Here’s more out of the Atlantic Division:

• The Raptors have officially announced the promotion of Teresa Resch to Vice President, Basketball Operations and Player Development and Dan Tolzman to Director, Player Personnel. Tolzman will also serve as the GM of Toronto’s new D-League affiliate, Raptors 905, who begin play this coming season.
• Grantland’s Zach Lowe pegs Jonas Valanciunas as a “lock” to demand maximum-level salaries in any extension with the Raptors. The deadline for Toronto and the Leon Rose client to do an extension is October 31st.
• It seems to be shaping up as a player-friendly extension market, as Lowe, writing in the same piece, speculates that the Celtics might pounce on a deal with Tyler Zeller as long as the annual salaries are worth less than a staggering $12MM.
• Former lottery pick Joe Alexander turned down a Summer contract offer from the Celtics and instead has signed a deal with Banco di Sardegna Sassari of Sardinia, Alexander’s agents Doug Neustadt and Mike Kneisley confirmed to David Pick of Eurobasket.com (on Twitter). Alexander’s last NBA action came during the 2009/10 campaign when he made eight appearances for the Bulls.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

While injuries definitely affected Alexander’s NBA career, he firmly believes that he was also the victim of a dysfunctional regime in Milwaukee, Pick adds. “I had a normal, mediocre NBA rookie season,” Alexander said. “If you look at my per-36 numbers, I was on par with every player in the draft except for Derrick Rose. There are players in the league who a few years ago played spotty minutes and made mistakes, but were able to learn from them. That’s an opportunity I wasn’t given in Milwaukee.”

Here’s more from the East:

• Kevin Seraphin is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, but the big man would like to re-sign with the Wizards, Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders writes. “I’ve been here for five years,” Seraphin said. “For sure. For sure I’d like to be here long term, a very long time. Especially now that our team is good. Why wouldn’t I want to be here?”
• Sixers coach Brett Brown hasn’t completely ruled out injured rookie Joel Embiid playing this season, Tom Moore of Calkins Media tweets. But Brown did add that there would be no chance of Embiid returning to the court prior to the All-Star break, Moore adds.
• The Cavaliers have recalled Joe Harris from the Canton Charge, their D-League affiliate, the team has announced. This was Harris’ first trip of the year to Canton.

Here’s more from around the league and abroad:

• Joe Alexander has officially inked a deal with Maccabi Tel Aviv, the team announced (translation by Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). Alexander had a $45K buyout amount on his D-League contract with the Santa Cruz Warriors, Gino Pilato of D-League Digest reports (Twitter link).
• The Cavs are performing their due diligence on available options, but are in no rush to replace the injured Anderson Varejao, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). Cleveland is intrigued by the possibilities of playing “small ball,” Spears adds.
• Knicks president Phil Jackson took to Twitter yesterday to promise fans that 2015 would hold better things for New York than 2014 has. But the Knicks’ star player, Carmelo Anthony, noted that Jackson doesn’t have much time to make the necessary changes before the year ends to ensure that statement comes true, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com writes. Anthony is also growing increasingly frustrated with the team’s lack of consistency and progress, Begley adds. “We have spurts throughout the course of the game where we are showing something, showing that we’re getting it and we’re focused and we have the energy to go out and do it,” Anthony said. “But there are times where we show that we’re not even out there on the basketball court. We gotta start trying to put a whole game together.”
• The Rockets hope to open up a roster spot for Josh Smith by completing a trade by Friday rather than waiving a player, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). Houston is currently pursuing various deals to try to make this happen, Stein notes. The Rockets are reportedly willing to trade Isaiah Canaan, Joey Dorsey, Tarik Black, Nick Johnson and Clint Capela.

