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Contract Details: Gee, Frazier, M. Miller, Canaan

July 26th, 2016 at 9:51am CST by Luke Adams

When the Pelicans re-signed Alonzo Gee, it appeared that they gave him a minimum-salary deal, which would have been worth $1,315,448. However, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (via Twitter), Gee’s one-year deal is actually worth $1.4MM. It’s a curious move for New Orleans, one with no obvious explanation — a minimum-salary pact for Gee would have only cost the Pelicans a cap hit of about $980K, so the $85K pay bump for the veteran forward actually costs the team over $400K.

Gee had previously declined a player option for the 2016/17 season with the Pelicans. If he had exercised that option, he would have earned $1,379,400 for the upcoming year, so perhaps New Orleans agreed to give him a slight raise to allow him to save face on that decision.

Here are several more contract details on recently-signed contracts, via Pincus:

  • The Pelicans used a portion of their room exception to complete Tim Frazier‘s two-year, $4.09MM deal, tweets Pincus. The signing leaves New Orleans with $808K still available on that room exception. Pincus also notes that the Pelicans renounced Frazier’s qualifying offer before re-signing him, technically making him an unrestricted free agent, rather than an RFA.
  • When Terrence Jones agreed to sign with the Pelicans, it was expected to be a minimum-salary deal unless the club could create more cap room to give him some extra money. That didn’t end up happening, so Jones got the minimum, says Pincus (via Twitter).
  • Initially reported to be worth $5MM over two years, Mike Miller‘s two-year pact with the Nuggets is actually for $7MM, according to Pincus (via Twitter). However, the second year is fully non-guaranteed.
  • Brandon Paul received a two-year, minimum-salary contract from the Sixers that includes a $155K guarantee in year one, per Pincus (Twitter links). Philadelphia holds a team option on year two, which will be non-guaranteed even if the team picks up that option.
  • Pincus provides details on a couple more minimum-salary contracts with partial guarantees, reporting (via Twitter) that D.J. Stephens got $35K from the Grizzlies, while Isaiah Canaan will have a $200K guarantee from the Bulls for 2017/18 — Canaan’s 2016/17 salary is fully guaranteed.
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Grizzlies, D.J. Stephens Agree To Deal

July 21st, 2016 at 2:26pm CST by Will Joseph

The Grizzlies and swingman D.J. Stephens have agreed on a partially guaranteed two-year deal, Shams Charania of The Vertical reports (on Twitter). Stephens played for the Grizzlies’ summer league team.

The 25-year-old Stephens has three games of NBA experience with Milwaukee in 2014. The Cavs signed Stephens to a training camp deal last September, but then waived him shortly before the season started. In the previous fall, Stephens inked a non-guaranteed minimum-salary camp deal with the Pelicans and was among the team’s final cuts about a week before Halloween in 2014.

Stephens went undrafted out of the University of Memphis in 2013, despite a 46-inch vertical leap. He never averaged double figures in points during his four years at Memphis, but he used his athleticism on the other end of the floor, winning the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year award in his senior season. He played overseas after his college career.

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Southwest Notes: Nowitzki, Cuban, Jones, Stephens

July 17th, 2016 at 8:51pm CST by Arthur Hill

There was never a chance that Dirk Nowitzki would emulate Kevin Durant and Dwyane Wade and leave his long-time team, according to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Nowitzki agreed to a two-year, $40MM deal to stay in Dallas, and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he never thought the situation would end differently. “Dirk wasn’t going anywhere,” Cuban said. “Dirk and Dallas, Dallas and Dirk, they’re synonymous. I understand and respect why D-Wade did what he did but there was never any doubt [about Nowitzki staying in Dallas], Dirk gets what Dirk wants.” 

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

  • Durant’s decision to join Golden State benefited the Mavericks, who were able to trade for Andrew Bogut and sign Harrison Barnes as the Warriors worked to clear cap space. Cuban likes the look of his new squad, Washburn writes in the same piece. “Yeah, Golden State south,” the owner said. “Harrison will get a chance to expand his game and [Wesley Matthews] will be fully healthy. Deron Williams, Harrison, Dirk, Andrew, that’s not a bad starting five, and we’ve got some of our guys coming back. So we’ll be all right.”
  • Jameel Warney is trying to decide whether to attend training camp with the Mavericks or accept an offer in South Korea, tweets Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. Warney, a three-time America East Player of the Year at Stony Brook, was part of the Mavs’ Summer League team.
  • The Pelicans‘ Anthony Davis is happy to have Terrence Jones as a teammate again, he said in an interview with Nancy Armour of USA Today on NBA A to Z. New Orleans reached a deal with Jones on Thursday, signing the ex-Rocket for one year at the minimum salary. Houston elected not to submit a qualifying offer to the four-year veteran, making him an unrestricted free agent. ”He’s very physical and he can put the ball on the floor, great slasher and can drive to the basket,” Davis said. ”I think not a lot of bigs can guard him. I think me and him played very well with each other at Kentucky and hopefully we can do it here in New Orleans.” 
  • The Grizzlies will bring former University of Memphis guard D.J. Stephens to camp, new coach David Fizdale said in an interview on NBA.com. The 25-year-old Stephens has three games of NBA experience with Milwaukee in 2014.
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NBA Teams Designate Affiliate Players

