Andre Roberson Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Nets Waive Norvel Pelle, Sign Andre Roberson

February 16th, 2021 at 1:03pm CST by Luke Adams

1:03pm: The Roberson signing is official, the Nets announced in a press release.

6:16am: The Nets have waived center Norvel Pelle, opening up a spot on their 15-man roster, the team announced in a press release issued early on Tuesday morning.

With that newly-opened roster spot, Brooklyn will sign free agent forward Andre Roberson, who has agreed to a deal with the club, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link) initially reported that the Nets were “strongly considering” adding Roberson to replace Pelle.

Charania had said on Monday that the Nets mulled the possibility of signing Roberson last month before opting for veteran swingman Iman Shumpert instead. With so many non-guaranteed contracts at the back of their roster – including Pelle’s – the Nets ultimately decided to circle back to the former Thunder forward.

Roberson, who is limited on offense but has a reputation as a defensive stopper, returned last August during the NBA’s summer restart after having been on the shelf for two-and-a-half years due to knee issues. In his last full season, way back in 2016/17, he averaged 6.6 PPG and 5.1 RPG on .464/.245/.423 shooting and typically guarded opponents’ top perimeter threats.

Roberson’s defensive ability should be an asset on a Nets team that doesn’t lack offensive firepower, with Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving leading the way. Roberson and Durant were teammates for three years in Oklahoma City.

As Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets, Brooklyn will carry a modest $217,845 cap hit for Pelle’s 22-day stint with the club. The big man, who logged limited minutes in just three games for the Nets, will clear waivers on Thursday and will be free to sign with any team, assuming he goes unclaimed.

If Roberson signs a guaranteed contract or is retained beyond the salary guarantee deadline of February 24, he’ll have a full-season cap hit of $998,978, the prorated portion of the veteran’s minimum, per Marks. Once the signing is official, the Nets will once again have a full 15-man roster, though they could make additional adjustments before next Wednesday’s salary guarantee deadline.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Charania’s Latest: Nets, Roberson, Ball, Simons, Faried

February 15th, 2021 at 2:39pm CST by Luke Adams

Before they signed veteran swingman Iman Shumpert in an effort to improve their wing defense, the Nets considered longtime Thunder forward Andre Roberson, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic. According to Brian Lewis of The New York Post (Twitter link), the Nets’ interest in Roberson wasn’t just cursory — the team actually worked him out before signing Shumpert.

Roberson, who is limited on offense but has a reputation as a defensive stopper, returned last August during the NBA’s summer restart after having missed over two full years due to knee issues. However, his contract expired at season’s end and he has yet to catch on with a new NBA team. Given how many of Brooklyn’s end-of-roster players have non-guaranteed salaries, it’s possible the Nets could open up a spot and circle back to Roberson later in the season, as Lewis notes.

Here’s more from Charania:

The Raptors and Nets – who were both mentioned by Charania as possible Andre Drummond suitors via trade or buyout – are viewed as two teams in the market for frontcourt help. Charania suggests the Mavericks, Lakers, and Trail Blazers are among the clubs likely to join that list.
Charania confirms that the Bulls have some interest in Pelicans guard Lonzo Ball, but says the two teams haven’t engaged in any dialogue about a possible trade.
Rival teams are keeping an eye on Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons, according to Charania. There’s no indication Portland has interest in moving Simons, but other clubs may envision a larger scoring and play-making role for him than he has in Portland, where he backs up an All-NBA point guard.
Veteran big man Kenneth Faried, 31, is working out in Los Angeles and hopes to make an NBA comeback, per Charania.

Atlantic Notes: Celtics, Nets, Knicks, Raptors

September 24th, 2020 at 9:29am CST by Luke Adams

If the Celtics are unable to come back from a 3-1 deficit to knock off the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, they may not be able to help looking back on a pair of 50-50 outcomes from past drafts that didn’t go in their favor.

