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Magic Sign Trevelin Queen, Brandon Williams

September 12th, 2023 at 6:52pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Magic have signed free agents Trevelin Queen and Brandon Williams, according to a team press release.

Queen’s agreement with Orlando was previously reported. He received an Exhibit 10 contract and Williams’ contract mirrors Queen’s deal, Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel tweets.

If they are waived before the season starts, both players could earn bonuses worth up to $75K if they spend at least 60 days with the Osceola Magic, the team’s G League affiliate.

The camp additions will give the Magic 19 players on their roster, including two-way deals. They can carry 21 players into camp, so more signings are likely to be completed. They have a two-way deal available, so it’s possible Queen or Williams could have their contract converted to that slot.

Queen, a 6’6” swingman, played in seven games last season for the Pacers, averaging 3.0 points and 2.4 rebounds in 10.0 minutes per game. He also appeared in 24 games (15 starts) with Fort Wayne of the NBA G League, averaging 22.6 points, 6.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists in 34.3 minutes per game.

Queen has also played in 17 career NBA regular season games with Houston and Indiana. During the 2021/22 season, Queen was named NBA G League Most Valuable Player and led the Rio Grande Valley Vipers to the G League championship.

Williams, a 6’2” guard, played in 27 games (25 starts) last season with College Park of the NBA G League, averaging 19.8 points and 5.9 assists in 31.6 minutes per game.

Williams played in 24 career NBA regular season games with Portland, averaging 12.9 points and 3.9 assists in 26.7 minutes during the 2021/22 season.

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Northwest Notes: Edwards, Wolves, Williams, Azubuike

March 12th, 2022 at 9:50pm CST by Arthur Hill

Anthony Edwards returned this week after a four-game absence, but the tendinopathy in his left knee may force the Timberwolves guard to play with pain for the rest of the season, writes Chris Hine of The Star Tribune. Edwards, who sat out games for the first time in his NBA career, described the feeling as a “big knot just hurting, hurting, hurting.”

“It’s something that you can play through,” he said. “Certain people can play through it, but if you don’t have a certain tolerance for pain, you can’t play through that.”

Edwards is having a strong second season after finishing as the runner-up in Rookie of the Year balloting last year, but his numbers had been declining lately because of the sore knee. He said he usually felt fine at the beginning of games, but the pain would return quickly.

“It would start off good, then three to four minutes into the game, hurting, hurting, hurting for the rest of the game,” he said. “And I be in trouble because I can’t really do nothing, for real.”

There’s more from the Northwest Division:

  • The Timberwolves could be headed to the playoffs for the first time in four seasons and they may be aiming even higher next year, according to Zach Lowe of ESPN. Minnesota owns all its first-round picks moving forward, and sources tell Lowe that the Wolves are ready “to push some chips in” this summer. The team also faces an important decision on D’Angelo Russell, who will be eligible for a max extension in the offseason.
  • A depleted roster is a mixed blessing for several young Trail Blazers players, who are getting a chance to prove themselves at the NBA level but are also dealing with the embarrassment of frequent blowouts, notes Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian. Portland has eight players who are 22 or younger, including two-way player Brandon Williams, who moved into the starting lineup this week after an injury to Anfernee Simons. “When times get low, even when times get high, you can’t be nonchalant in this league because you have another game around the corner,” Williams said.
  • Jazz center Udoka Azubuike has suffered his third ankle injury in the past 13 months, per Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune. Azubuike appeared to dislocate his right ankle in the closing seconds of a G League game Thursday night.
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Blazers Sign Drew Eubanks To 10-Day, Brandon Williams To Two-Way

February 22nd, 2022 at 5:10pm CST by Rory Maher

FEBRUARY 22: The Trail Blazers have issued a press release officially announcing the additions of Eubanks (10-day) and Williams (two-way).

FEBRUARY 21: The Trail Blazers are signing center Drew Eubanks to a 10-day contract and are also signing Brandon Williams to a two-year, two-way deal, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports (Twitter links).

Eubanks’ 10-day contract will come via hardship exception due to multiple players being injured for an extended time period, as Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter). That means the Blazers, who have a full 15-man roster, won’t have to waive anyone to complete the signing.

Eubanks has ties to Oregon, having spent three seasons with Oregon State in college. He went undrafted in 2018, but caught on with the Spurs. He was on a two-way contract his first couple seasons before signing a guaranteed deal in 2020, which ran through the end of this season.

Eubanks was waived by the Raptors on February 10 after being acquired in the deal that sent Thaddeus Young to Toronto. He’s been productive in limited minutes during his four-year career. Through 49 games this season, he averaged 4.7 PPG and 4.0 RPG in just 12.1 MPG.

After promoting Trendon Watford to a standard contract earlier today, Portland had an open two-way spot, which it is using to sign Williams. He made a brief NBA cameo earlier this season with the Blazers after signing a 10-day hardship deal at the end of December, appearing in two games for a total of 12 minutes.

A former Arizona Wildcat, Williams has mostly been playing for the Westchester Knicks of the G League this season. Through 22 games with Westchester, he’s averaging 22.3 PPG, 4.0 RPG, and 6.1 APG on .451/.349/.848 shooting.

