John Lucas III Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pistons Sign John Lucas III To 10-Day Contract

February 2nd, 2015 at 9:43am CST by Zachary Links

MONDAY, 9:43am: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.

SUNDAY, 2:12pm: The Pistons plan to sign John Lucas III to a 10-day deal, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Lucas is being brought aboard to help fill the void created by the loss of star guard Brandon Jennings.

Lucas, a seven-year NBA vet, called off a scheduled workout with the Lakers back in November to sign with a Chinese team, the Fujian Sturgeons. That somewhat surprising decision capped what proved to be a very weird offseason for the 32-year-old guard. The Jazz had him under contract for a non-guaranteed $1.6MM at the beginning of the offseason, but they traded him to the Cavs in July. Cleveland flipped him two months later to the Celtics, who promptly waived him. The Wizards picked him up in late October, presumably with an eye on keeping him for the start of the regular season, but Washington put him back on waivers before opening night.

Now, Lucas is on his way back to the Association, this time to help give Detroit backcourt depth in the wake of Jennings’ torn Achilles. Jennings was averaging 19.8 points and 7.0 assists since the departure of Josh Smith and helped lead the club to a 12-4 record in that time period.

The Pistons had their eye on Heat guard Norris Cole as a possible backcourt addition, but it’s not clear if they’ll continue to pursue him via trade.

John Lucas III Spurns Lakers To Play In China

November 21st, 2014 at 7:49am CST by Chuck Myron

FRIDAY, 7:49am: Lucas is joining the Fujian Sturgeons, the team that signed Al Harrington this past summer, Stein reports (Twitter link).

WEDNESDAY, 8:40am: Seven-year NBA veteran John Lucas III has called off a scheduled workout with the Lakers this week to sign with a Chinese team instead, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Sportando’s Enea Trapani first reported that Lucas was finalizing a deal in China, and while the identity of the club isn’t entirely clear, Trapani suggests that it’s the Yao Ming-owned Shanghai Sharks, who just let go of Delonte West. The financial terms of the Chinese pact for Lucas are unclear, but it likely involves guaranteed money of the sort that the Lakers would be hesitant to offer.

Lucas turned down offers from Chinese Basketball Association teams Jilin Northeast and Fujian, as agent Bernie Lee told Shams Charania of RealGM earlier this month, shortly after the Wizards released him at the end of the NBA preseason. The Thunder, Pacers and Grizzlies were showing interest in the point guard, too, as Charania reported, adding that Lucas was looking for a longer-term arrangement than any Chinese or NBA teams were willing to provide. Lucas appeared to be targeting a return to the Bulls, for whom he played in 2010/11 and 2011/12, but it doesn’t look like there’ll be a reunion in the near future.

It’s been a whirlwind past few months for Lucas, who turns 32 on Thursday. The Jazz had him under contract for a non-guaranteed $1.6MM at the beginning of the offseason, but they traded him to the Cavs in July. Cleveland flipped him two months later to the Celtics, who promptly waived him. The Wizards picked him up in late October, presumably with an eye on keeping him for the start of the regular season, but Washington put him back on waivers before opening night.

Reports have indicated the Lakers are working out Quincy Miller, Tyrus Thomas and Dwight Buycks as they seek upgrades for their 2-9 squad. Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding suggested this week that Xavier Henry would be the odd man out if Miller came aboard, though Henry has a guaranteed salary. Ronnie Price and Wayne Ellington have partially guaranteed deals. In any case, the Lakers would have to let someone go if they were to make a signing, since they already have a full 15-man roster.

Lucas Eyes Bulls Amid Widespread Interest

November 5th, 2014 at 6:28pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Free agent guard John Lucas III has had inquiries from the Thunder, Pacers, and Grizzlies, but the player has declined those opportunities, Shams Charania of RealGM reports. Lucas has also received offers from teams in the Chinese Basketball Association, but the short-term nature of all the offers is what led him to pass on them, adds Charania. Lucas is believed to be hoping to ultimately return to the Bulls on a deal later this season, Charania notes.