As Sam Amick of The Athletic details, the first of those draft-day coin flips came in 2011, when the Celtics owned the 27th overall pick and had narrowed down their choice to JaJuan Johnson or Jimmy Butler. Boston selected Johnson, allowing Butler to fall to Chicago at No. 30. Today, Johnson is eight years removed from playing in his last NBA game, while Butler is on the verge of eliminating the C’s from the postseason (albeit after changing teams three times).

Meanwhile, Game 4 star Tyler Herro, who established a new career high on Wednesday with 37 points, was selected by the Heat in the 2019 draft at No. 13, one pick ahead of the Celtics at No. 14. Those draft slots were as a result of a three-team tiebreaker for the Nos. 12-14 selections, after Charlotte, Miami, and Sacramento all finished the season with identical records. The Hornets won the tiebreaker and claimed the No. 12 pick, while the Heat got No. 13. The C’s, who owned the Kings’ pick, ended up at No. 14.

As A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston writes, there was a “collective moan” among the Celtics’ brass after the Heat selected Herro at No. 13 a year ago, since the C’s had their eye on the Kentucky sharpshooter. They would have had a shot to draft him if they’d had better luck in that draft tiebreaker.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

Brian Lewis of The New York Post questions whether the Nets really need to make a trade for a third star, suggesting that the missing piece for the roster may instead be a tough wing defender who could be signed using the mid-level exception. Lewis points to veteran forward Andre Roberson as one possibility, assuming he’s fully healthy.
David Nurse, a life/skills coach for a number of NBA players, believes that the Knicks will benefit from new assistant coach Johnnie Bryant‘s player development abilities, as Ian Begley of SNY.tv relays. “He focuses on the details and the specifics for each player,” Nurse said on Begley’s podcast, The Putback. “Player development gets thrown out there as a buzzword, like culture. No one really knows what it means. Most (people think of it as) being just rebounding for players, shooting spot shots. But that’s not player development. Johnnie realizes it’s about the details with helping these players that he works with, focusing on their strengths.”
Blake Murphy and Eric Koreen of The Athletic explore a few Raptors offseason topics, including how much the team’s initial offer to free agent guard Fred VanVleet should be worth, while Doug Smith of The Toronto Star says that president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri and GM Bobby Webster will earn their money during this offseason of uncertainty.

Northwest Notes: Roberson, Donovan, Porter, Blazers

July 24th, 2020 at 12:45pm CST by Luke Adams

Thunder forward Andre Roberson hasn’t been a part of the team’s rotation since the first half of the 2017/18 season, having dealt with a series of knee issues that have prevented him from returning to the court. As Royce Young of ESPN details, Roberson finally appears to be close to making his comeback after more than two years of recovery and rehabilitation.

“(It has been) basically a big roller coaster of emotions,” Roberson said of his rehab process. “Just being so close, and then something else would happen. Setback after setback. I don’t know man, it was just tough. … (There were) definitely a lot of times I was ready to give up.”

Roberson, who last suited up on January 27, 2018, says he feels as if he’s “finally ready” to play, though the Thunder won’t raise expectations or put any pressure on the defensive specialist by penciling in for a major role right away. As Young points out, if Roberson plays at all during Oklahoma City’s August 1 restart opener, he’ll have gone 916 days between games.

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

Although Thunder head coach Billy Donovan is on an expiring contract, Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman expects the two sides to work out an agreement to keep Donovan in his current role beyond this season.
Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. has cleared his initial quarantine period at the NBA’s campus, a source tells Mike Singer of The Denver Post (Twitter link). Porter still needs to pass a cardiac screening to be cleared to practice, but the team is taking small steps toward getting its full roster available.
The Trail Blazers – and head coach Terry Stotts – were happy with what they saw on Thursday from Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins, who were playing for the first time in 16 months and nine months, respectively. As Jason Quick of The Athletic writes, the team still wants to experiment with frontcourt options in its next two inter-squad scrimmages before deciding on a starting five for the seeding games. “Right now, I would like to see Nurk and Hassan Whiteside out there together and we can make decisions after that,” Stotts said. “At this point, I’m just keeping an open mind about it.”