November 3rd, 2015 at 4:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

NBA teams cut as much as 25% of their rosters at the end of the preseason, but franchises that have D-League affiliates have a way to maintain ties to many of the players they release from the NBA roster. An NBA team can claim the D-League rights to up to four of the players it waives, as long as the players clear waivers, consent to join the D-League, and don’t already have their D-League rights owned by another team. These are known as affiliate players, as our Hoops Rumors Glossary entry details.

NBA teams allocated 46 affiliate players to the D-League at the beginning of the season last year, and this year, that number has risen to 56, according to the list the D-League announced today. These players are going directly to the D-League affiliate of the NBA team that cut them and weren’t eligible for the D-League draft that took place Saturday. Teams that designated fewer than the maximum four affiliate players retain the ability to snag the D-League rights of players they waive during the regular season, but for now, this is the complete list:

Boston Celtics (Maine Red Claws)

Cleveland Cavaliers (Canton Charge)

Dallas Mavericks (Texas Legends)

Detroit Pistons (Grand Rapids Drive)

Golden State Warriors (Santa Cruz Warriors)

Houston Rockets (Rio Grande Valley Vipers)

Indiana Pacers (Fort Wayne Mad Ants)

Los Angeles Lakers (Los Angeles D-Fenders)

Memphis Grizzlies (Iowa Energy)

Miami Heat (Sioux Falls Skyforce)

New York Knicks (Westchester Knicks)

Oklahoma City Thunder (Oklahoma City Blue)

Orlando Magic (Erie BayHawks)

Philadelphia 76ers (Delaware 87ers)

Phoenix Suns (Bakersfield Jam)

Sacramento Kings (Reno Bighorns)

San Antonio Spurs (Austin Spurs)

Toronto Raptors (Raptors 905)

Utah Jazz (Idaho Stampede)

Also, several players who were on NBA preseason rosters are on D-League rosters through means other than the affiliate player rule. Most of them played under D-League contracts at some point within the last two years, meaning their D-League teams have returning player rights to them. Others entered through last weekend’s D-League draft, while others saw their D-League rights conveyed via trade. Most of these players aren’t with the D-League affiliate of the NBA team they were with last month, with a few exceptions.

Roster information from Adam Johnson of D-League Digest, Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor and freelancer and Hoops Rumors contributor Mark Porcaro was used in the creation of this post.

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Cavs Waive Cooley, Christmas, Daye, Stephens

October 23rd, 2015 at 3:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavs have released Jack Cooley, Dionte Christmas, Austin Daye and D.J. Stephens, the team announced. All were with the team on non-guaranteed deals. The moves leave Cleveland with 16 players, 14 of whom have full guarantees. Shooting guard and preseason sensation Jared Cunningham along with former Duke point guard Quinn Cook are the remaining non-guaranteed Cavs, though he Cavaliers have reportedly been planning to carry only 14 players for opening night.

Cooley, 24, was a late addition to the Cavs preseason roster after the Jazz cut him loose earlier this month. Cleveland signed him in part to compensate for the absence of Tristan Thompson, as Jake Fischer of SI Now tweeted, but with Thompson finally having re-signed this week, it’s no surprise to see Cooley go, in spite of his impressive rebounding. The big man averaged 4.5 points and 8.0 rebounds in just 12.1 minutes per game over two preseason appearances with the Cavs.

Christmas also signed after the preseason had already begun. The 29-year-old shooting guard nonetheless saw plenty of playing time, averaging 6.8 points in 19.9 minutes per game over four contests.

Daye agreed to join the Cavs last month in an effort to refresh a flagging NBA career. The 27-year-old former 15th overall pick averaged 5.0 points in 11.9 minutes per game in six preseason appearances.

