Livio Jean-Charles

NBA D-League Affiliate Players For 2016/17

Throughout the offseason, and in the weeks leading up to the start of the regular season, NBA teams are permitted to carry 20 players, but that total must be cut down to 15 in advance of opening night. However, up to four players waived by teams before the season can be designated as affiliate players and assigned to their D-League squads.

The players have some say in the decision — if they’d prefer to sign with a team overseas, or if they get an opportunity with another NBA club, they’re free to turn down their team’s request to have them play in the D-League. Most NBA and international teams have fairly set rosters by late October though, so having the opportunity to continue playing in the same system is appealing to many of those preseason cuts. Especially since they’ll maintain NBA free agency while they play in the D-League.

There are a few other rules related to D-League affiliate players. A player whose returning rights are held by a D-League team can’t be an affiliate player for another club, which is why undrafted free agents from the current year are commonly signed and assigned. Additionally, an affiliate player must have signed with his team during the current league year, which explains why we often see players signed and quickly waived in the days leading up to the regular season. And, of course, not every NBA team has a D-League affiliate, so clubs like the Hawks, Nuggets, or Clippers have no place to send affiliate players.

With all that in mind, here are the NBA D-League affiliate players to start the 2016/17 season:

Austin Spurs (San Antonio Spurs)

Canton Charge (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Delaware 87ers (Philadelphia 76ers)

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Spurs Notes: Arcidiacono, Aldridge, Hardy

Ryan Arcidiacono, waived by the Spurs during the team’s preseason cuts, will join San Antonio’s D-League affiliate in Austin, league sources tell Jabari Young of The San Antonio Express-News. According to Young, the Spurs are hopeful that Patricio Garino and Livio Jean-Charles, who were both recently cut by the club, will head to the D-League as well. Both players were listed on Austin’s preseason roster, so it appears they’ll start the year with the team.

Here’s more from out of San Antonio:

  • Speaking to Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter link), LaMarcus Aldridge reiterated that he’s content with his situation in San Antonio. “The organization is happy with me and I’m happy with them,” Aldridge said. “As long as we keep a good relationship then everything is fine.”
  • Boris Diaw won’t play in the Jazz’s first game against San Antonio this season, but that didn’t stop Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News from examining how this summer’s change of scenery has affected the veteran French forward.
  • In another piece for The Express-News, Young takes a closer look at new Spurs assistant coach Will Hardy, a potential up-and-coming “gem” for the franchise.

Spurs To Waive Jean-Charles, Garino, Anthony

The Spurs are paring down their roster for the regular season and are set to waive Livio Jean-Charles, Patricio Garino, and Joel Anthony, Michael C. Wright of ESPN.com reports (via Twitter). Garino’s deal has a partial guarantee of $100K and Jean-Charles’ pact worth $1,188,840 is fully guaranteed, which San Antonio will be on the hook for unless the players are claimed off waivers by another team. No guaranteed money was included in Anthony’s arrangement.

Jean-Charles was a draft-and-stash prospect, taken No. 28 overall during the 2013 draft. The 6’9”, 22-year-old Charles played the last four seasons for the French League club ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne, which is co-owned by San Antonio point guard Tony Parker.  Last season he appeared in 25 games, averaging 5.9 points and 4.6 rebounds in 21.2 minutes.

Garino, 23, spent four years at George Washington, increasing his production in each season. In 2015/16, the 6’7″ forward averaged 14.1 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 1.4 SPG, and 0.8 BPG while shooting 43.0% on three-point attempts.

Anthony, 34, spent the last two seasons in Detroit, playing sparingly for the Pistons. In 2015/16, he averaged a career-low 5.1 minutes per game in 19 regular-season contests.

Spurs Sign Forward Livio Jean-Charles

The Spurs have signed power forward Livio Jean-Charles, Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News reports. The signing was confirmed in a team press release. Jean-Charles’ contract is believed to be a standard rookie-scale deal for four years and approximately $4.5MM, according to McDonald.

Jean-Charles was a draft-and-stash prospect, taken No. 28 overall during the 2013 draft. The 6’9”, 22-year-old Charles played the last four seasons for the French League club ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne, which is co-owned by San Antonio point guard Tony Parker.  Last season he appeared in 25 games, averaging 5.9 points and 4.6 rebounds in 21.2 minutes.

He was also a member of the Spurs’ summer-league teams the past two seasons. Jean-Charles isn’t considered much of an offensive threat but he’ll be a factor on the defensive end.

“He’s had a lot of growth since last year,” Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon told McDonald. “He’s an athletic ‘four.’ We expect him to play great defense and grab a lot of boards.”

San Antonio doesn’t have a true power forward outside of LaMarcus Aldridge on the current roster, so Jean-Charles could carve out a rotation role with a strong training camp. He’ll compete with Kyle Anderson and Davis Bertans for minutes.

Spurs Sign Ryan Arcidiacono

JULY 14th, 3:10pm: The signing is official, the Spurs announced via press release.