Thunder Notes: Roberson, Dort, Ferguson, Bazley

July 18th, 2020 at 6:32pm CST by Arthur Hill

Thunder forward Andre Roberson continues to make progress in his attempted comeback, writes Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman. Roberson was one of the NBA’s top perimeter defenders before suffering a ruptured patellar tendon in his left knee in January of 2018, then an avulsion fracture later that year. Head coach Billy Donovan offered an encouraging update as Roberson tries to return to action for the first time in 30 months.

“He’s doing great,” Donovan said. “I think he’s gaining confidence. I think he’s got confidence in where he’s at physically. I think he’s trying to gain confidence right now in terms of being out from playing competitive basketball for two years.”

The injury has kept Roberson sidelined for almost the entirety of the three-year, $30MM contract he signed in 2017. He is earning $10.74MM this season and a strong performance could make him an intriguing name on this year’s free agent market.

There’s more on the Thunder:

Luguentz Dort was effective during his time as a starter, but there’s no guarantee he will keep that role in Orlando, according to Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. Dort began the year as a two-way player, but seized an opportunity when Terrance Ferguson missed eight games in January for personal reasons. Dort impressed OKC’s coaches with his defense and started the final 21 games before the shutdown. Dort, Ferguson and Roberson are all candidates for the starting wing spot. “Lu’s done a really good job,” Donovan said. “For me to sit here and say that he’s starting when we get back to playing, I wouldn’t say that. I’m really trying to be open-minded to let these guys play and compete and find out where they’re all at and how well they’re playing with one another.”
No Thunder player is enjoying his time at Disney World more than 20-year-old Darius Bazley, Mussatto writes in a separate story. Part of Bazley’s excitement comes from being fully healed after missing the final 11 games before the break with a bone bruise in his right knee.
Donovan said his younger players in particular did a great job of staying in shape during the hiatus, telling Paris Lawson of NBA.com that Dort, Ferguson, Bazley and Hamidou Diallo look different than when he last saw them in March. “You can see a physical difference I think when you’re dealing with young players that are 19, 20, 21 years old,” Donovan said. “Their maturation and how much they can develop through four, five or six months can be really amazing.”

Northwest Notes: Jazz, Bogdanovic, Roberson, Blazers

July 12th, 2020 at 5:00pm CST by JD Shaw

For the Jazz, adjusting to the NBA’s campus in Orlando was especially difficult during the first two days of the trip, Tony Jones of The Athletic details.

Like other teams, each player and staff member in Utah’s traveling party had to quarantine for the first 48 hours once they arrived. The sudden adjustment to being isolated was an eye-opener for many within the franchise.

“Those first 48 hours sucked,” Joe Ingles said with a chuckle. “The window of the room was sealed shut, so I couldn’t open it. So I fear over the course of some months, the room is going to get a little stanky.”

Coaches and staff members were no exception to this, naturally, with head coach Quin Snyder offering his perspective on the first 48 hours of his journey.

“We had a lot of time to ourselves,” Snyder said. “It was a lot of time to think. I had to be careful to not overthink.”

Utah is entering the resumed season with the fourth-best record in the Western Conference at 41-23, trailing the No. 3 seed Nuggets by 1.5 games and the No. 2 seed Clippers by three games.

Here are some other notes out of the Northwest Division tonight:

The Jazz are also adjusting to life without Bojan Bogdanovic in Orlando, Ryan McDonald of The Deseret News writes. Bogdanovic is slated to miss the rest of the season after undergoing wrist surgery in May, averaging 20.2 points in 63 games on the year. “Missing Bojan, having to adjust the way we play, our style, I think Coach is adapting in a way that helps us out to play more freely but still have a lot of structure and the way he wants us to play,” Royce O’Neale said.
Thunder forward Andre Roberson joined the team in practice on Friday for the first time in nearly a year, Royce Young of ESPN writes. Roberson, who last saw NBA action over two years ago, first sustained a ruptured patellar tendon in January of 2018. He suffered a setback later in the year that required additional surgery, then experienced another setback six weeks later by sustaining an avulsion fracture in his knee. “He looked really, really good in terms of the way he was moving,” head coach Billy Donovan said. “It was great to see him out there. I was really happy for him. But like we’ve talked about in the past, we’ll see how he can continue to build up and develop here over the next week, but he was out there today and he participated in everything.”
The Trail Blazers’ big men looked good in their returns to the court last week, Jason Quick of The Athletic writes. Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins have both healed from their respective injuries, with Portland now sporting three seven-foot players when including Hassan Whiteside. “They both looked like the way we remembered them,” coach Terry Stotts said. “I told Nurk that — he’s the Nurk I remember playing at both ends of the floor. He made some really good passes, good rebounds. And Zach was full of energy. You couldn’t tell either one of them missed time. It was very encouraging.”

Northwest Notes: Blazers, Roberson, Thunder, Dozier

July 2nd, 2020 at 11:08am CST by Luke Adams

With Trevor Ariza unavailable for the NBA’s restart this summer, Damian Lillard thinks the Trail Blazers could opt for a big starting lineup that features Carmelo Anthony at the three (Twitter link via Royce Young of ESPN).

As Jason Quick of The Athletic writes, Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts confirmed that returning center Jusuf Nurkic will reenter the starting lineup alongside Lillard, Anthony, and CJ McCollum. That leaves one starting spot up for grabs, and if Portland goes big, Zach Collins or even Hassan Whiteside could occupy that last spot.

“I haven’t ruled out starting Hassan and Nurk together,” Stotts said when discussing the Trail Blazers’ lineup. “Why not? … It gives you something to write about.”

Stotts, who referred to Ariza as the Trail Blazers’ top perimeter defender, suggested that the team will fill that hole in its rotation with a “by-committee” approach. As Quick details, Anthony, Gary Trent Jr., Mario Hezonja, and Nassir Little could all play a role in that committee.

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

Thunder forward Andre Roberson, who hasn’t played in an NBA game in two-and-a-half years, has been participating in individual workouts at the club’s practice facility, head coach Billy Donovan told reporters on Wednesday (link via Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman). Roberson’s availability for the restart will be determined after the team sees him in action in five-on-five workouts.
Chesapeake Energy Corporation, the company that owns the naming rights for the Thunder‘s arena, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, as Royce Young of ESPN writes. Chesapeake’s agreement with the Thunder runs through the 2022/23 season — it’s not clear how that deal will be affected by the company’s bankruptcy.
PJ Dozier‘s new deal with the Nuggets is a three-year pact that was completed the team’s using mid-level exception, as Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights notes (via Twitter). It features minimum salaries in all three seasons, including about $183K this season and a partial guarantee of $1.2MM in 2020/21, for a total guarantee in the neighborhood of $1.4MM.

Thunder Notes: Roberson, Dort, Restart

June 8th, 2020 at 9:45am CST by Luke Adams

After speaking at length on Sunday about George Floyd’s death and racial and equality issues in the United States, Thunder general manager Sam Presti also answered basketball-related questions about his team.

As Erik Horne of The Athletic details, one of those questions was about whether Andre Roberson might be available to contribute when the season resumes. A recent report from Horne suggested that Roberson is nearly ready to return from the knee issues that have sidelined him for more than two full years.

“The time has really helped ‘Dre,” Presti said. “From a health standpoint, he’s doing really well. The issues that we’re facing is that we have not had the opportunity to see him on the court in real basketball activity because everything is relegated to the one-on-zero still. I think we’re in a better place than we were March 11, that’s for sure, but we don’t know exactly where he’ll be once we get down to actually participating in contact and going through team practices and things of that nature.”

Presti added that the club is “hopeful” that Roberson will be able to play this summer, but wasn’t willing to say anything more definitive about the forward’s status. As Horne notes, it doesn’t make much sense for OKC to increase expectations for Roberson, or to declare him ready before seeing how he’ll impact the chemistry of the current roster, which looks a whole lot different than it did when he last suited up for the Thunder in January 2018.

