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Western Notes: Warriors, Bryant, Jazz

November 13th, 2013 at 10:25pm CST by Charlie Adams

The West has been the stronger of the two conferences so far in the early going of the 2013/14 NBA season. There are nine teams above the .500 mark in the West compared to only three squads with winning records in the East. A conference chock full of winning teams is a recipe for intense and entertaining competition. Here are some notes regarding the West:

Despite the injury to point guard Toney Douglas, Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group hears from team sources that the Warriors are not expected to make a move to bolster their backcourt. Thompson reports that Kent Bazemore and Nemanja Nedovic will be given a chance to come off the bench and run the team’s offense in Douglas’ absence.
There’s still no timetable for Kobe Bryant‘s return, tweets Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report. The Lakers are paying Bryant over $30MM this season, a total almost $8MM greater than the next highest player on the list.
The Knicks‘ decision to let Jeremy Lin walk away from the team after the 2011/12 season was a surprise to many, including Rockets GM Daryl Morey: “We didn’t really understand it, and we thought for sure that Lin was going to stay. I thought if any team knew what it had, it was going to be New York.” Harvey Araton of the New York Times breaks down New York’s choice not to match the Rockets’ offer sheet.
Kenneth Faried declined to comment on the rumors implicating him as a possible early season trade candidate: “No comment on all of that. I just play basketball and do my job, and that’s it.” Faried had been linked to a potential trade with the Knicks‘ Iman Shumpert, but the Nuggets wanted more in return than New York had to offer. Read Christopher Dempsey’s full article about Faried at the Denver Post.
Earlier tonight, Utah Jazz beat writer Jody Genessy revealed (via Twitter) that Diante Garrett was shopping at WalMart when he received the call offering him a spot on the Jazz. Aaron Falk of the Salt Lake Tribune provides further insight on Utah’s acquisition of the young guard and what it means for the team.

Jazz Sign Diante Garrett

November 13th, 2013 at 2:35pm CST by Luke Adams

The Jazz have officially signed Diante Garrett, the team announced today in a press release. ESPN.com’s Marc Stein was the first to identify Garrett as Utah’s primary target, while Jody Genessy of the Deseret News reported that an agreement had been reached.

Garrett, 25, made his NBA debut for the Suns last season, appearing in 19 games for the club, and averaging 17.3 PPG and 7.3 APG in eight contests with Phoenix’s D-League affiliate, the Bakersfield Jam. His rights had been obtained by the Iowa Energy for the upcoming D-League season, before he landed an NBA deal with the Jazz.

For the Jazz, the addition of Garrett comes on the heels of the team’s release of Jamaal Tinsley. Tinsley, who was ineffective in his eight games with Utah this season, was on a non-guaranteed deal and I’d imagine Garrett will get a similar minimum-salary, non-guaranteed contract. He should get a chance to earn some minutes at the point, with Trey Burke still sidelined due to a broken finger.

Western Notes: Pelicans, Warriors, Kings, Garrett

November 12th, 2013 at 8:03pm CST by Chuck Myron

There are only four games on the NBA slate tonight, but Western Conference teams provided plenty of excitement off the court. The Pelicans waived Lance Thomas and Arinze Onuaku so they could bring aboard veterans Louis Amundson and Josh Childress. The Jazz went the opposite direction, dumping vet Jamaal Tinsley as they eye a younger replacement. The Timberwolves are reportedly shopping a pair of players while the Lakers are considering a point guard search. We have more on a couple of those story lines as we check the latest from the West:

Pelicans coach Monty Williams says the team has been thinking about making today’s roster moves for the past few weeks, but Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune chastises GM Dell Demps for acting out of apparent desperation to win immediately.
The latest plan for the Warriors‘ new San Francisco arena is reduced in scale, but it’s still likely to face an uphill battle against local political opponents, as John Coté of the San Francisco Chronicle details.
For all the excitement surrounding the new ownership, GM and coach in Sacramento, the Kings are just 1-5 to start the season, and coach Michael Malone acknowledges the team’s losing habits will be tough to shake, observes Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee.
It’s unclear whether Diante Garrett has a job with the Jazz virtually sewn up or if he’ll have to be especially impressive when he auditions, but we might have our answer soon, as Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports tweets that Garrett’s workout is set for Wednesday.

Jazz Expected To Sign Diante Garrett

November 12th, 2013 at 4:06pm CST by Luke Adams

4:06pm: If Garrett is going to become Utah’s 15th man, it may not happen right away, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, who tweets that the Jazz plan to work out a few prospects before making a final call.

2:26pm: The Jazz are expected to use the roster spot opened by the release of Jamaal Tinsley to sign Diante Garrett, according to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein and Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. Stein reports (Twitter links) that Garrett will audition for Utah and sign with the team if it goes well, while Genessy suggests (via Twitter) that the Jazz have already decided to sign the young guard.