Bernie Lee, Lucas’ agent, offered a slightly different take, telling Charania, “John has received interest from different teams, but to say he has declined any formal offers would be inaccurate. John is in a situation, after a crazy summer, of trying to make the right decision versus any decision, but he is willing to prove himself as requested. John owes a tremendous amount of his value in the NBA to the opportunity Chicago’s front office gave him there initially. Over time, it’s become clear that [GM] Gar Forman has a unique ability to find value in obscure places: He signed John out of China, and he might be the best in the NBA at this. In some ways John was at the beginning of this.”

Lee confirmed the offers from the CBA, saying, “I have not had a single conversation with Gar about John since John left. The different situations just haven’t lined up. Gar has found various ways to replace the role John left including this year and John has been under contract since leaving. I do have every belief that John will resume his NBA career soon, but to date the only opportunities John has declined have been lucrative money offers with Jilin in China earlier in the year and Fujian on Wednesday.”

Lucas, who has been working out in Houston since he was waived by the Wizards, would seem to be a logical target for all three of the NBA teams previously mentioned in light of their early season injury woes. But the 31-year-old out of Oklahoma State had the most success as a player for Chicago during the 2011/12 season, notes Charania. Lucas had four 20-point efforts that season, and averaged 7.5 PPG and 2.2 APG overall.

Chicago currently has 14 players on its roster, so no additional moves would need to be made in order to sign Lucas, but for now the interest would appear to be one-sided, with the Bulls already having Derrick Rose, Aaron Brooks, and Kirk Hinrich on their depth chart at the point.

Wizards Cut Lucas, James, Silas

October 25th, 2014 at 2:13pm CST by Chuck Myron

2:13pm: The trio of Silas, James, and Lucas have indeed been waived, the team announced in a press release.

SATURDAY, 1:10pm: The Wizards have waived Silas, James, and John Lucas III, Michael reports (Twitter link). No official word from the team has been made, and their was no mention of Butler also being waived. After these moves the team’s preseason roster count stands at 15, so the Wizards wouldn’t be required to make any further cuts.

8:29pm: Michael has updated his report to reflect that Butler, James and Silas have yet to be released, and could actually still be retained. Though, in a later story, the CSN Washington scribe suggests that the chances the Wizards retain any of the trio is slim.

TUESDAY, 9:38am: The Wizards are set to part ways with Rasual Butler, Damion James and Xavier Silas, reports J. Michael of CSNWashington.com, who writes amid his story on Washington’s deal with John Lucas III. That indicates that the club will place its non-guaranteed contracts with the trio on waivers in advance of Monday’s deadline to set its opening-night roster. The addition of Lucas will give the team 15 players with at least a partial guarantee, which puts the squeeze on Butler, James and Silas.

The three swingmen appeared to have better chances at remaining with the team into the regular season once Bradley Beal went down with injury, but it looks like GM Ernie Grunfeld is going a different direction to bolster his backcourt. James and Silas were reportedly the strongest contenders among the three to remain with the team. Silas went to training camp with the Wizards this fall for the second year in a row, while James was the 24th overall pick in 2010 and showed promise before a series of injuries derailed his career. The 35-year-old Butler was hoping to duplicate what he did with Indiana last year, when he made the Pacers out of camp and wound up contributing in the playoffs.

The subtraction of Butler, James and Silas will drop the Wizards to 15 players, seemingly setting the club’s opening-night roster. Washington released Daniel Orton, Vander Blue and David Stockton earlier in the preseason.

Wizards Sign John Lucas III

October 21st, 2014 at 11:10am CST by Chuck Myron

11:10am: The deal is official, the team announced.

9:21am: The contract will be non-guaranteed, according to J. Michael of CSNWashington.com.

8:04am: The Wizards are close to signing John Lucas III, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Washington’s interest is related to shooting guard Bradley Beal‘s injury, Stein suggests, though Lucas plays point guard. Still, Lucas would help provide depth that would allow Andre Miller and Garrett Temple to shift to the two-guard position. The Wizards are limited to giving the minimum salary to Lucas, who turns 32 next month, but it’s not clear whether there’ll be any guaranteed money involved.

The seven-year veteran became a free agent last month after the Celtics waived him shortly following their acquisition of him from the Cavs via trade. It was the second trade of the offseason for Lucas, who went from the Jazz to Cleveland in July. His non-guaranteed contract called for him to make $1.6MM for 2014/15, not much more than the minimum, but enough to help two teams view him more as trade ballast than as a potential contributor. He saw 14.1 minutes per game for Utah last season, nearly setting a career high, but his scoring and assists per contest declined for the second year in a row.

