International Rumors | Hoops Rumors

NBA Vet Chase Budinger Headed To Europe

October 27th, 2016 at 5:13pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Forward Chase Budinger, the final training-camp cut by the Nets, has signed with Baskonia of Spain, international journalist David Pick tweets. The news was also reported by Sportando and Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical. Budinger will join two other former NBA players who previously signed with Baskonia in the Euroleague, center Andrea Bargnani and point guard Shane Larkin.

Budinger signed a non-guaranteed contract with Brooklyn just prior to camp. The 6’7” Budinger, who was originally drafted in 2009 by the Pistons and then immediately shipped to the Rockets, has bounced around the league in recent years. After playing three seasons in Houston, he was a reserve for the Timberwolves for three consecutive campaigns.

He appeared in 49 games with the Pacers last season before he was waived in early March. He was quickly snapped up by the Suns and came off the bench in 17 games for them as the season wound down.

Budinger averaged 7.9 points, 3.0 rebounds in 19.7 minutes over 407 NBA games. A career 35.2% shooter from 3-point range, Budinger shot under 30% from beyond the arc last year for both Indiana and Phoenix, which cooled interest in him on the free-agent market. It’s possible now that Budinger, 28, has played his last NBA game.

Markel Brown To Play In Russia

October 25th, 2016 at 10:00am CST by Luke Adams

After being waived by the Cavaliers last week, Markel Brown has lined up another job. Brown will head overseas, having agreed to a deal with Russian team Khimki Moscow, according to international basketball journalist David Pick (Twitter link).

Brown, 24, spent the last two seasons in Brooklyn, averaging 5.3 PPG, 2.1 RPG, and 1.2 APG in his 109 total contests with the club. He played sparingly during the 2015/16 season until Lionel Hollins was dismissed as the Nets’ head coach — he saw his minutes – and his production – increase down the stretch. In his final 30 games of the season, Brown averaged 9.4 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 2.1 APG, and shot .438/.358/.758, a significant improvement on his career marks.

Despite his solid performance last spring, Brown ultimately wasn’t in the Nets’ plans. After initially tendering him a qualifying offer, making him a restricted free agent, Brooklyn rescinded that QO near the end of the July moratorium. The OSU alum signed a camp deal with the Cavs, but didn’t receive any guaranteed money from the team and was one of Cleveland’s cuts leading up to the season.

Southwest Notes: Holiday, Demps, Beverley

October 23rd, 2016 at 8:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday remains on a leave of absence to care for his wife and newborn daughter, and his representatives have provided an update on the family. In a statement posted on the team’s website, Glushon Management says Lauren Holiday had surgery to remove a brain tumor earlier this month at Duke University Hospital. The couple’s daughter, who was born in September, is “healthy and at home with her family.” The Pelicans have given Holiday permission to remain away from the team for as long as necessary to take care of his family.

There’s more news from the Southwest Division:

Pelicans GM Dell Demps will probably get some time to see if his 11 offseason roster additions can be successful, writes Jeff Duncan of The Times-Picayune. Demps kept his job after the 2014/15 season when the organization fired Monty Williams as head coach, and Duncan doesn’t see this as a make-or-break year. The only exceptions could be if the Pelicans get off to a disastrous start like they did in 2015/16 or if Demps’ contract, the details of which haven’t been made public, expires at the end of the season. New Orleans hired former Hawks GM Danny Ferry as a special advisor over the summer.
The Rockets are preparing to start the season without point guard Patrick Beverley and power forward Donatas Motiejunas, posts Calvin Watkins on ESPN Now. Beverley will have surgery Tuesday on his injured left knee and is expected to be out of action four to six weeks. Motiejunas is a restricted free agent and remains unsigned three days before the team’s opener. “Taking two guys who can play 60 minutes, 30 each, who aren’t here, it’s going to have an impact,” said Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni.
Small forward Troy Williams appears on the verge of earning a roster spot with the Grizzlies, writes Michael Wallace of NBA.com. After going undrafted out of Indiana, Williams signed a two-year deal with Memphis in late July with a $150K guarantee. He was the top preseason scorer among rookies at 13.2 points per game and led the Grizzlies in scoring three times.
D.J. Stephens, who was waived by the Grizzlies Saturday, may opt to play overseas instead of playing for the team’s D-League affiliate, Ronald Tillery of the Commercial Appeal reports (Twitter link).