Garrett made his NBA debut for the Suns last season, appearing in 19 games for the club, and averaging 17.3 PPG and 7.3 APG in eight contests with Phoenix’s D-League affiliate, the Bakersfield Jam. The 25-year-old is currently on the Iowa Energy’s camp roster, with the D-League season set to get underway in 10 days.

Teams are not yet allowed to sign players to 10-day contracts, but I’d still expect Garrett’s deal to represent an audition of sorts — he’ll likely ink a non-guaranteed contract, meaning Utah would be able to release him anytime before January 7th without committing to his full-season salary. The Jazz will be looking for more consistent production from Garrett than they got from Tinsley, who struggled mightily during the club’s 0-8 start.

Draft & D-League: Top Five, Smart, 66ers, Czyz

October 31st, 2013 at 9:14pm CST by Alex Lee

With David Stern putting all his weight behind the positive evolution of the D-League, it’s only natural for that avenue of player development to be contrasted with the more traditional one. Let’s take a look at Thursday night’s news and notes from the draft and the D-League here:

The kickoff of the NBA season isn’t complete without our first wave of NBA mock drafts. Chad Ford provides ESPN insiders a look at what the first round might look like in June 2014. In what some pundits are dubbing the best draft since 2003, Ford predicts a top five of Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle, Marcus Smart, Joel Embiid and Dante Exum.
Speaking of Oklahoma State’s Smart, the sophomore point guard is still unsure that he made the right decision to return to school last April, writes ESPN’s Myron Medcalf. Considering the shocking results of last June’s draft, it probably isn’t far fetched to say that Smart would have been the best player on the board when the Cavs went on the clock.
The Tulsa 66ers, the Thunder‘s D-League affiliate, have acquired the number one pick in tomorrow night’s D-League draft along with Ben Uzoh in a three team deal with the Iowa Energy and Springfield Armor, writes Keith Schlosser of Ridiculous Upside. Along with other picks tomorrow night, Diante Garrett and Lorenzo Brown were also involved in the deal.
Polish forward Olek Czyz has signed a deal to join the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the D-League, Sportando reports on Twitter. The Bucks, who use Fort Wayne as their D-League affiliate, cut Czyz on Saturday after he spent training camp with the team, indicating that they protected his D-League rights. Czyz played at Duke and Nevada before going undrafted in 2012. He played last season for Virtus Roma of the Italian League.

Thunder Cut Diante Garrett, Rodney McGruder

October 25th, 2013 at 10:49am CST by Luke Adams

The Thunder have released camp invitees Diante Garrett and Rodney McGruder, the team announced today in a press release. The move reduces Oklahoma City’s roster count to 14 players, meaning the team doesn’t have to make additional cuts before opening night.

Garrett and McGruder signed camp deals with the Thunder last month, with no guaranteed money believed to be included in either player’s contract. Garrett, 24, made his NBA debut for the Suns last season, appearing in 19 games for the club, and averaging 17.3 PPG and 7.3 APG in eight contests with Phoenix’s D-League affiliate, the Bakersfield Jam. McGruder, meanwhile, averaged 15.6 PPG last season in his senior year at Kansas State. The 6’4″ guard went undrafted in June before playing for the Bobcats’ Summer League squad in July.

Of the Thunder’s 14 remaining players, 12 are on fully guaranteed deals, while Hasheem Thabeet and Ryan Gomes have partial guarantees.

Thunder Sign Diante Garrett, Rodney McGruder

September 27th, 2013 at 12:04pm CST by Luke Adams

The Thunder have officially added a pair of players to their training camp roster, announcing in a press release that they've signed free agents Diante Garrett and Rodney McGruder. The two new players bring the team's total roster count to 17 players heading into camp.

Garrett announced nearly a month ago on his Twitter account that he'd "be with OKC this year," though it wasn't clear what sort of agreement he'd reached with the club. While the terms still haven't been reported, I'd guess it's a non-guaranteed camp invite. The 24-year-old guard made his NBA debut for the Suns last season, appearing in 19 games for the club, and averaging 17.3 PPG and 7.3 APG in eight contests with Phoenix's D-League affiliate, the Bakersfield Jam.

McGruder, meanwhile, averaged 15.6 PPG last season in his senior year at Kansas State. The 6'4" guard went undrafted in June before playing for the Bobcats' Summer League squad in July.

Heading into camp with 12 players on fully guaranteed contracts, OKC appears likely to fill out the remaining one to three available spots on its roster with some combination of Garrett, McGruder, Ryan Gomes, Daniel Orton, and Hasheem Thabeet. Gomes and Thabeet have partial guarantees on their deals.

