International Rumors | Hoops Rumors

DeJuan Blair To Play In China

September 7th, 2016 at 10:12am CST by Luke Adams

Confirming international reports from earlier in the week, DeJuan Blair‘s agent, Happy Walters, confirmed that his client will head to China for the upcoming season. According to international basketball reporter David Pick (via Twitter), Blair has signed with Jiangsu Tongxi of the Chinese Basketball Association.

A former second-round pick, Blair was a solid backup for the Spurs during his first four NBA seasons, but has seen his production slip along with his playing time in recent years. After spending a year in Dallas, the veteran big man played for the Wizards the past two seasons.

In 2015/16, Blair appeared in 29 games, averaging just 2.1 PPG and 2.0 RPG while shooting a career-low 41.2% from the floor. The 27-year-old was sent to Phoenix in the deadline deal that saw Markieff Morris head to Washington, and the Suns subsequently waived him, ending his season early.

In China, Blair will be joining a team that also signed Jared Cunningham last month. Blair and Cunningham will be tasked with helping to reverse the fortunes of a club that finished with a 12-26 record in CBA play last season.

Sebastian Telfair’s Deal In Italy Falls Through

September 1st, 2016 at 8:21am CST by Eddie Scarito

SEPTEMBER 1: Telfair’s deal with Auxilium Cus Torino has fallen through, with the team opting to sign former Georgetown point guard Chris Wright instead, per Orazio Cauchi of Sportando. As David Pick tweets, the team was willing to give Telfair an NBA opt-out until late January, but he also asked for a China opt-out, at which point the club balked.

AUGUST 29: Former NBA lottery pick Sebastian Telfair is headed overseas again, having agreed to sign a deal with the Italian team Auxilium Cus Torino, Orazio Cauchi of Sportando reports (on Twitter). The pact will pay Telfair in excess of $300K and includes an NBA out clause that he can exercise in late January, international journalist David Pick reports (Twitter link).

Telfair had also garnered interest from Pallacanestro Cantù and Cedevita Zagreb over the past few weeks, but Torino made the strongest push for him, Cauchi notes. He had worked out for both the Nets and the Spurs this offseason, though no NBA offer was made for his services, Pick also notes (Twitter link).

The point guard last appeared in the NBA during the 2014/15 campaign, playing in 16 games for the Thunder and averaging 8.4 PPG, 2.8 APG, and 1.9 RPG in 20.4 minutes per contest. The 30-year-old then caught on with the Xinjiang Flying Tigers of China, appearing in 22 contests and notching averages of 19.9 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 4.5 assists in 28.2 minutes per game. He sat out last season.

Jason Thompson To Play In China

August 29th, 2016 at 10:15pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Unrestricted free agent big man Jason Thompson is headed overseas, having reached an agreement with Shandong of The Chinese Basketball Association, international journalist David Pick reports (on Twitter). The exact length and terms of the pact are unknown at this time.

With the majority of NBA teams having filled their preseason rosters, the odds were stacked against Thompson landing a spot to begin the NBA campaign. Heading over to China will allow him to earn a paycheck and still have the opportunity to catch on with an NBA team later in the season. The Chinese season concludes mid-February, but the playoffs can last until the beginning of March. Thompson would be free to pursue an NBA offer once his team’s playoff run ended, provided it qualifies for the postseason.

Thompson split time during the 2015/16 season between the Warriors and Raptors. In a combined 47 games the forward notched averages of 3.1 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.6 assists in 10.0 minutes per outing. His shooting line on the year was .481/.333/.704.

Sir’Dominic Pointer Will Play In Israel

August 28th, 2016 at 11:32am CST by Arthur Hill

Sir’Dominic Pointer, a second-round draft choice by the Cavaliers in 2015, will play in Israel next season, tweets Chris Reichert of Upside and Motor. Pointer has agreed to a reported two-year contract with Hapoel Eilat, but the deal has an escape clause for the NBA (Twitter link).

Cleveland still holds the draft rights to Pointer after making him the 53rd overall selection a year ago. He played for the Cavaliers’ entry in the Las Vegas Summer League the past two seasons.

Pointer, a 6’6″ swingman, spent last season with Cleveland’s D-League affiliate in Canton, averaging 6.9 points and 4.5 rebounds in 50 games. Pointer, 24, played four years at St. John’s before joining the NBA.

Sixers Notes: Henderson, Bayless, Rodriguez, Pleiss

August 28th, 2016 at 10:04am CST by Arthur Hill

The Sixers solidified their backcourt and added a veteran presence in their locker room with three offseason signings, writes Bobby Marks of The Vertical. Entering free agency with $54MM in cap space, the team spent most of it on shooting guard Gerald Henderson and point guards Jerryd Bayless and Sergio Rodriguez. Philadelphia will pay Bayless more than $9.4MM for the upcoming season, along with $9MM for Henderson and $8MM for Rodriguez, giving them the three highest salaries on the roster. Marks adds that the Sixers learned the importance of having a serviceable point guard last season when they started 1-30 before trading for Ish Smith on Christmas Eve.