NBA GMs Weigh In On 2016/17 Season

October 18th, 2016 at 11:38am CST by Luke Adams

NBA.com has completed its annual survey of NBA general managers, asking each of the league’s 30 GMs an array of questions about the league’s top teams, players, and coaches. As John Schuhmann of NBA.com details in his piece announcing the results, it comes as little surprise that NBA GMs are just as bullish on the Cavaliers‘ and Warriors‘ chances in 2016/17 as the rest of us are — those are the only two teams GMs predicted to become this season’s NBA champion, with Golden State getting 69% of the vote and Cleveland getting 31%.

While there are many responses in the GM survey worth checking out, we’ll focus on rounding up some of the more interesting ones related to rosters and player movement. Let’s dive in…

LeBron James led the way in votes for 2016/17’s MVP award, but Karl-Anthony Towns was the clear choice for the player most GMs would want to start a franchise with today.
The Warriors were the only team to receive more than two votes for which team made the best offseason moves — Golden State was the runaway winner at 83.3%, largely due to the signing of Kevin Durant. The addition of Durant was easily voted the move most likely to make the biggest impact this season, and it was also viewed as the most surprising move of the summer, just ahead of Dwyane Wade joining the Bulls.
The Jazz‘s trade for George Hill received at least one vote for the move likely to have the biggest impact, and it was the winner for the most underrated player acquisition of the offseason.
Dejounte Murray (Spurs), Kris Dunn (Timberwolves), and Patrick McCaw (Warriors) were considered the biggest steals of the draft by GMs, who voted Milos Teodosic and Sergio Llull as the top international players not currently in the NBA.
NBA general managers view Tom Thibodeau as the new coach most likely to make an immediate positive impact on his new team, and think Chris Paul is the player most likely to become a future NBA head coach.
The rules that GMs wants to see changed or modified include the draft lottery system, the number of timeouts per game, and intentional fouling.

Sixers Notes: Okafor, Noel, McConnell, Rodriguez

October 15th, 2016 at 5:10pm CST by Arthur Hill

Sixers coach Brett Brown expects second-year center Jahlil Okafor to be ready by opening night, tweets Jessica Camerato of CSNPhilly. Okafor is still experiencing soreness in his right knee related to the operation he had in March. Brown said his progress is encouraging, but he will probably begin the season with a minutes restriction (Twitter link). The team is less optimistic about Nerlens Noel, who was scratched from a game last week with a strained groin and may not be able to play in the October 26th opener.

There’s more news out of Philadelphia:

Brown is still working out roles for backup point guards T.J. McConnell and Sergio Rodriguez, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Jerryd Bayless, who signed a three-year, $27MM deal this summer, is still projected as the starter, although he will be sidelined for a while with a wrist injury. McConnell has been announced as the starting point guard for opening night, but Rodriguez will get the start in tonight’s preseason game with the Pistons. The coach warned fans not to read anything into the decisions. “There’s no sort of madness from a discipline standpoint, from a performance standout,” Brown said. “It’s just that we’ve got a few [preseason] games left. I want to see Sergio more at the start of a game with that group we have been looking at, bring T.J. off the bench and really let him be bothersome defensively as he is. That’s the only motive behind that.”
The Sixers are still planning to take it easy with Joel Embiid, but they haven’t ruled out playing him in back-to-back games, Pompey tweets. Philadelphia plans to keep Embiid on a minutes restriction to reduce the risk of problems with the foot injury that cost him his first two NBA seasons.
Former Sixers guard Pierre Jackson will play in Croatia this season, tweets international basketball writer David Pick. Jackson signed with Cedevita Zagreb, the defending champions in Croatia. Philadelphia waived the 25-year-old point guard before the start of the past two seasons.

