Mobile Menu
HEADLINES

A.J. Price

Central Notes: Price, Cavs, Pistons

November 11th, 2014 at 2:05pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Bulls are in first place in the Central Division, and with the struggles of the Cavs so far this season, that might not change for a while. The same stability could be seen in the division’s cellar, even though the last-place Pacers won Monday for a second time this year, beating the Jazz. Both Cleveland and Indiana have made roster moves in the regular season’s first two weeks, and there’s more on the newest Pacer amid the latest from around the Central:

  • The 16th roster spot that the league granted the Pacers is only temporary, but coach Frank Vogel believes that A.J. Price, whom the team signed to fill that slot, deserves a spot on an NBA roster somewhere, notes Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star. Price merely hopes that Vogel is right. “I’m playing for my life, man,” Price said. “I’m staying till they tell me to go or tell me to stay longer, either or.” Price has an offer to play in China, writes Mark Montieth of Pacers.com, but he’s unsurprisingly eager to stay longer if the Pacers see fit to keep him and offload another player, as the Star’s Autumn Allison tweets.
  • The Cavs should be kicking around trade ideas internally, but they shouldn’t be reaching out to other teams at this stage in spite of their .500 record, as Tom Penn of ESPN.com opines amid an Insider-only “Front Office” piece.
  • Stan Van Gundy isn’t the first Pistons coach to start poorly in recent years, but the difference with him is that he has the power to change the team’s personnel, an idea that must be increasingly appealing to him, MLive’s David Mayo writes.
Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Pacers Sign A.J. Price

November 6th, 2014 at 4:40pm CST by Chuck Myron

4:40pm: The deal is official, the team announced.

4:17pm: The Pacers have signed Price, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link), though the team has yet to make any public announcement.

11:06am: Price is expected to sign with Indiana, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link), so it appears the deal with Mekel is likely off.

10:22am: The Pacers would be likely to sign A.J. Price if the visa issues holding up the team’s deal with Gal Mekel derail that signing, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). Indiana is “determined” to have a point guard on the roster in time for Friday’s game against the Celtics, as George Hill, C.J. Watson and Rodney Stuckey all deal with injuries. The NBA has given the Pacers a hardship provision to add a 16th player because of their injuries, but that provision expires after today, and it appears there’s a decent chance that Mekel’s visa won’t be ready until Friday, as Stein wrote earlier.

Price became a free agent earlier this week after the Cavs waived him over the weekend. The sixth-year veteran was on Cleveland’s roster for opening night after making the team on a non-guaranteed contract, but the Cavs opted to quickly replace him with Raptors camp cut Will Cherry. Price, who was as a member of the Pacers for the first three years of his NBA career, spent last season with the Timberwolves and saw just 3.5 minutes per game across 28 appearances. That was the first time that he didn’t average at least 12.9 MPG since the Pacers plucked him out of the University of Connecticut with the 52nd overall pick in 2009.

Indiana has the ability to sign a 16th player thanks to the injuries to Hill, Watson, Stuckey, Paul George and David West, though Stuckey’s sore left foot doesn’t seem likely to keep him out of action for long. To qualify for the hardship provision, teams must have at least four players who have missed three games already, and an independent physician must determine that they’re going to continue to miss time. The Pacers also have a $5.305MM disabled player exception at their disposal because George is expected to miss the entire season, but it’s unlikely they’ll need any more than the minimum salary to secure Price.

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Cavs Waive A.J. Price, Sign Will Cherry

November 2nd, 2014 at 12:20pm CST by Eddie Scarito

SUNDAY, 12:20pm: The Cavs have officially signed Cherry, the team announced.

4:54pm: Cherry’s deal will be for two years, Chris Haynes of The Plain Dealer reports (Twitter link), though it’s still unknown if any portion of his salary will be guaranteed.

SATURDAY, 4:28pm: The Cavaliers have waived A.J. Price, the team has announced. Price’s salary was non-guaranteed, so the move won’t cost Cleveland any cash. This reduces the Cavs’ roster count to 14, one player below the regular season maximum. Cleveland intends to use the open roster spot to sign guard Will Cherry, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports is reporting (Twitter link). No contract details were made available, but Cleveland is limited to offering Cherry no more than the minimum salary.