There’s more this morning out of Philadelphia:

The Sixers are the only team with 20 players currently under contract, Marks notes in the same story. That’s the league maximum heading into training camp, and it means the team will face some tough decisions in cutting down its roster. Friday’s trade for Tibor Pleiss gives the Sixers 14 players with fully guaranteed contracts, although Pleiss’ deal is only for $3MM, so there has been speculation that Philadelphia may not hold onto him. Pleiss played just 82 minutes in Utah last season, so the Sixers may want to evaluate him in camp before making a decision. Philadelphia has six players with partial or non-guaranteed deals.
In his rookie season, Jahlil Okafor never found a way to use his one-on-one offensive skills to help his teammates, writes Derek Bodner of PhillyMag.com. In comparing the contributions of Okafor and Nerlens Noel, Bodner also contends that Okafor doesn’t do much on offense when he doesn’t have the ball and that the defensive concerns that haunted him coming into the league were well founded. Bodner believes the Sixers will eventually have to deal either Okafor or Noel, and the drafting of Ben Simmons and the apparent health of Joel Embiid will probably make the decision happen sooner.
Former Sixers power forward Drew Gordon is close to signing with Rytas Vilnius in Lithuania, tweets international basketball writer David Pick. Gordon, the younger brother of Orlando’s Aaron Gordon, played nine games with Philadelphia in 2014/15.

Latest On Ben Gordon

August 24th, 2016 at 1:26pm CST by Luke Adams

Ben Gordon didn’t appear in an NBA game during the 2015/16 season, but he hasn’t given up on the idea of returning to the league. And it appears the NBA isn’t the only league he’s considering. According to international basketball journalist David Pick (via Twitter), Gordon likes the idea of playing ball overseas.

Pick clarifies that, despite an earlier report, Gordon has not received a contract offer from Anadolu Efes, a team located in Istanbul. It’s not clear whether the Turkish club has interest in Gordon, but according to Pick, no offer from Anadolu Efes is on the table for the veteran guard at the moment.

Although he was waived by the Warriors during the 2015 preseason and averaged just 14.1 minutes per contest during his last season in the NBA, with the Magic, Gordon recently expressed a desire to continue his playing career.

“I would definitely love to get back in the league after being out for a year,” Gordon told Ian Begley of ESPN.com earlier this month. “Just watching the way the game is being played, up and down. Obviously, the three-point shot is always a big deal but it seems like just now, more than ever, that shot is being used more and more. So I feel like I can still play at a high level and shoot that three-ball and add that kind of depth to a team that may be looking to fulfill that need. So yeah, I definitely have hopes of making a return with an NBA team or just playing period, wherever that may be.”

An 11-year veteran, Gordon scored more than 11,000 NBA points during his time in Chicago, Detroit, Charlotte, and Orlando. In his 744 regular-season contests, the 33-year-old has averaged 14.9 PPG and shot 40.1% on three-pointers.

Jared Cunningham To Play In China

August 23rd, 2016 at 9:51am CST by Luke Adams

After spending four seasons in the NBA and the D-League, Jared Cunningham is taking his talents overseas for the 2016/17 season. As relayed by Emiliano Carchia of Sportando, Cunningham has signed with Chinese team Jiangsu Tongxi.

The 24th overall pick in the 2012 draft, Cunningham was sent to Dallas by the Cavaliers in a draft-day trade, the first move in an NBA journey that saw the former Oregon State guard spend time with six different teams. The Mavericks, Hawks, Kings, Clippers, Cavaliers, and Bucks have all had Cunningham on their regular-season rosters for at least brief stints since he entered the league.

In total, Cunningham appeared in 84 regular-season contests, including 40 with the Cavs last season. He never carved out a consistent role, however, averaging just 2.3 PPG on .347/.306/.674 shooting for his NBA career.

The 25-year-old had more success in the D-League, where he averaged 17.2 PPG for four separate teams in 69 overall games. However, by heading to China, Cunningham will get a chance to earn more playing time than he would in the NBA, and more money than he would in the D-League.

New York Notes: Wroten, Hernangomez, Bennett

August 19th, 2016 at 12:55pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Knicks had long-term plans for point guard Tony Wroten when they signed him in mid-March, Charley Rosen of Today’s Fastbreak reveals in the latest installment of “The Phil Jackson Chronicles.” Wroten, who was waived in June after New York traded for Derrick Rose, was originally set to get an extended audition this offseason. Jackson, the team president, said the Knicks signed Wroten during the season rather than waiting for free agency because it wanted to have him available for summer league play.

“Signing Tony now also gives us more time to evaluate him,” Jackson said in March about Wroten, who was recovering from surgery on a partially torn ACL in his right knee. “Can he make it all the way back? Can he grasp our philosophy? Tony is only 22 and, if everything does work out, he certainly fits the description of the type of point guard that we’re looking for. It’s a futuristic move for us. A move that gives us another choice. And it’s one of the things we have to do to find suitable talent.” Wroten never appeared in a game for the Knicks. The Grizzlies claimed him off waivers, then released and later re-signed him.