And-Ones: Parsons, CBA, Pierce, Delfino

October 13th, 2016 at 7:45pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Chandler Parsons has been lobbying the Grizzlies to give him medical clearance to play but his new team is playing things cautiously, Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com reports. Parsons is rehabbing from March knee surgery and the Grizzlies don’t want him to have any setbacks when he returns to the court, MacMahon continues. Parsons received a four-year, $94MM contract despite the injury he suffered while playing for the Mavericks last season. “He’s definitely making great progress,” Grizzlies coach David Fizdale told MacMahon. “He’s doing a lot of drills with us right now where he’s not hitting, per se. It’s just very scripted, but he’s moving full speed. … I’d rather have him for 75 games than four and he’s out.”

In other developments around the league:

Taking care of retired players is a priority in the Collective Bargaining Agreement talks, Cavs superstar LeBron James told Jon Krawczynski and Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press. The NBA and its players have agreed that the next CBA will include new league-funded programs to help retired players with education and medical expenses, four people with knowledge of the situation told the AP. In exchange for those programs, and pending full approval from both sides, the split of basketball-related income would remain the same “50-50” deal as it is in the current agreement, the AP story adds. “We’ve all built this league together,” James said told the AP. “No matter how big of a guy you were or if you were the 15th guy on the bench, we all built this league into what it is today. But it’s not just my idea. I’m not taking any credit for that.”
Paul Pierce isn’t a fan of Kevin Durant‘s decision to join the Warriors, as he discussed on a Sirius XM Radio interview that was relayed by NBA.com. The Clippers forward believes Durant should have stayed with the Thunder, rather than join the franchise that vanquished his former team in the Western Conference playoffs. “I understand when you have great players on losing teams who are tired of losing, struggling in the playoffs every year,” Pierce said. “You’re the lone star. I’ve been in that position. I could have left Boston years ago, but I stuck it out. I just feel like when you’re that close, as a competitor, you don’t go join the team that just put you out.”
Fortitudo Bologna in Italy is still hopeful of signing ex-NBA swingman Carlos Delfino, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Delfino, 34, last played in the NBA in 2012/13, when he appeared in 67 games for the Rockets.

League Announces Launch Of NBA Academies

October 12th, 2016 at 12:51pm CST by Luke Adams

During his time in China this week, NBA commissioner Adam Silver officially confirmed the launch of NBA Academies, a development initiative first reported in September. As Fran Blinebury of NBA.com writes, the project will involve “elite training centers” around the world to develop top male and female basketball prospects.

The Chinese cities of Urumqi, Jinan, and Hangzhou will be the homes for the first three of the international NBA academies, per Blinebury. NBA-trained coaches will work at each training center to help develop international prospects on and off the court, and each center will feature under-16 and under-18 teams that will play against top competition.

“[We] want these players to have the opportunity to play against other elite players,” Silver said. “What we know from our NBA experience that in order to develop the best players, in addition to the wonderful training they’re getting already here in China, they need to play against top-notch competition. That’s what we’re going to do as an important measure to see more great Chinese players coming into the NBA.”

For more details on the NBA Academies initiative, be sure to check out our story from September on the program.

Categories:
International

Gigi Datome Received Multiple NBA Offers?

October 11th, 2016 at 8:52am CST by Luke Adams

Italian forward Gigi Datome spent a couple seasons in the NBA in recent years, playing for the Pistons in 2013/14 and both the Pistons and Celtics in 2014/15. However, last summer, Datome headed back overseas, signing a deal with Turkish team Fenerbahce Ulker. And for now, the 28-year-old says he’s happy to remain in Turkey, contending for a Euroleague title.