Here’s more on the Thunder:

The NBA continues to consider how to handle two-way players when the season resumes, and it’s possible no team will be more impacted by that decision than the Thunder, whose two-way player Luguentz Dort was a fixture in the starting lineup leading up to the hiatus. On Sunday, as Horne writes, Presti referred to Dort as “a guy that we’d love to have with us,” adding that he’s optimistic that will be possible.
Here’s from Presti (via Horne) on Dort, who could have his two-way contract converted into a standard deal: “We have to just see what the options are and then make our best decision there, but he’s clearly someone that we want to have with us going forward, and that would be my expectation. That would be my hope. That could be something that happens in the short-term, it could be something that happens later, I don’t know.”
Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman examines the pros and cons of the NBA’s restart plan for the Thunder, noting that playing at a neutral site could benefit the team, which wasn’t expected to have home-court advantage in any playoff series.

Northwest Notes: Nuggets, Jazz, Blazers, Roberson

June 5th, 2020 at 2:24pm CST by Luke Adams

While the Trail Blazers were the only NBA team to vote against the NBA’s return-to-play plan, they weren’t the only Northwest club that would have preferred a solution besides the 22-team format the league settled on.

Two league sources tell Mike Singer of The Denver Post that the Nuggets initially voted in favor of a plan that would have sent the 16 current playoff teams immediately to the postseason. According to Singer, Denver was “strongly” opposed to a 20-team format that would’ve involved a World Cup-style group stage, believing it undermined the team’s regular season success.

While those 16- and 20-team plans received consideration, Silver ultimately decided that the 22-team format was in the NBA’s best interest, and when he brought it to the league’s Board of Governors for a vote on Thursday, the Nuggets voted to approve it.

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

Now that the Nuggets have officially clinched a playoff spot, Nikola Jokic ($466K) and Paul Millsap ($150K) have secured their playoff bonuses for the 2019/20 season, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks observes (via Twitter).
In a series of pieces for The Athletic, Tony Jones examines what the NBA’s return-to-play format means for the Jazz, while Jason Quick does the same for the Trail Blazers and Jon Krawczynski explores what’s next for the Timberwolves now that they’ve been left out of the league’s return. Although Utah is assured a playoff spot and Portland isn’t, the Jazz will be missing injured forward Bojan Bogdanovic, while the Blazers should get big men Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins back in their lineup.
Within his own look at what the restart plan means for the Thunder, Erik Horne of The Athletic reports that Andre Roberson would be ready to play now if the season hadn’t been suspended. Without being able to scrimmage or practice at all over the last three months, it’s not clear if Roberson will return this summer, but it sounds like it’s a possibility. The veteran forward, who has battled multiple knee issues, hasn’t played in an NBA game in over two years.

Andre Roberson Talks About Returning

April 19th, 2020 at 10:01am CST by Arthur Hill

Thunder swingman Andre Roberson believes he’s close to returning to action after missing more than two years with a knee injury, writes Moke Hamilton of USA Today. Roberson discussed his status during an appearance on the Catching Up With The Family podcast with Nate Tomlinson, his former college teammate.

“I’m kinda past the rehab stage,” Roberson said. “I’m almost to the point where — I should be playing, honestly. But I’m still taking it a day at a time until I get back into our medical staff’s hands and get reevaluated. Just staying patient through it all and knowing that the light is right there at the end of the tunnel. … It’s definitely been a long journey and it’s coming to an end.”

Roberson was a defensive specialist for Oklahoma City for four and a half seasons before tearing his left patella tendon in January of 2018. Some setbacks along the way have extended his rehab process. Roberson indicates in the interview that he would like to take the court if the NBA is able to resume its current season at some point.

Roberson’s desire to return may be related to his contract situation. He’s earning $10.74MM in the final year of his current deal and is headed for free agency whenever the offseason arrives.