There’s more news from the Atlantic Division:

Willy Hernangomez, a Spanish center who will face Team USA at the Olympics today, has a chance to be part of the Knicks‘ rotation next season, writes Fred Kerber of The New York Post. That’s the opinion of ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla, who is considered an expert on international basketball. “He does not have ‘starter’ or ‘stardom’ written all over him yet, but he has a chance because of his youth, mobility and size to develop into a good player in time,” Fraschilla said. “If you could find a 6-11 second-round pick who’s only 22 years old and is beginning to prove himself both at the Olympics and in the second-best league in the world in Spain, you’d say it is a bonus for the Knicks.”
Former overall No. 1 pick Anthony Bennett says he likes the “brand new vibe” in Brooklyn as he tries to resurrect his career with the Nets, relays NetsDaily.com. “For the most part, [I’m] going in here with an open mind, no pressure, just going out there and playing,” Bennett says in a new video posted on YouTube. Bennett signed a two-year deal that will pay him a guaranteed $1,015,696 this season and $1,087,745 if he’s on the roster for opening night in 2017.

And-Ones: All-Star Game, Griffin, Rubio, Towns

August 19th, 2016 at 10:31am CST by Arthur Hill

New Orleans has been selected to replace Charlotte as the host for the 2017 All-Star Game, reports Brett Martel of The Associated Press. An official announcement from the league is expected later today, tweets Brett Dawson of the New Orleans Advocate. The NBA announced last month that it was pulling the game from Charlotte in protest of a controversial new North Carolina law regarding protections for lesbian, gay and transgender people. The league offered to give Charlotte the 2019 game if changes are made to the statute. New Orleans also hosted the event in 2008 and 2014. The game is scheduled for February 19th, which coincides with the start of Mardi Gras parades.

There’s more NBA-related news this morning:

Eric Griffin, a former D-League All-Star whose quest for the NBA was halted by an attempted murder charge, has agreed to a contract in Israel, according to Ian Begley of ESPN.com. The state of Florida dropped the charges against Griffin in June, clearing him to resume his basketball career. He will join the Galil Gilboa club, says his agent, Tod Seidel. Griffin had been charged with attempted first-degree murder with a firearm and spent a week in jail in May. The Florida state attorney’s office investigated the case and determined that Griffin had an alibi and did not match the victim’s description. Seidel says the incident cost Griffin the chance to play in the NBA’s summer league and in the Philippines.
The death of Ricky Rubio‘s mother made him consider skipping the Summer Olympics, writes Jon Krawczynski of the Associated Press. The Spanish point guard talked regularly to his mother through video chats after Timberwolves games last season and was distraught over her battle with lung cancer. “Sometimes at night during the season I was going through hell,” he said. “Waking up in, who knows, Sacramento, in L.A., in the middle of the night alone in a hotel and thinking, ‘Why am I here? Is it really worth it?'”
Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns tops the list of the best NBA sophomores heading into 2016/17, according to Chad Ford and Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com. Both have the reigning Rookie of the Year listed at No. 1. Ford has Knicks big man Kristaps Porzingis ranked second, while Pelton opts for Nuggets center Nikola Jokic.

Western Notes: Parker, Ginobili, Henry, Karl

August 17th, 2016 at 10:01pm CST by Arthur Hill

Longtime Spurs stars Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili both wrapped up their international careers with Olympic losses today in Rio de Janeiro. Parker confirmed that this afternoon’s defeat to Spain was his “last game” for the French team, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The 34-year-old Parker, whose playing time was limited during this Olympics, added that he’s “not gonna change his mind like that.”

Ginobili, 39, also acknowledged his retirement from international basketball after his Argentinian team was soundly defeated by the United States. He got more of a sendoff than he was expecting, writes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. “It was emotional,” Ginobili said. “I didn’t want it to be. I was hoping to sneak out and go to the locker room and do what I had to do there, but everybody conspired against it. The coach put me back in to play together one last time, somebody gave me the ball and brought me back in, somebody threw me a shirt. Then my teammates — it got emotional.” Ginobili has already signed with the Spurs for next season, and Parker is under contract until 2017/18.

There’s more news tonight from the Western Conference:

Former Laker Xavier Henry is optimistic as he continues the long road back from a ruptured left Achilles tendon, writes Joey Ramirez of NBA.com. Henry, who was one of several NBA veterans at L.A.’s mini-camp today, spent last season with the D-League’s Santa Cruz Warriors and credits their coaching and training staffs for helping with his comeback. “I’ve been doing a lot of workouts this summer with a lot of different teams and getting feedback and seeing how I feel,” Henry said. “I’ve been feeling really good. I’m feeling blessed that I can even play basketball again.”
The Lakers will hire Coby Karl, son of former NBA coach George Karl, to be head coach of their D-League affiliate, tweets Shams Charania of The Vertical. Karl was an assistant with the D-League’s Westchester Knicks last season.
The Grizzlies have made the final two additions to new head coach David Fizdale’s staff, the team announced today. Bob Bender, who worked as a scout for the Nets last season, was hired as an assistant coach, and former Clippers and Nets shooting coach Bob Thate will fill that role in Memphis.