Zach Links of Hoops Rumors reported in early September that Stephens would sign with the Cavs. The high-flying 24-year-old swingman put up 3.3 points in 7.3 minutes per game during his four preseason contests.

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Cavs Notes: Williams, J.R. Smith, Blatt

September 29th, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Mo Williams is a client of Mark Bartelstein but said Monday that he represented himself in free agency, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com. The point guard who simply wanted to return to the Cavaliers signed a two-year deal for nearly $4.295MM after trying and failing to get the team to lift the value of the deal, as McMenamin relays. Williams also said he rooted for the Cavs even when he wasn’t playing for them, as George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal writes.

“I didn’t see me [being] over here because I said they’re pretty good at point guard,” Williams said.  “[Matthew Dellavedova] was coming out of his shell and turning into a player. I didn’t see that then. Obviously once the conversation started with [GM David Griffin], I saw a bigger role for me and listening to him, I thought it was a good place for me to be.”

Williams was coy when asked about his relationship with LeBron James, Thomas notes in the same piece, pointing to tweets Williams made in the past criticizing the four-time MVP. However, James embraced the idea of Williams’ return to the team, as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported this summer. See more from Cleveland here:

  • J.R. Smith will make $5MM with the Cavs on his new deal this year after declining a player option worth about $6.4MM, but he expressed no regret over that decision Monday, Haynes notes (Twitter link). “I’m a gambler,” Smith said. “I’ll take a gamble on myself any day.”
  • Michael Dunigan was the last of the Cavaliers camp invitees to be reported, but he was the first to sign, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (All Twitter links). Cleveland ordered its transactions thusly so that it could sign Jared Cunningham, Chris Johnson, Austin Daye, D.J. Stephens, Quinn Cook and Nick Minnerath to Exhibit 9 contracts that cover one season at the minimum salary with no money guaranteed and limited injury protection, Pincus reports. Teams have to have 14 players signed to non-Exhibit 9 contracts before they can sign anyone to an Exhibit 9, and Dunigan was the 14th player, as Pincus reveals. Dunigan is on a one-year, non-guaranteed contract for the minimum salary with standard injury protection, according to Pincus, so the Cavs would be on the hook for his salary for as long as he’s sidelined if he were to get hurt while playing for them.
  • One of the best ways for David Blatt to show he’s learned after his first year in the NBA will be to cut down the minutes for LeBron to keep him fresh, opines Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
  • We looked at the latest involving Tristan Thompson right here.
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Cavs Sign Michael Dunigan, Quinn Cook, Five Others

September 28th, 2015 at 2:45pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavaliers have signed center Michael Dunigan, the team revealed on its training camp roster, one that also officially confirmed earlier reports of deals with Jared Cunningham, Austin Daye, Chris Johnson, Nick Minnerath and D.J. Stephens. Quinn Cook also appears on the roster, so it looks like he and the team have worked out a deal, as expected. Cleveland has 20 players, 13 of whom have fully guaranteed contracts, though those totals don’t include Tristan Thompson, who remains in restricted free agency with Thursday looming as the final day for him to sign his qualifying offer before it expires. The Cavs would have to waive a player before signing Thompson, since they’re at the preseason roster limit.

Dunigan, 26, was in camp with the Grizzlies in 2012, but he’s chiefly played overseas since going undrafted in 2011. The Mike Naiditch client came stateside to spend part of last season with Cleveland’s D-League affiliate, putting up 11.6 points and 7.1 rebounds in 30.4 minutes per game across 24 regular season appearances, so the Cavs are familiar with him. It’s unclear exactly what sort of terms he’s getting, though Cleveland is limited to paying the minimum salary, just as with all the rest of the deals the team confirmed today.

Cook, 22, went undrafted out of Duke this year. Conflicting reports had clouded the matter of whether he and the team had agreed to a deal, but Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported the point guard would be on a non-guaranteed pact.

Cunningham and Daye are former first-round picks. Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports reported Cunningham’s deal with the team, with Haynes noting that the 24-year-old shooting guard would be on a non-guaranteed contract. Charania also first reported Daye’s deal, and international journalist David Pick added that the pact for the 27-year-old small forward would be non-guaranteed.

Johnson, a 30-year-old center from LSU, is not to be confused with the swingman by the same name. Haynes reported his deal, which is for one year at the minimum salary and non-guaranteed. Haynes also had the story of Minnerath’s one-year deal. The 26-year-old combo forward is on a non-guaranteed pact.

