Jordan McRae

Suns Sign Jordan McRae To Second 10-Day Contract

MONDAY, 12:04pm: The signing is official, the team announced.

SUNDAY, 5:08pm: The Suns will sign Jordan McRae to a second 10-day contract, according to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). The shooting guard’s original 10-day deal is set to expire today. The Suns play Monday and Wednesday before the break.

The Suns have been decimated by injuries and combo guard Brandon Knight is expected to be out through the All-Star break. McRae has played decently for the Suns, appearing in five games. He scored 12 points against the Knicks in his season debut on January 29th. He is averaging 5.8 points per game.

McRae, 24, played for Philadelphia’s D-League affiliate late last season after spending the first part of 2014/15 playing overseas in Australia. In September, he signed the required tender of a one-year, non-guaranteed, minimum-salary deal that Philadelphia had to offer to retain his draft rights. The Sixers waived him during the preseason this year after he averaged 7.1 points over seven appearances.

Suns Sign Jordan McRae To 10-Day Pact

FRIDAY, 12:54pm: The signing is official, the team announced. Phoenix plays five games, against the Knicks, Mavs, Raptors, Rockets and Jazz, in the next 10 days.

WEDNESDAY, 9:20pm: The Suns intend to sign free agent shooting guard Jordan McRae to a 10-day contract, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports reports (via Twitter). The Suns currently possess 15 players on their roster but Lorenzo Brown‘s second 10-day deal is set to expire on tonight, thus clearing a spot for McRae. Teams can only ink players to a maximum of two 10-day deals per campaign and Phoenix would have had to ink Brown for the remainder of the season if it wished to retain him.

McRae was the 58th overall pick out of Tennessee back in 2014, though the Spurs promptly traded his rights to the Sixers. The now 24-year-old played for Philadelphia’s D-League affiliate late last season after spending the first part of 2014/15 playing overseas in Australia. In September, he signed the required tender of a one-year, non-guaranteed, minimum-salary deal that Philadelphia had to offer to retain his draft rights.

The Sixers waived him during the preseason this year after he averaged 7.1 points over seven appearances. In 28 games for the Sixers D-League affiliate in Delaware this season, McRae has averaged 23.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.2 assists. His shooting line is .452/.310/.798.

NBA Teams Designate Affiliate Players

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.

Sixers Sign, Waive Jordan Railey

The Sixers signed and waived Jordan Railey, the team announced via press release. The move involving the undrafted Washington State center is designed to secure his D-League rights, the team says. Philadelphia will make Railey one of four camp cuts whose D-League rights it’s allowed to claim through the affiliate player rule, providing he clears waivers. The statement from the Sixers also confirmed that they’ve waived Jordan McRae, Furkan Aldemir, Scottie Wilbekin, Pierre Jackson, and J.P. Tokoto, as a series of five previous reports indicated.

Philadelphia first connected with Railey when he played for the Sixers summer league team in July, scoring three points in at least 15 minutes of action spread over three games. Railey had signed during the summer with BC Igokea of Bosnia, but either that contract included an NBA escape clause or the team decided to part ways with the 23-year-old 7-footer. He averaged 6.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.0 block in 16.4 minutes per game as a senior last season at Washington State, where he played his final two collegiate seasons after starting at Iowa State.

Sixers Releasing Jordan McRae

The Sixers are waiving Jordan McRae, a source told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The team hasn’t made an announcement, but the source indicated to Spears that the move has already taken place. That, plus reports that the team is also waiving Furkan Aldemir, Scottie Wilbekin, Pierre Jackson and J.P. Tokoto, will reduce the team’s roster to the 15-man regular season limit. T.J. McConnell has made the opening night roster on his partially guaranteed contract, Spears adds (on Twitter), while Yahoo Sports colleague Shams Charania reported that Christian Wood will stick, too. Robert Covington, Hollis Thompson and JaKarr Sampson are the other Sixers without full guarantees, but they also appear safe for opening night.

McRae signed the required tender of a one-year, non-guaranteed, minimum-salary deal that Philadelphia had to offer to retain his draft rights. The Spurs picked him 58th overall out of Tennessee in 2014, trading his rights the same night to the Sixers. The 24-year-old shooting guard averaged 7.1 points in 19.9 minutes per game across seven preseason appearances this month.

His release means the Sixers are giving up his NBA rights, though they can still retain his D-League rights. McRae played for Philadelphia’s D-League affiliate late last season after spending the first part of 2014/15 playing in Australia.

Sixers Make Four Signings Official

The Sixers have officially signed J.P. Tokoto, T.J. McConnell, Jordan McRae and Christian Wood, the team announced. All four moves were expected. The Sixers have 13 fully guaranteed deals.

Wood, McRae and Tokoto had already put pen to paper, according to reports, but the Sixers had yet to acknowledge the deals.

McRae, the No. 58 overall pick from the 2014 draft, is reportedly with the team on a non-guaranteed contract for the minimum salary that covers one season. McConnell’s deal includes a partial salary guarantee, according to reports. Wood reportedly has a deal for four years with a partial guarantee worth $50K. Tokoto has a one-year, non-guaranteed deal, it has been reported.

Jordan McRae Signs Required Tender From Sixers

Jordan McRae has signed his required tender from the Sixers, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). That means the No. 58 overall pick from the 2014 draft is with the team on a non-guaranteed contract for the minimum salary that covers one season. Philadelphia has yet to make an announcement. The development is troublesome for the team, which already had signed contracts or verbal agreements with 20 other players, as our roster count shows, and teams can’t formally sign more than 20.