• The Nuggets have received multiple inquiries about the availability of Wilson Chandler, but the team has expressed to the 29-year-old forward that they prefer to retain him, as Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post notes within his weekly mailbag column.
• Pau Gasol admits it was a tough decision to leave the Lakers and sign with the Bulls, and not only because of his emotional attachment to the city of Los Angeles, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times details. The Lakers offered offered Gasol deals featuring a no-trade clause worth $29MM over three years and $23MM over two years. Gasol, who eventually signed with Chicago on a three-year, $22MM deal, says it’s been difficult to watch the Lakers struggle this season but that he doesn’t regret his decision.
• Discussions between Gal Mekel and Maccabi Tel Aviv have hit a snag, reports David Pick of Eurobasket.com (via Twitter). We learned on Tuesday that the ex-Pelicans guard had an offer from Maccabi to return overseas, but that opportunity has apparently been put on hold. Instead, former eighth overall pick Joe Alexander is finalizing and agreement to leave the Santa Cruz Warriors of the D-League and join Maccabi, Pick passes along (Twitter links). Alexander had a deal in place to join the Nuggets for camp this fall before failing a physical.

SEPTEMBER 24TH: It’s a non-guaranteed pact, Charania confirms (Twitter link).

SEPTEMBER 23RD: The Nuggets have signed Joe Alexander to a training camp deal, according to the RealGM transaction log. The news was first tweeted by Shams Charania of RealGM. The deal will give the forward an opportunity to compete for a regular season roster spot.

The Nuggets have 13 guaranteed contracts on the books for 2014/15, and Alexander’s deal will be the fourth non-guaranteed contract for the team heading into training camp. Denver must roster between 13 and 15 players during the season, so Alexander has a reasonable chance at making the team to backup the wing behind Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler.

Alexander was a lottery pick for the Bucks in the 2008 draft, but he hasn’t been in the league since the 2009/10 season, save for training camp appearances with New Orleans in 2010 and Golden State last fall, and he’s otherwise spent recent years playing overseas and in the D-League. Nonetheless, he had received interest from multiple NBA teams this summer. Alexander averaged 4.7 PPG in his rookie season with Milwaukee, but saw his minutes cut to just 3.6 per contest in his sophomore campaign with the Bulls.

Here’s more from around the league:

• Nuggets signees Joe Alexander and Marcus Williams, new Lakers Keith Appling, Jabari Brown, Roscoe Smith and Jeremy Tyler, Heat additions Andre Dawkins and Shawn Jones, Wizards wing men Xavier Silas and Damion James, and Hasheem Thabeet of the Pistons are all on non-guaranteed one-year contracts for the minimum salary, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders details (All four Twitter links here).
• LeBron James might be gone from Miami, but he takes with him a number of lessons the Heat organization taught him about professionalism, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com writes. James is a much different person than when he was with the Cavs the first time, notes Windhorst, and the additions of Shawn Marion, Mike Miller, and James Jones are indications that Cleveland wants to bump up the work ethic and preparation habits of their younger players.
• When asked about departed free agent Trevor Ariza, who left the Wizards to sign with the Rockets this summer, Marcin Gortat believed Ariza’s decision wasn’t about finances, tweets Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post. Gortat said, “In my opinion I think he was trying to get back to the West. I don’t think it was about the money.”

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Here’s more from the Central Division:

• E’Twaun Moore is expected to provide the Bulls with backcourt depth, Adam Fluck of NBA.com writes. “E’Twaun is a young guard who we really like and he’s got a lot of potential,” said Chicago GM Gar Forman. “He’s shown that he’s got some versatility given he can play at both the one and two. He can also shoot the ball. We feel he’s absolutely our kind of guy—he’s a worker and we are confident he’ll be a good fit with our roster.” Moore also considered the Cavs and the Grizzlies before choosing the Bulls, Fluck notes.
• With the signings of Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic the power forward position is getting crowded in Chicago. Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders believes the Bulls should consider dealing Taj Gibson since he might be more valuable as a trade asset since his minutes and production are likely to decline this season.
• Former Bucks lottery pick Joe Alexander has auditioned for a number of NBA teams, David Pick of Eurobasket reports (Twitter link). Alexander has been out of the NBA since the 2009/10 season when he appeared in eight games for the Bulls.