The big shocker here is that the team isn’t signing Ray Allen, who would seem like a perfect fit for a Cavs squad looking to contend in the Eastern Conference. Allen still hasn’t decided on whether or not he is going to play this season, though he has been mentioned as a target for the Spurs as well as the Cavs.

The 6’1″, 23-year-old Cherry averaged 12.8 PPG and 4.0 RPG while logging  25.3 minutes per contest in five games for the Cavs Summer League team in Las Vegas. Cherry also played for the Cavs’ D-League affiliate last season, when he provided 11.6 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and 4.5 APG in 30.4 MPG. He was waived by the Raptors at the end of training camp last month.

Price hasn’t appeared in either of Cleveland’s regular season games this season. His career numbers are 5.9 PPG, 1.5 RPG, and 2.2 APG. His slash line is .381/.321/.749.

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Cavs Sign A.J. Price To Camp Deal

September 26th, 2014 at 8:35am CST by Chuck Myron

FRIDAY, 8:35am: The deal is official, the team acknowledged, including Price on its training camp roster.

MONDAY, 9:52am: The Cavs have agreed to a training camp deal with A.J. Price, as Terry Pluto of the Plain Dealer writes at the bottom of his weekend column. It’s not clear if there’s any guaranteed money involved or if the contract will cover more than one season, but it’s almost certainly for the minimum salary, since that’s all the Cavs can give.

Price made the Wolves out of camp last season on a non-guaranteed deal, though the team waived him in April, long after his minimum salary had become guaranteed for the season and about a month after he underwent an appendectomy. The point guard didn’t play following the surgery, and he saw just 99 minutes all season across 28 appearances for Minnesota. Price, who turns 28 next month, was a part of the rotation in his previous stops with the Pacers and Wizards after Indiana made him the 52nd overall pick in 2009.

The Excel Sports Management client likely rounds out the Cavs preseason roster, since the team had been carrying deals with 19 other players. Price is likely competing for one of two spots up in the air for the opening night roster, since Cleveland has 12 fully guaranteed pacts, while Anderson Varejao is one of the Cavs on a partially guaranteed contract.

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Wolves Waive A.J. Price

April 3rd, 2014 at 11:37am CST by Chuck Myron

The Wolves have waived A.J. Price, the team announced. The point guard was on a minimum-salary contract, which will remain on the team’s books. The timing is unusual, since there are fewer than two weeks remaining before the end of the season. It’s not tied to Dante Cunningham‘s arrest this morning on suspicion of domestic assault, tweets Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune, who notes that the team made its decision to cut ties with Price prior to the arrest. Price’s release brings the team down to 14 players, and presumably the Wolves will add someone before the season is through.

Price had an appendectomy in early March and hasn’t played since. He saw just 3.5 minutes per game this season in 28 appearances, but the Wolves nonetheless decided to keep him through December 8th, when his contract became fully guaranteed. The Excel Sports Management client inked the deal coming off of a career year with the Wizards, for whom he started 22 games, averaging 9.0 points and 4.7 assists in those starts.

The 27-year-old is ineligible to take part in the postseason this year if he ends up with a team that’s playoff-bound, since Minnesota waived him after March 1st. I imagine the Wolves have their eyes on a free agent prospect whom they’d like to sign to a contract that runs through the end of the season with a non-guaranteed year tacked on for 2014/15, though that’s just my speculation. Zgoda suggests that player would likely be a forward like Cunningham, whose absence, however long it might be, creates a more significant hole than Price’s.

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Players Whose Contracts Will Be Guaranteed

January 7th, 2014 at 3:25pm CST by Luke Adams

As we outlined earlier today, players on non-guaranteed contracts who aren’t released by 4:00pm central time will have their full 2013/14 salaries guaranteed. We’ll be keeping tabs in this post on players who have been informed they’ll remain on their respective teams’ rosters, with new updates added to the top of the list throughout the afternoon:

  • Barring an unexpected development, the Pacers will guarantee Rasual Butler‘s contract today, tweets Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star.

Earlier updates:

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Contract Details: Wayns, Curry, Price

January 3rd, 2014 at 4:59pm CST by Zachary Links

Here’s an update on a handful of contracts from around the league, courtesy of The Score’s Mark Deeks..