Conflicting reports existed on whether McRae was likely to end up signing with the Sixers this year. It appeared most recently that McRae would pass on the tender and that Philadelphia wasn’t expecting him to take it, but apparently he’s jumped on the offer. The Sixers can just as easily cut him loose and proceed without him, but that would come at the cost of the shooting guard’s draft rights.

The Tandem Sports & Entertainment client is the third second-round pick who’s taken the required tender from the Sixers in the last two years. K.J. McDaniels, the 32nd overall pick in 2014, signed his required tender last fall before the Sixers traded him in the middle of the season to the Rockets, while J.P. Tokoto, this year’s No. 58 overall pick, took his required tender from the Sixers earlier this month. McRae and Tokoto surely hope to parlay the move into a deal as lucrative as the three-year, $10MM contract McDaniels signed with the Rockets in restricted free agency this summer.

Sixers Don’t Expect Jordan McRae At Camp

The Sixers don’t expect that draft-and-stash prospect Jordan McRae will be at training camp in spite of an August report that he would be, a source tells Michael Kaskey-Blomain of Around the Arc. Philadelphia issued the required tender of a non-guaranteed one-year offer for the minimum salary that the team had to make to retain McRae’s draft rights, but the Tandem Sports & Entertainment client hasn’t taken that yet, Kaskey-Blomain writes, cautioning that the situation may still change before the start of camp. J.P. Tokoto, this year’s No. 58 pick, reportedly signed his required tender from the Sixers. Tokoto is one of 20 players aside from McRae with whom the Sixers reportedly have either signed contracts or verbal agreements, as our roster count shows, and Philadelphia can’t bring more than that to camp, so McRae would risk ending up on waivers even before camp began if he were to sign the tender.

His alternatives would be playing overseas or in the D-League, since he can’t sign with another NBA team. McRae, a 6’5″ shooting guard who was the 58th overall pick in 2014, connected on only 29.5% of his shots from the floor during four summer league games in July, as Kaskey-Blomain points out. He nonetheless managed to score by other means for the summer Sixers, averaging six made free throws and 12.5 points on 11.0 field goal attempts per game. McRae, now 24, averaged 19.9 PPG in 27 games with CTI Melbourne United in Australia last year, and their season ended early enough for him to join the Sixers D-League affiliate for 13 contests. He put up 18.4 PPG for the D-League Delaware 87ers.

Philadelphia acquired the rights to McRae, along with the rights to 2014 No. 60 pick Cory Jefferson, in a draft-night deal last year with the Spurs, who received the rights to Nemanja Dangubic, the 54th pick that year. The Sixers flipped Jefferson’s rights to the Nets for cash.

Do you think the Sixers should work out a deal with McRae for camp or let him continue to develop elsewhere? Leave a comment to tell us.

Atlantic Notes: Anthony, McRae, Larkin

Despite some speculation that the Knicks would be willing to entertain the idea of trading away Carmelo Anthony to the Suns in exchange for disgruntled forward Markieff Morris, it’s not a deal that is likely to ever come to fruition, Ken Berger of CBSSports.com writes. New York hasn’t had internal discussions about trying to get Anthony to waive his no trade clause and hitting the reset button on the franchise, Berger notes. Team president Phil Jackson is also likely aware of the value of a superstar like ‘Melo in the league, and how it would be virtually impossible to recoup an acceptable return for the star, the CBS scribe adds.

Here’s more out of the Atlantic Division:

  • The Sixers have made their required tender of a one-year, non-guaranteed, minimum salary offer to Jordan McRae, which will allow the franchise to retain his draft rights, Derek Bodner of DraftExpress relays (Twitter links). McRae, who was selected with the 58th overall pick in 2014 by the Spurs and was dealt to the Sixers on draft night, has not signed the tender yet, though he is expected to attend training camp with Philly, Bodner adds.
  • The appeal of playing in New York and the team’s system are two reasons why Shane Larkin felt comfortable signing with the Nets this offseason, Brett Pollakoff of The Sporting News writes. “At the end of the day, the Nets situation was the most appealing for me, just because of the way they play. Their style of play really fits my game well, and I like the New York area,” Larkin told Pollakoff. “I like being in the city. So staying up here was definitely a plus, and just the opportunity that the Nets presented me with — what [GM] Billy King was telling me, what coach [Lionel] Hollins was telling me, how they want me to play, what they want me to do for the team — it just put everything over the top. That’s pretty much why I decided to stay in New York and play for the Nets.

McRae, Tokoto Headed To Sixers Camp

Jordan McRae and J.P. Tokoto will join the Sixers for training camp, a source told Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. McRae was selected in the second round in 2014 while Tokoto was chosen with the No. 58 overall pick this June. McRae spent part of last season in Australia and played for the Sixers’ summer league team in Salt Lake City. Tokoto has been negotiating a camp deal since he has no desire to play overseas or in the D-League.

McRae was selected with the 58th overall pick in 2014 by the Spurs and was dealt to the Sixers on draft night. He began last season in Australia, then was acquired in March by the Delaware 87ers, Philadelphia’s D-League affiliate. The 6’6” shooting guard averaged 18.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists with the 87ers in 13 games.

Tokoto let the Sixers know he was open to becoming a draft-and-stash pick before Philadelphia selected him, as Jake Fischer of SI Now reported shortly after the draft. The former North Carolina guard wasn’t particularly impressive in summer league action, missing all 10 of his three-point attempts and averaging just 5.7 points in 23.1 minutes per game across seven appearances. Still, he never averaged double-figure points in college, relying instead on elite defense, as Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider profile suggests. Ford ranked him the 52nd-best prospect in the draft, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress had him even higher, at No. 46.