Zach Links contributed to this post.

• After openly questioning Lakers management and declaring he has no patience for a rebuilding effort, Kobe Bryant has since opened up communication with the Lakers front office, the 18-year veteran said in a conversation with ESPN’s Darren Rovell.  “[Jim Buss] and I actually talked after that and it’s important for us to have that conversation because this is their team, it’s been in their family for years and we all know what the track record is for that, but I’ve also been part of this franchise since I was 17 years old,” Bryant said, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com. “I feel like I bleed purple and gold and I want to see this franchise be successful. I don’t want to hear the comments of dissension between Jim and [Lakers president] Jeanie [Buss]. We need to figure this thing out. We’re all moving in the same direction.”
• Irving Azoff is reportedly becoming Knicks owner James Dolan‘s closest confidant, but Azoff tells Scott Cacciola of The New York Times that he won’t play any further role with the Knicks after shepherding the hiring of Phil Jackson as team president.
• Rockets assistant Kelvin Sampson is a leading candidate for the newly-vacant University of Houston job, sources tell Pat Forde and Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.  The gig opened up earlier today when James Dickey stepped down after four years as coach. Dickey was 64-62 in his career at Houston
• Rodrigue Beaubois turned down an offer from Italian team Olimpia Milano, according to catch-and-shoot.com (on Twitter).  With Beaubois still available, Paris-Levallois is set to bring him in for a tryout.

As the Kings mull what to do with their 2011 lottery pick, let’s check in on a few more items from around the Pacific Division….

• Eric Bledsoe will head to restricted free agency in 2014 after not reaching an extension agreement with the Suns prior to October 31st. One league source tells Sean Deveney of the Sporting News that Phoenix probably won’t get a discount next summer: “He is probably going to want a max deal. If he plays the way he thinks he is going to, he will get it, too.”
• Warriors camp invitees Seth Curry, Dewayne Dedmon, and Joe Alexander have joined Golden State’s D-League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. The three players, whose D-League rights were retained by Golden State, were considered likely to head to Santa Cruz when they were cut by the NBA’s Warriors.
• The Kings‘ new management group didn’t just take over a mess when it came to business and fan relations, writes Tom Ziller of SBNation.com. In Ziller’s view, former GM Geoff Petrie‘s rebuild of Sacramento’s roster may require a rebuild itself.

While Alexander and Curry were expected to be waived, the release of Dedmon comes as a bit of a surprise, on the heels of coach Mark Jackson‘s positive comments about the big man. Following the three cuts, Golden State is now carrying 14 players, including 13 on fully guaranteed contracts — Kent Bazemore‘s deal isn’t guaranteed, but it looks like his roster spot is safe.

Dedmon averaged 3.4 PPG and 4.0 RPG in five preseason games, while Curry, Stephen Curry‘s younger brother, averaged 2.2 PPG in six preseason contests. Alexander, a 2008 lottery pick, was unable to participate in any game action this month due to a tibial stress reaction in his left leg.

Curry reportedly had a $75K guarantee on his contract, while Dedmon’s deal was guaranteed for $25K, so the Warriors will be on the hook for those amounts. Both players, along with Alexander, are expected to land with Golden State’s D-League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, according to Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group.

Golden State currently has 13 guaranteed contracts and a total of 17 on their training camp roster. Three of the remaining players are on partially guaranteed deals (Kent Bazemore, Dedmon, Curry), while Alexander had been playing on a non-guaranteed contract. I think it’s reasonable to assume that Bazemore – who had an impressive summer league run for the team this year – takes up the penultimate roster spot, so it appears that Curry and Alexander may be the odd men out.

Through four pre-season contests, Dedmon is averaging 4.3 PPG, 3.8 RPG, and 1.0 BPG in 10.8 MPG.