“It would be amazing to win Euroleague,” Datome told Italy’s Tuttosport, per Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. “But it is going to be difficult. CSKA Moscow is a powerhouse, there are Olympiacos, Real Madrid and five other teams. But for this goal some players of our team have decided to stay instead of signing in the NBA, like [Jan] Vesely or [Bogdan] Bogdanovic.

“I had two interesting offers from the NBA during the summer but for one more year I will remain with Fenerbahce,” Datome added. “This is the most interesting basketball. Then we’ll see.”

It’s not clear which two NBA teams might have made those “interesting” offers to Datome, whose rights are no longer held by an NBA club. A cap hold for the veteran forward had been on Boston’s books heading into the 2016 offseason, but the Celtics renounced that hold in order to maximize their cap room in July.

Datome’s contract with Fenerbahce was initially reported to be for two years with a third-year player option, so it’s also not clear whether he would have even been free to move back to the NBA this year — perhaps those teams making “offers” were expressing interest for the future.

In his first stint in the NBA, Datome averaged just 3.4 PPG in 8.1 minutes per contest over the course of 55 games. He currently has a far more significant role in Turkey, so even after his contract with Fenerbahce expires, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him remain overseas for the foreseeable future.

Greg Smith To Play In Turkey

October 7th, 2016 at 11:33am CST by Luke Adams

Veteran NBA big man Greg Smith will head overseas for the next few months, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando, who writes that Smith has signed in Turkey with Istanbul BSB. The team has confirmed that Smith will be joining the roster on a three-month contract, replacing the injured Jarvis Varnado.

Smith, 25, has appeared in 149 total NBA regular-season games over the last five seasons, spending time with the Rockets, Mavericks, and Timberwolves. Last season, he played 18 games for Minnesota, averaging 2.4 PPG and 2.3 RPG in 10.7 minutes per contest. He was waived by the Wolves in June before his salary for 2016/17 became guaranteed.

Assuming Smith’s new team doesn’t extend his contract beyond its current three-month term, the Fresno State product should have the opportunity to catch on with an NBA team later in the season. His stint with the Wolves in 2015/16 began with a pair of 10-day contracts, so Smith could get a look once teams are permitted to hand out 10-day deals this season.

Smith’s new deal in Turkey removes another name from our list of 2016 NBA free agents, a list that is growing increasingly thin.

Jabari Brown, Richard Solomon To Play Overseas

October 6th, 2016 at 11:11am CST by Luke Adams

Jabari Brown and Richard Solomon were among the NBA’s first preseason roster cuts over the last few days, having been waived by the Bucks and Hawks, respectively. Brown’s release came on Wednesday, meaning he hasn’t even cleared waivers yet, but already both players have lined up new deals overseas.

According to international basketball reporter David Pick (via Twitter), Brown has agreed to a deal with the Jilin Northeast Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association, where he’ll replace Tony Crocker. Assuming the two sides finalize that agreement, it will be a return to China for Brown, who played for the Foshan Long Lions last season.

Brown, 23, averaged an impressive 32.4 PPG for Foshan in 27 games, also chipping in 3.8 RPG, 2.5 APG, and 1.1 SPG. Over the last two seasons, the young shooting guard has also spent time with the Lakers’ D-League affiliate, the Los Angeles D-Fenders, averaging 23.1 PPG and shooting .443/.374/.842 in 47 D-League contests.

As for Solomon, the forward has agreed to terms with Gravelines-Dunkerque in France, a source tells Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. The team has since confirmed the signing, announcing it via Twitter.

Solomon, who went undrafted out of the University of California in 2014, appeared in 59 games in the Japanese League last season and averaged 11.3 PPG and 8.9 RPG. Previously, he spent 28 games with Oklahoma City’s D-League affiliate in 2014/15, averaging 8.5 PPG and 6.9 RPG.