JUNE 24th, 1:47pm: The Spurs have reached an agreement to sign Ryan Arcidiacono, a member of the NCAA-champion Villanova Wildcats, reports Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (via Twitter). It’s a partially-guaranteed deal, according to Wolfson. Jabari Young of The San Antonio Express-News tweets that it’s for two years.

Arcidiacono, 22, averaged 32.1 minutes in 40 contests during his senior year at Villanova, contributing 12.5 points, 4.2 assists, and 1.4 steals per game. He also shot nearly 40% on three-point attempts. Arcidiacono didn’t earn a spot among the top 100 prospects on DraftExpress.com’s big board, but placed 79th on Chad Ford’s top 100 at ESPN.com.

The Spurs only had one pick on Thursday night, but they used it to make one of the most widely-praised selections of the night, nabbing Dejounte Murray at No. 29. The pick earned San Antonio the only A-plus grade of the draft from Ford at ESPN.com.

With Murray on board, and Arcidiacono joining him, the Spurs are also expected to add a former first-round pick to their rookie class for 2016/17. According to a report from L’Equipe (via Antonis Stroggylakis of Eurohoops.net), San Antonio is poised to sign Livio Jean-Charles, the French forward selected by the team in the first round of the 2013 draft. The 22-year-old is reportedly set to leave ASVEL Basket, the French team owned by Tony Parker, in order to join Parker on the Spurs’ roster.

There have been no indications yet what sort of deal Jean-Charles will sign if he joins the Spurs this season. He could ink a rookie-scale contract, but because it has been three years since he was drafted, he’s not limited to that rookie scale — the club could also use cap space or an exception to sign him.

Southwest Notes: Mavs, Williams, Calathes

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban spoke Tuesday with Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and “it started off more than a little frigid,” as Cuban recounted via Cyber Dust, his social media app, and as the Dallas Morning News relays. That’s not surprising, given the DeAndre Jordan saga, but Cuban said he and Ballmer cleared the air.

“I told him exactly what I told other owners, I didn’t have a problem with his hail Mary approach to keeping a player,” Cuban wrote. “I understood why they did it. And even how they did it. They got their player back. End of story.”

Cuban said he doesn’t have a problem with the July Moratorium, which seemingly helped facilitate Jordan’s reversal, but even if he did, the moratorium doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon. Here’s more from around the Southwest:

  • Deron Williams‘ two-year deal with the Mavs is worth $10MM and includes a player option, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
  • The clock appears to be ticking on an NBA future for Grizzlies restricted free agent Nick Calathes. The point guard denied to Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal that he has signed with Panathinaikos of Greece, but he’ll commit to that team if he doesn’t find an NBA deal today, according to David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). Calathes is drawing NBA interest, but he’s hesitant to continue as a backup, Pick hears. The Mavericks have reportedly contacted him, though that was two weeks ago. Memphis has the power to match all competing bids from NBA teams, but not from overseas clubs.
  • Panathinaikos is close to a deal with center Nikola Milutinov, this year’s 26th overall pick, Sportando’s Enea Trapani writes. Regardless, Milutinov won’t soon be joining the Spurs, the team that drafted him, as San Antonio has informed the NBA that it won’t sign him or 2013 No. 28 pick Livio Jean-Charles during 2015/16, allowing San Antonio to remove their cap hits, notes Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links).
  • The Rockets reportedly had hopes of signing draft-and-stash prospect Marko Todorovic this summer, but that won’t be happening, as the big man has signed a three-year deal with Khimki Moscow, the Russian club announced (Twitter link; hat tip to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).
  • Spurs GM R.C. Buford said he and the front office didn’t think that they would have been able to snag Ray McCallum if he’d have been a free agent on the open market, so they were pleased to pull off the trade with the Kings that brought him in, as Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News chronicles. McCallum, who’s excited about the deal, earned a $200K partial guarantee on his salary when the Spurs didn’t waive him Sunday.
  • A $390,089 sliver of Houston’s Jeremy Lin trade exception expired Monday, though it was essentially too small to use. The Rockets had already used the majority of the exception, once worth $8,374,646, to trade for Corey Brewer and Alexey Shved in December.
  • Brewer’s new three-year deal with the Rockets is worth precisely $23,420,913, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders shows.

And-Ones: Matthews, Stoudemire, Kanter

As the drama regarding DeAndre Jordan‘s free agency decision seemingly concludes, the Mavericks can breathe easier knowing that Wesley Matthews still intends to sign with the team regardless of Jordan’s choice, Jason Quick of The Oregonian writes. Matthews reached a verbal agreement with Dallas on a sign a four-year deal worth approximately $13MM per season, and he is expected to officially sign the agreement and be introduced to the Dallas media on Thursday, the first day the NBA moratorium ends, Quick adds.