  • The guarantee date on the contract of Clippers guard Maalik Wayns‘ was pushed back from December 1st after his injury, meaning that he’s still on a non-guaranteed deal. He’s unlikely to make the cut on Tuesday, January 7th when contracts become guaranteed.
  • There’s a good chance Seth Curry will be waived by the Grizzlies before Tuesday as his deal is non-guaranteed. Terms of the guard’s contract were previously unknown.
  • A.J. Price‘s deal with the Timberwolves still appears to be non-guaranteed, despite previous reports indicating that he would be locked in after December 8th. Darren Wolfson of ESPN 1500 Twin Cities tweets that Price’s Player’s Association record seems to be at odds with the T-Wolves’ PR, which says Price remains non-guaranteed. In any case, the 27-year-old may survive decision day, as point guards are in hot demand around the league.
  • The terms of Jeremy Tyler‘s deal with the Knicks (whether he is guaranteed or not) are still unknown.
Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Odds & Ends: Collins, Augustin, Mavs, Cavs

December 11th, 2013 at 5:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

Jannero Pargo‘s contract with the Bobcats became fully guaranteed when the team didn’t waive him yesterday, and A.J. Price passed his contract guarantee threshold with the Timberwolves this weekend. That means the rest of the players with non-guaranteed contracts won’t have their deals fully guaranteed unless they remain on their teams until the leaguewide guarantee date of January 10th. We’ll continue to track non-guaranteed contracts here until that date. Here’s more from around the league:

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Upcoming Contract Guarantee Dates

November 29th, 2013 at 12:02pm CST by Luke Adams

As we’ve outlined before, players on non-guaranteed contracts will see their full-season salaries become guaranteed if they remain on an NBA roster beyond January 7th, 2014. Up until that date, teams can safely release most players on non-guaranteed deals and avoid paying their entire salaries — the club would be on the hook for just a pro-rated portion of that salary, or a partial guarantee that was previously agreed upon.

However, not every player on a non-guaranteed contract has to wait until January to find out whether they’ll be receiving a full season’s worth of pay checks. There are at least three players whose deals are known to include earlier guarantee dates. Here’s a breakdown of who those players are, the dates they’ve got circled on their calendars, and the likelihood that they’ll receive full guarantees:

Maalik Wayns (Clippers)
Guaranteed for $788,872 if not waived on or before December 1st.
We haven’t heard any updates on Wayns’ status since he underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus in mid-October. While the 22-year-old surely would have preferred to stay healthy, the injury could end up benefiting him financially. As Larry Coon writes in his CBA FAQ, non-guaranteed players who are injured and subsequently waived will receive full guarantees until they’re healthy again or until the end of the season, whichever comes first. So even if Wayns is waived by the Clippers in the next couple days, he’ll continue to earn his salary.

A.J. Price (Timberwolves)
Guaranteed for $947,907 if not waived on or before December 8th.
Ricky Rubio and J.J. Barea are getting nearly all the point guard minutes in Minnesota, so there haven’t been many left over for Price, who has been unproductive in his 30 total minutes this season. The Wolves, who were ravaged by injuries last season, know better than most teams that having more than enough depth can come in handy later in the year, but perhaps the club will choose to release Price and re-add a third point guard if and when one is needed.

Jannero Pargo (Bobcats)
Currently partially guaranteed for $300,000. Guaranteed for $1,399,507 if not waived on or before December 10th.
Like Price, Pargo has been stuck behind a pair of effective point guards in the early going — Kemba Walker and Ramon Sessions are ahead of him on Charlotte’s depth chart. Pargo has played just 15 total minutes in three games, so virtually everything I wrote about Price applies to the veteran Bobcat as well. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the team cut Pargo to save a little money, then re-sign him later in the season if depth becomes an issue.

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Odds & Ends: Price, Bennett, Warriors

November 19th, 2013 at 11:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Knicks and Celtics were among the losing teams on a five-game Tuesday in the NBA, and while those clubs fall farther beneath .500, it sounds like they’re thinking about helping each other out via trade, as Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling detailed tonight. Zwerling has a ton of news from New York and Boston, as well as a couple other NBA teams, in the piece we linked to earlier tonight, and there are still more noteworthy items as a busier-than-usual November continues:

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0
Load More Posts