last week. The team tried combo guard Gary Neal earlier this season, but prefers a pure point guard to fill in for Schroder.

The 35-year-old Calderon averaged about 12 minutes per night with the Lakers, putting up 3.3 points and 2.1 assists in 24 games.

Warriors Sign, Release Jose Calderon

7:13 p.m.: Golden State has officially released Calderon, the team tweeted.

5:28pm: The Warriors have signed former Laker Jose Calderon, filling a promise to the veteran point guard, but he’s not expected to be with the team by the end of the day.

Golden State tweeted an announcement about the signing, which it pledged to Calderon when he agreed to a buyout with L.A. on Monday. However, after Kevin Durant suffered a knee injury Tuesday night that may keep him out for the rest of the season, the Warriors felt they needed a bigger player to take his place, so that roster spot will eventually go to Matt Barnes.

Golden State will waive Calderon later today to allow him to sign with another organization and still be eligible for the postseason. He will receive the guaranteed rest-of-the-season contract that he was originally promised and will go back on waivers for 48 hours. The Hawks are reportedly among the teams interested in signing Calderon once he clears waivers again.

Hawks Eyeing Jose Calderon, Other Point Guards

The Hawks are looking at several point guards as they search for point guard depth, and Jose Calderon has emerged as one “prime” target for the team, according to ESPN’s Marc Stein (via Twitter). Atlanta currently has one open spot on its roster after waiving Lamar Patterson.

Calderon, who was bought out by the Lakers after the trade deadline, cleared waivers today and became an unrestricted free agent, though he may go back on waivers soon. Calderon and the Warriors reached an agreement over the weekend, but after Kevin Durant went down with a knee injury, the team changed course and will instead sign Matt Barnes.

The Warriors reportedly still intend to honor their agreement with Calderon, signing him to a guaranteed rest-of-season contract and then waiving him to sign Barnes. However, if Calderon gets an offer from the Hawks or another team, perhaps he won’t feel compelled to finalize his deal with Golden State after all. (Update: Calderon was later signed and waived by the Warriors, so he’s back on waivers).

As Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported earlier today, the Hawks are considering both 10-day contracts and rest-of-season deals to fill their 15th roster spot. The team is also in the market for more of a pure point guard, after having experimented with adding a combo guard (Gary Neal) earlier in the season.

“We obviously brought in a guy like Gary who is more of a (shooting guard, point guard),” head coach and president of basketball operations Mike Budenholzer said, per Vivlamore. “I think the 15th guy has to have some point guard in him, if not just a stone-cold point guard, which is probably more likely.”

Dennis Schroder has reliably handled the starting point guard position for the Hawks this season, but the club doesn’t have much depth at that spot, with rookie Malcolm Delaney serving as Schroder’s primary backup.

Hawks In No Rush To Fill Open Roster Spot

  • The Hawks are in no hurry to sign a free agent to fill the open spot on their roster, as Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal Constitution details. “We will probably take a few days and see what happens over the next few days and maybe more,” Budenholzer said. “It’s good to have that flexibility to figure out what we want to do. We won’t rush to do anything in the next day or two.”

Hawks Waive Lamar Patterson

The Hawks have waived Lamar Patterson, according to a team press release. Atlanta and Patterson agreed to the release in order to allow Patterson to tend to a personal matter.

The team recently signed Patterson to a two-year deal, though his contract only was partially guaranteed. The team also signed Ryan Kelly, a move which brought the team’s roster count to 15 players, as the team’s depth chart at Roster Resource indicates. After waiving, Patterson, the team’s roster is at 14 players, which means Atlanta has the ability to examine the buyout market in search of a possible contributor.

Patterson played 40 games for the Hawks over the last two seasons. He’s averaging 2.3 points in 10.9 minutes per game.

 

And-Ones: Jones, Thornton, Suns, Raptors

The Pelicans waived Terrence Jones on Thursday after being unable to find a trade partner for him and the Nets waived Marcus Thornton after acquiring him in the Bojan Bogdanovic trade. Both players have cleared waivers and are free to sign with any team, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link).

Jones should have no problem finding a new home. He’s a productive 25-year-old big man who was averaging 11.5 points per game in New Orleans while sporting a 16.2 player efficient rating.

Thornton may have to wait slightly longer to find a new club, but he should be able to help a team fill out the back end of its rotation.

Here’s more from around the league:

  • The Hawks sent $500K to the Suns as part of the Mike Scott trade, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). In addition to the cash considerations, Phoenix received the draft rights to Cenk Akyol for taking on Scott’s contract, while Atlanta received a protected second-round pick.
  • As part of the P.J. Tucker deal, the Raptors sent the Suns cash considerations of $1MM, Pincus tweets. Phoenix also received Jared Sullinger and two second-round picks in the deal. The Suns waived Sullinger on Friday.
  • The Santa Cruz Warriors, Golden State’s D-League affiliate, has traded Cameron Jones to the Canton Charge, leagues sources tell Adam Johnson of D-League Digest (Twitter link).

Patterson, Kelly Added Because Of Familiarity With System

Some Hawks fans were underwhelmed with Atlanta’s decision to quickly fill their roster vacancies with players they had cut previously in the year but head coach Mike Budenholzer cites their familiarity with the team’s system as the motivating factor, says Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Atlanta currently sits fifth in the Eastern Conference, well within reach of home-court advantage in the first-round if things break right in the second half of the season.