Washington has been carrying 17 players, as our roster counts show, and the addition of Lucas would be an ominous sign for Rasual Butler, Damion James and Xavier Silas, each of whom has a non-guaranteed salary. The Wizards have 13 full guarantees plus a partial guarantee with Glen Rice Jr.

Celtics Waive Malcolm Thomas, John Lucas III

September 29th, 2014 at 11:07am CST by Eddie Scarito

MONDAY, 11:07am: The releases are official, the team announced.

SUNDAY, 4:26pm: The Celtics have waived Malcolm Thomas and John Lucas III, Marc Stein of ESPN.com is reporting (Twitter link). Both players were recently acquired in the trade that sent Keith Bogans to the Cavaliers, and Bogans has since been traded to the Sixers in a move that garnered Cleveland a valuable trade exception. The Celtics, too, were afforded a trade exception for the same $5,285,817 amount when they relinquished Bogans.

A roster move was expected from the Celtics who had 21 players on their preseason roster. That number includes Evan Turner whose signing has not been formally announced yet. This should change shortly now that Boston is down to 19 players after waiving Thomas and Lucas.

The team had waived Christian Watford on Friday, but reports have indicated that the team intends to re-sign the forward this week. So, Watford’s return would put Boston at the preseason limit of 20 players, including Turner, meaning the team’s camp roster is likely set.

Cavs Notes: LeBron, Irving, Deng, Crawford

September 27th, 2014 at 11:18pm CST by Chuck Myron

LeBron James reiterated his intentions to stay in Cleveland beyond his current contract during an interview that ran Friday on CNN’s “Unguarded with Rachel Nichols. “I plan on finishing my career back home,” James said, as Joe Vardon of the Northeast Ohio Media Group transcribes.
James called the two-year length of his contract a “business decision.” There’s more on the four-time MVP amid the latest on his new team:

James based 95% of his decision to return to Cleveland on his desire to return to his Northeast Ohio roots, but the chance to play with Kyrie Irving was “a huge part” of the other 5%, James said to reporters, including Michael Lee of The Washington Post (Twitter link).
James and Luol Deng traded places this summer, but Deng knows the Cavs got the better end of the de facto swap, as he told reporters, including Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald. “I’ve been in the league 11 years and I’m still improving,” Deng said. “I would never try to replace anybody no matter if they’re better than me or I’m better than somebody. We all bring different things. The biggest mistake I would make is try to be LeBron. I’m not LeBron.”
The Cavs intended to re-sign Chris Crawford even as they waived him Thursday, according to Chris Haynes of the Plain Dealer. That suggests the Cavs also intended from the time they traded for Bogans that they would flip him to the Sixers or another club, and indeed, a league source told Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal that Cleveland was never keen on keeping the veteran guard.
Cleveland’s brass had wanted to use Kevin Murphy, John Lucas III and Malcolm Thomas to create a trade exception ever since acquiring the trio, even though it took two moves for the Cavs to come up with the $5,285,817 trade exception they extracted from today’s Bogans trade, as Lloyd writes in the same piece.

Arthur Hill contributed to this post.

Atlantic Notes: Rondo, Nets, Sixers

September 26th, 2014 at 9:52pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Celtics guard Rajon Rondo has suffered a broken hand, and had surgery to repair it earlier today, Baxter Holmes of the Boston Globe reports (Twitter link). The player injured it in a fall at his home according to the team’s official statement regarding the matter. Rondo is expected to miss six weeks, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports adds. That would slot Rondo’s return to be during the second week of the season. This development certainly complicates any possible deals for the veteran for the time being.

Here’s the latest from the Atlantic Division:

Boston had been considering waiving John Lucas III today, but Rondo’s injury could change those plans, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today notes (Twitter link).
Alan Anderson said he turned down an offer for more money to re-sign with the Nets, Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News reports (Twitter link). Anderson inked a two year, $2.6MM deal with Brooklyn in July.
New Nets coach Lionel Hollins said that he never considered adding Lawrence Frank to his staff, Bondy tweets. Frank had a falling out with former coach Jason Kidd, and appears to be on the way to the Clippers as an assistant after reaching a buyout arrangement with Brooklyn.
The Sixers are set to hire Blazers analytics manager Ben Falk for a role that will put him second in command to GM Sam Hinkie in the team’s front office, according to The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman. Grantland’s Zach Lowe believes it’s another in a series of shrewd hires of late for Philadelphia’s front office (Twitter links).