Here’s more from around the league:

  • With Jordan deciding to remain with the Clippers, signing unrestricted free agent Amar’e Stoudemire will be an option for the Mavericks, Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report relays (Twitter links). Stoudemire is also strongly considering the Heat, Zwerling adds.
  • There is growing speculation around the league that the Pacers will approach the Mavs about a trade for Roy Hibbert now that Dallas has missed out on Jordan, Jake Fischer of LibertyBallers tweets. That’s apparently even though Indiana has committed to trade Hibbert to the Lakers.
  • With the free agent moratorium set to end on Thursday, league sources believe that restricted free agent Enes Kanter will either re-sign with the Thunder or sign an offer sheet that the team would then match, Royce Young of ESPN.com relays (Twitter link).
  • Forward Livio Jean-Charles, the No. 28 overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, won’t be joining the Spurs for the 2015/16 campaign, according to Tony Parker, Dan McCarney of The San Antonio Express-News relays. Parker is not only a potential future teammate of Jean-Charles’, but he is also the president and owner of ASVEL Basket, the French team Jean-Charles currently plays for.
  • The Thunder sent the Raptors $250k as part of the trade that landed Luke Ridnour in Toronto, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets.
  • The Celtics have a vested interest in where Jordan ends up, A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com tweets. Boston owns the rights to the Dallas 2016 first-rounder from the Rajon Rondo trade, which is top seven protected. With the Mavs whiffing on signing Jordan, a blow to the team’s chances of winning this coming season, the pick becomes more valuable, as long as the Mavs don’t sink too far and end up keeping it.

Southwest Notes: Marion, Gentile, Clark

Shawn Marion said it was difficult to decide where to sign this summer and cited his continued longtime friendship with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, but he also told KRLD-FM in Dallas that the presence of his newborn son, who lives in Chicago, influenced his choice. “It wasn’t about the money,” Marion said, as the Dallas Morning News transcribes. “I got offered more money from different teams. It’s with just a matter of what I’m comfortable with. And also, from Cleveland to Chicago is not that far. It’s driveable and a quick flight.”

Here’s more from the Southwest:

  • Alessandro Gentile isn’t interested in playing in the NBA for now, and he’s uncertain that he’ll ever do so, as he told the Italian newspaper Leggo, according to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia. The Rockets acquired the NBA rights to the Italian-born small forward, this year’s 53rd overall pick, in a draft-night swap, but he signed a new deal with Italy’s Olimpia Milano in July.
  • The pact between the Grizzlies and Earl Clark is non-guaranteed, as Eric Pincus writes for the Los Angeles Times.
  • A member of the Spurs staff will be shadowing Livio Jean-Charles, last year’s 28th overall pick, throughout the season as he plays for ASVEL Villeurbanne in France, as Jean-Charles tells Frédéric Dussidour of BeBasket (translation via Jesus Gomez of Pounding the Rock). It continues San Antonio’s practice of keeping close tabs on its draft-and-stash prospects, as Gomez examines.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Western Notes: Spurs, Lowe, Togashi

With the Spurs core of stars nearing retirement the team will need to look ahead to the future, writes Howard Beck of Bleacher Report. That future will begin with Kawhi Leonard, as well as having a wealth of cap room in 2015, when only Tiago Splitter is under contract, notes Beck. The franchise also has Livio Jean-Charles, a 6’9″ forward from French Guiana, who was drafted 28th in 2013, and Davis Bertans, a 6’10″ forward from Latvia, a 2011 second-round pick who was acquired from the Pacers, to help jump start the team’s next phase, according to the article.

More from the west:

  • The Wolves hiring of Sidney Lowe as an assistant coach could be announced as early as tomorrow, reports Jerry Zgoda of The Star Tribune (Twitter link).
  • The Mavericks are going to take a look at Japanese point guard Yuki Togashi, with the hope that he could be developed as a potential NBA player with the Texas Legends of the NBA D-League, writes Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News. The 5’8″ Togashi is expected to attend the D-league draft camp next week, and isn’t expected to be selected in this year’s draft, notes Sefko.
  • Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman hands out grades for Reggie Jackson’s season with the Thunder. Jackson averaged 11.1 PPG, 3.8 RPG, and 2.4 APG this season.

Spurs First-Rounder To Stay Overseas In 2014/15

Spurs 2013 first-round draft pick Livio Jean-Charles will remain with French team Asvel Villeurbanne next season, according to Tony Parker, the Spurs point guard who owns part of Asvel, as Catch-and-Shoot reports (translation via Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). The 20-year-old forward hasn’t played this season because of a knee injury.

San Antonio took Jean-Charles with the 28th overall pick last year after an impressive performance in the Nike Hoop Summit in which he competed against many of this year’s premiere draft prospects, including Jabari Parker, Julius Randle and Noah Vonleh. Still, the 6’9″ forward put up underwhelming numbers with Asvel in 2012/13, notching just 3.3 points in 14.0 minutes per game.

The extra year overseas isn’t altogether surprising, given that the injury kept him from using this season to improve his game. If he had signed this summer, the Spurs would have given him a rookie scale contract worth the equivalent of what this year’s 28th overall pick is set to receive. There might be some degree of pressure for the Spurs to sign Jean-Charles in the summer of 2015, the last year he’d be subject to the rookie scale. Still, he’d be unlikely to command more money unless he shows significant improvement in his game, and Parker, who’s buying a majority stake in Asvel, probably wouldn’t attach an exorbitant buyout to Jean-Charles’ deal with the French team.