Kuzmic, 23, averaged 6.9 PPG and 5.5 RPG in 27 Spanish League contests for FIATC Joventut Badalona in 2012/13. According to at least one report earlier this week, his salary for 2013/14 will be guaranteed, though that's not confirmed, and the specifics of his contract aren't yet known.

As for Alexander, he'll almost certainly be on a fully non-guaranteed camp deal, so he's far from assured a regular-season roster spot. Assuming Kuzmic's contract is guaranteed and Alexander's is not, the Warriors will head into camp with 13 players on fully guaranteed contracts, plus five more players on partially guaranteed or non-guaranteed deals.

Alexander, the eighth overall pick in 2008, appeared in only 67 NBA games for the Bucks and Bulls before falling out of the league. The 6'8" forward appeared to be headed to China last season, but a reported deal never materialized. As such, his most recent on-court action came in Russia with Krasnie Krilya in 2011/12.

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• The Grizzlies have extended a training camp invite to Memphis-native Derrick Byars, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter).  Byars, 29, has spent most of the time since his Vanderbilt days playing overseas, minus two games with the Spurs in 2011/12 and a handful of D-League stints.  With only 13 guaranteed contracts, the Grizz have two potential open roster spots.
• The Lakers have invited Dan Gadzuric to training camp, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPN Los Angeles.  With the additions of Boateng and Johnson-Odom, Gadzuric would make 19 players in camp for the Lakers should he accept.  The UCLA product, 35, played in Venezuela last season after a decade in the NBA.  The Lakers only have 11 guaranteed deals on their roster, but there will be plenty of competition for the remaining spots.
• Former Bucks first rounder Joe Alexander has received an invitation to training camp from the Warriors, tweets Zach Lowe of Grantland.  Alexander, the No. 8 pick of the 2008 draft, lasted only two years in the NBA out of West Virginia.  With Ognjen Kuzmic's arrival in Oakland reportedly imminent, the Warriors will have two potential regular season roster spots remaining.

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• Sources tell HoopsWorld's Alex Kennedy that Eddy Curry, let go by the Mavericks after he appeared in two early-season games, has signed to play in China with the Zhejiang Golden Bulls. The story was first reported by Sina Sports (Chinese link). Another Chinese club went after Curry shortly after the Mavs let him go, but he turned them down amid interest from other NBA teams. According to Kennedy, Curry has his eyes on a return to the NBA in February, when the Chinese season ends.
• It seemed last week that Joe Alexander was also headed to China to play for the Liaoning Hunters, but the team has denied signing or having any interest in the former Bucks lottery pick, according to a Sports.QQ.com report (Chinese link, translation via Sportando). 
• Semih Erden returned to his native Turkey to play this year after starting nine games for the Cavs last season, but the 7-footer is determined to make it back to the NBA, blaming injuries for his inability to stick the first time, as Orhun Özdemir of Trendbasket.net writes (hat tip to Sportando). "I’m back in Turkey because I failed to perform at my best in the NBA," the big man said. "I will recover from my injuries here and reach my top form again. I will be back in the NBA better than before."
• Derrick Caracter, a second-round pick of the Lakers in 2010, is headed to Israel, as we heard earlier.

• Former eighth overall pick Joe Alexander has signed with the Liaoning Hunters of the Chinese Basketball Association, according to an Asia-Basket.com report (hat tip to Sportando).
• Another former NBA player is back in China as well, with James Singleton joining the Xinjiang Flying Tigers, per Asia-Basket.com. Singleton, who played in 12 games for the Wizards last season, was rumored back in September to be signing with the Flying Tigers.
• Michael Dunigan, a Grizzlies camp invitee this fall, has signed a one-month deal to play for the Perth Wildcats in Australia, according to Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype (Sulia link).
• Another Grizzlies camp invitee, Jerome Jordan, is drawing interest from China and is also considering the D-League, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. Jordan was said to be receiving some interest from Chinese teams while he was still in camp with the Grizzlies.