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Atlantic Notes: Celtics, Grunwald, Sixers

September 26th, 2014 at 9:25am CST by Chuck Myron

The Keith Bogans trade enables the Celtics to create a trade exception equivalent to the value of Bogans’ $5,285,816 salary, but just how they structure the deal to come up with that exception isn’t clear. They could absorb the $1.6MM salary of John Lucas III into their $2.09MM Courtney Lee trade exception, essentially exhausting it while preserving the full amount of their $4.25MM trade exception from the Kris Humphries deal, a path that Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders suggests (Twitter link). Alternatively, they could fold Lucas into the Humphries exception, reducing its value to $2.65MM while leaving the $2.09MM Lee exception intact. In any case, the minimum salaries of Erik Murphy, Dwight Powell and Malcolm Thomas don’t figure into the equation, since Boston can absorb them into the minimum salary exception. There’s more on the aftermath of the trade amid the latest from the Atlantic Division:

Thomas and Lucas, on non-guaranteed contracts, are long shots to remain with the Celtics come Tuesday, when training camp begins, though Murphy, who has a partial guarantee of $100K, will be “evaluated,” tweets Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. Goodman indicates that Powell is likely to stick, at least for camp, with his fully guaranteed deal.
Former Knicks GM Glen Grunwald admits that he was caught off guard when the team decided to fire him a year ago and disputes owner James Dolan’s assertion that he wasn’t well-versed in analytics, as Grunwald tells Marc Berman of the New York Post.
It’s a stark reality for the stripped-down Sixers, and coach Brett Brown emphasized that he won’t measure success in terms of wins and losses this year, as he spoke to reporters, including Tom Moore of Calkins Media. Asked whether he’s on board with the drastic rebuilding process, Brown quipped, “I have to be, don’t I?”

Cavs Acquire Keith Bogans

September 25th, 2014 at 8:25pm CST by Eddie Scarito

8:25pm: The trade is official, the Celtics announced via a press release.

8:20pm: More details about the trade are rolling in, with Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link) noting that the Celtics sent the Cavs the rights to the Kings’ 2015 and 2017 second-rounders, both of which are top-55 protected. Marc Stein of ESPN.com also adds Dwight Powell to the list of players heading to Boston.

8:00pm: The second-rounders going to the Celtics will be Cleveland’s 2016 and 2017 selections, notes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe (Twitter link).

7:41pm: The Celtics will also get a $5.3MM trade exception as part of the deal, notes Goodman (twitter link).

7:20pm: The Cavs will waive guard Chris Crawford once the deal is official, tweets Chris Haynes of The Plain Dealer.

7:16pm: The Celtics are also receiving two second round draft picks as part of the deal, Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link).

6:52pm: The Cavaliers and Celtics are in discussions on a trade that would send Keith Bogans to Cleveland, Marc Stein of ESPN.com is reporting. The Cavs are expected to package the non-guaranteed contracts of Erik Murphy, John Lucas III and Malcolm Thomas in return for Bogans, notes Stein.

The acquisition of the 34 year-old shooting guard out of Kentucky would suggest that Cleveland has either received word from free agent Ray Allen that he isn’t interested in signing with the team, or that he intends to retire, though that’s just speculation on my part. Whatever the case is, it would seem that Bogans is taking the role that the Cavs were intending Allen to fill.

Bogans has played 11 seasons in the league after being selected in the second round of the 2003 NBA Draft by the Bucks. His career numbers are 6.3 PPG, 2.7 RPG, and 1.3 APG. Bogans’ career slash line is .394/.353/.716. He has two years remaining on his contract, both non-guaranteed, and he is scheduled to make $5,285,816 this coming season.

As for the Celtics, they currently have 21 players on their roster, including Evan Turner, whose signing has not been officially announced yet. So it’s highly likely that Boston will waive all three players once the deal is completed.