Odds & Ends: Sixers, Garrett, Butler, Iguodala

August 29th, 2013 at 3:26pm CST by Luke Adams

In his latest piece for HoopsWorld, Eric Pincus takes a look at the outstanding trade exceptions currently being held by NBA teams. Pincus' list matched up nearly perfectly with our own trade exception tracker, but added one we didn't have: Incredibly, the Sixers, despite being well below the league's minimum payroll threshold, have continued to function as an over-the-cap team this summer, with an assist from a trade exception obtained when the club send Jrue Holiday to New Orleans. That TPE is now worth $5,128,993, after a portion of it was used to absorb Tony Wroten's salary.

Check out Pincus' piece for more details on how the Sixers could be considered over the cap, and read on for a few more Thursday odds and ends:

Former Suns guard Diante Garrett tweeted today that he'll "be with OKC this year." We haven't heard any confirmation from Oklahoma City beat writers or national reporters, but it looks as if Garrett will, at the very least, be in training camp with the Thunder.
Sources tell Jake Pavorsky of Liberty Ballers that the Sixers may take a look at big man Micheal Eric in training camp this fall. Eric was in camp with the Cavaliers a year ago.
Grantland's Zach Lowe takes an in-depth look at the Caron Butler swap between the Suns and Bucks, noting that Butler's expiring contract "is sexy [as a trade chip] in theory, but not in reality." I wrote earlier today about some of the cap and roster implications of the trade.
Warriors GM Bob Myers spoke to Sean Deveney of the Sporting News about all the behind-the-scenes work it took to land Andre Iguodala, a task Myers says "looked futile" at some points.

Renounced Players: Wednesday

July 10th, 2013 at 9:58pm CST by Luke Adams

As teams clear cap space to finalize signings and trades, it may mean renouncing Early Bird or Bird rights to their own free agents, in order to remove cap holds from the books. Once a player is renounced, his previous team has no more claim to him that any other team — he could still be re-signed, but it would have to be done using cap space or an exception. Some of those decisions are more notable than others, but for completion's sake, we'll track the latest of these cap-clearing moves right here:

Mo Williams is the most prominent name among the several whose rights the Jazz renounced today, according to the RealGM transaction log. Al Jefferson, DeMarre Carroll and Earl Watson, who already have deals to join other teams, are also on the list, as are the long-retired Brevin Knight and Greg Ostertag.
Bobcats are set to re-sign Josh McRoberts, but they won't be using their Early Bird rights to do so, as they've renounced his rights, RealGM shows. The team also renounced their rights to Reggie Williams, who's heading to the Rockets, and it cut ties with DeSagana Diop, Byron Mullens and Jannero Pargo, too.
Golden State will sign Jermaine O'Neal, so the Suns have renounced his rights, as well as their rights to Wesley Johnson and Diante Garrett, as RealGM notes.

Earlier updates:

The Hawks have cleared out unwanted cap holds from their books, renouncing their rights to Hilton Armstrong, Erick Dampier, Devin Harris, Dahntay Jones, Randolph Morris, Zaza Pachulia, Johan Petro, Josh Smith, and Etan Thomas, according to RealGM.com's transactions log.
RealGM.com also has the Trail Blazers renouncing multiple players, including Luke Babbitt, J.J. Hickson, Eric Maynor, and Nolan Smith.
Most interestingly, according to RealGM.com, the Bucks have renounced their rights to Monta Ellis. That doesn't necessarily preclude a sign-and-trade, but it would mean the team would have to use cap space rather than Ellis' Bird rights to accommodate a deal.
The Pelicans have renounced their rights to Louis Amundson, Xavier Henry, and Roger Mason Jr., the team announced today in a press release.
In order to clear cap room for their signings, the Pistons renounced Will Bynum, Jose Calderon, Vernon Macklin, Corey Maggette, Jason Maxiell, and Ben Wallace, according to RealGM's transactions log. The Pistons plan to re-sign Bynum, but removing his $6MM+ cap hold and signing him to a smaller figure using cap space makes the most sense.
After renouncing their rights to Chauncey Billups and Lamar Odom, the Clippers have also renounced Bobby Simmons, according to RealGM.com's transactions log.

Suns Re-Assign Diante Garrett To D-League

April 11th, 2013 at 3:28pm CST by Luke Adams

With the NBA D-League postseason underway, here are today's D-League assignments and recalls. Any additional moves will be added to the top of the page throughout the day….

The Suns have re-assigned Diante Garrett to the Bakersfield Jam, according to the D-League's official Twitter account. The move comes as the Jam, who finished with the D-League's best record at 36-14, prepare to open up their first-round playoff series tonight against the Austin Toros. In seven games this season for Bakersfield, Garrett has averaged 17.3 PPG and 7.3 APG.