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Blazers Sign Jarron Cumberland, Brandon Williams To 10-Day Contracts

December 26th, 2021 at 7:31pm CST by Luke Adams

DECEMBER 26: The Trail Blazers have officially signed Cumberland and Williams to 10-day deals, the team announced today in a press release. Those contracts will run through January 4.

DECEMBER 25: The Trail Blazers, having already agreed to terms with Cameron McGriff, will sign two more players using hardship exceptions, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links), who reports that guards Jarron Cumberland and Brandon Williams are signing 10-day contracts with the club.

Cumberland, 24, went undrafted out of Cincinnati in 2020 after earning AAC Player of the Year honors in 2019. The 6’5″ shooting guard played for the Raptors 905 and Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the G League as a rookie and joined the Delaware Blue Coats for the 2021/22 season. In 13 NBAGL games (21.1 MPG) this season, he has averaged 9.4 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and 2.8 APG on .432/.341/.857 shooting.

A former Arizona Wildcat, Williams had been playing for the Westchester Knicks this season. While his averages of 17.7 PPG, 4.5 APG, and 1.9 SPG through 10 games (30.1 MPG) are impressive, he has struggled with his efficiency, making just 36.4% of his field goal attempts, including 28.3% of his threes.

Portland didn’t have any players in the health and safety protocols entering the day on Friday, but has since placed five players in the protocols and lined up three deals with replacement players.

The Blazers’ next game is on Monday, so the team has a couple days to get its roster in order and finalize its signings. Hopefully no more Portland players have to be placed in the protocols before then.

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NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2021 Draft

June 2nd, 2021 at 10:38am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has officially released the initial list of early entrants for the 2021 NBA draft, announcing in a press release that 353 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 296 are from colleges, while 57 are international early entrants.

That number obliterates the previous record of 236 early entrants, established in 2018. That had been expected, however, since the NCAA gave players an extra year of eligibility due to the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in seniors having to decide between staying at college for one more season or declaring for the draft as an “early” entrant.

Since well over half of the college early entrants are seniors, there are actually fewer college underclassmen than usual in this initial group of early entrants.

This year’s total of 353 early entrants figures to shrink significantly by July 7 and again by July 19, the two deadlines for players to withdraw their names from the draft pool. But it still looks like the pool will remain extremely crowded, with the eventual number of early entrants certain to exceed 60, the number of picks in the draft.

Our tracker of early entrants for the 2021 draft now includes seniors and is fully up to date. It can be found right here. It doesn’t include players who are automatically draft-eligible this year. As Jonathan Givony of ESPN tweets, that list of auto-eligible players includes the prospects who played for the G League Ignite, such as Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga.

Here are the changes we made to our tracker today:

Newly-added players:

College players:

These players hadn’t previously been included on our unofficial list of underclassmen early entrants and weren’t on the list of senior early entrants that the NBA sent to teams last week.

International players:

These players weren’t previously mentioned on our list of international early entrants. The country listed here indicates where they last played, not necessarily where they were born.

Players removed:

Despite reports or announcements that the players below would declare for the draft, they didn’t show up on the NBA’s official list.

That could mean a number of things — they may have decided against entering the draft; they may have entered the draft, then withdrawn; they may have incorrectly filed their paperwork; or the NBA may have accidentally omitted some names.

In any case, we’ve removed the following names from our early entrant list for the time being.

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And-Ones: Bubble, COVID-19, B. Williams, Singh

September 8th, 2020 at 9:22am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA sent out a memo today informing teams that staffers will be permitted to bring guests into the Orlando bubble for the Conference Finals, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

As Wojnarowski explains, those guests will have to quarantine for seven days before being cleared to move around within the NBA’s bubble. Additionally, each club will be allowed to host a maximum of 10 total staff guests.

The NBA is adjusting its protocols just days after Nuggets head coach Michael Malone vocally expressed his displeasure with the league’s decision not to allow coaches to bring family members onto the Disney World campus.

While Malone was the most outspoken about the policy, a number of other coaches have publicly and privately expressed a similar sentiment. Of course, with his Nuggets trailing 2-1 in the second round and at risk of being eliminated before the Conference Finals, Malone may not end up benefiting from the league’s updated protocols.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

  • NBA teams also received a memo from the league this week alerting medical staffs to be aware of an increased risk of blood clotting associated with the coronavirus, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. While no players have tested positive for COVID-19 in the bubble, a number of players previously contracted the virus.
  • Arizona guard Brandon Williams, who averaged 11.4 PPG as a freshman in 2018/19 before missing his sophomore season due to a knee issue, will leave the program to pursue professional opportunities, the school confirmed in a press release. It’s too late for Williams to declare for this year’s draft, but he’ll forgo his remaining college eligibility.
  • Princepal Singh, a 6’10” forward from India and a graduate of the NBA Academy, spoke to Bryan Kalbrosky of HoopsHype about his decision to play for the NBA G League Ignite select team and his desire to “inspire the youth of India.”
  • In an Insider-only article for ESPN.com, Mike Schmitz identifies some NBA players who have had performed well during the summer restart and explores what impact those performances may have on prospects from the 2020 draft class. For instance, Schmitz suggests that Luguentz Dort‘s impressive defense on James Harden in the first round should make scouts feel more comfortable about a defense-first wing like Isaac Okoro.
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