Zach Links of Hoops Rumors first reported the Stephens deal. The terms of the contract for the 24-year-old high-flying swingman are unclear, beyond the fact that he’ll be making the minimum.

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Cavaliers To Sign D.J. Stephens

September 8th, 2015 at 10:44am CST by Zachary Links

High-flying swingman D.J. Stephens has agreed to a training camp deal with the Cavaliers, a league source tells Hoops Rumors. Stephens appeared in three contests for the Bucks while on a 10-day contract in 2013/14 and he’ll now look to get back to NBA action with Cleveland in 2015/16.

Last fall, Stephens inked a non-guaranteed minimum-salary camp deal with the Pelicans and was among the team’s final cuts about a week before Halloween. In December, the Keith Kreiter client signed on with Russia’s Zenit St. Petersburg, where he enjoyed a starting role. In 31 games (28 starts) between the VTB United League and Eurocup play, the 24-year-old averaged 7.0 points and 5.1 rebounds while shooting 57.7% from the floor in 22.7 minutes per game. The defensive specialist also tallied 21 steals and 26 blocks over the course of 31 appearances last year.

Stephens went undrafted out of the University of Memphis in 2013, even though his 46-inch vertical leap at the draft combine set an all-time record that still stands, as DraftExpress shows. He never averaged double figures in points during his four years at Memphis, but he used his athleticism on the other end of the floor, winning the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year award in his senior season.  In 2013/14, the strong defender played in 25 combined games with Ilisiakos BC of Greece and Anadolu Efes of Turkey and averaged 8.4 PPG and 7.0 RPG in 23.8 MPG.

The Cavaliers have been carrying 13 fully guaranteed deals, assuming that the team’s pact with draft-and-stash prospect Sasha Kaun is one of them. They also reportedly have a non-guaranteed deal with Jared Cunningham, a camp arrangement with Jerrelle Benimon, and they’re expected to bring Quinn Cook to camp, too. The unresolved restricted free agency of Tristan Thompson casts a broad shadow on the Cavs roster, of course.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
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D.J. Stephens To Play In Russia

December 2nd, 2014 at 8:44am CST by Chuck Myron

High-flying swingman D.J. Stephens is joining Russia’s Zenit St. Petersburg pending a physical, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Stephens was with the Bucks last season on a 10-day contract and joined the Pelicans for training camp this fall. The terms of his Russian deal aren’t immediately clear.

Stephens went undrafted out of the University of Memphis in 2013 in spite of a vertical leap that was the highest in the recorded history of the NBA’s predraft combine, as DraftExpress shows. He never averaged double figures in points during his four years at Memphis, but he used his athleticism on the other end of the floor, winning the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year award in his senior season. The 6’5″ Stephens, who turns 24 this month, split last season between Ilisiakos BC of Greece, Anadolu Efes of Turkey, and the Bucks, with whom he scored seven points and grabbed five rebounds in 15 total minutes across three games on his 10-day deal.

He reportedly auditioned for the Jazz in September before signing a non-guaranteed deal with the Pelicans for camp. Stephens appeared in only three preseason games for New Orleans, with a total of five points and two rebounds, and the Pelicans let go of him shortly before opening night.

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Pelicans Waive Kevin Jones, D.J. Stephens

October 24th, 2014 at 4:24pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Pelicans have officially waived Kevin Jones and D.J. Stephens, the team announced. Both players were in camp on non-guaranteed deals so New Orleans won’t be on the hook for any cash if and when Jones and Stephens clear waivers. These moves reduce the Pelicans’ preseason roster count to 15, so the team wouldn’t be required to make any other moves prior to tomorrow’s deadline. New Orleans still has 12 fully guaranteed and three partially guaranteed deals on the books.

The 25-year-old Jones used a strong summer showing to earn an invite to the Pelicans training camp. He averaged 10.0 RPG for the Pacers summer squad, which was tops in the Orlando summer league. He saw fewer minutes  with the D-League Select Team in the Las Vegas summer league, and his rebounding production was cut in half, to 5.0 RPG. Jones averaged 3.0 PPG and 2.4 RPG in 10.4 minutes per game across 32 appearances for the Cavs in 2012/13, and he split this past season between Cleveland’s D-League affiliate and playing in the Philippines.

Stephens appeared in three contests for the Bucks while on a 10-day contract last spring, logging totals of seven points and five rebounds in 15 minutes of action. He saw more playing time overseas last season, averaging 8.4 PPG and 7.0 RPG in 23.8 minutes a night over 25 combined games with Ilisiakos BC of Greece and Anadolu Efes of Turkey.

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