The Knicks waived four players to get down to the 15-man roster limit today, cutting ties with Oscar Bellfield, John Shurna, Mychel Thompson and Henry Sims, as Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today reports (Twitter link). Shurna and Sims had partial guaranteed of $50K, while Bellfield's and Thompson's contracts were non-guaranteed. The moves likely mean Chris Copeland, who has a non-guaranteed deal, will be on the Knicks opening-night roster.
The Knicks have officially signed four players to contracts that include training camp invites, according to a team press release. We heard yesterday about the team's deal with John Shurna, but the other three names are new — the Knicks have added center Henry Sims, guard Oscar Bellfield, and forward Mychel Thompson.
Sims, a seven-footer out of Georgetown, was ranked as the seventh-best center in this year's draft by ESPN.com's Chad Ford after averaging 11.6 PPG and 6.0 RPG in his senior year, but went undrafted. Bellfield, a senior out of UNLV, also went undrafted in 2012.
Thompson, meanwhile, is the only player of the four with any NBA experience, after a brief stint with the Cavaliers in 2011/12. Klay Thompson's older brother appeared in five games for Cleveland last season, starting three. He's a year removed from going undrafted out of Pepperdine, where he averaged 14.6 PPG in his senior year (2010/11).
According to Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com (via Twitter), all four players worked out for the Knicks in the spring, and will be fighting to earn one of the team's final roster spots. The Knicks now have 19 players under contract heading into camp, including up to seven believed to be on non-guaranteed deals. For the players that don't earn an NBA roster spot, a place on the Erie BayHawks, New York's D-League affiliate, could be in the cards.
With the draft just four days away, teams are scurrying to get their plans in order before Thursday evening's big event in Newark, NJ. Saturday saw another full slate of draft rumors and Sunday's already shaping up to look the same. Ft. Worth Star-Telegram's Dwain Price reports the Mavs will be looking to add a rotation-type player with the 17th pick. We'll keep track of all of the day's latest draft news and happenings with the most recent information on top.
- The Rockets are looking to move into the top 10, dangling some combination of picks 14, 16 and Kyle Lowry, says Chad Ford. Ford suspects that the Rockets are eyeing UConn's Andre Drummond and could be speaking with the Kings at pick 5 and the Raptors at pick 8.
- Jodie Valade addresses the comparisons between Bradley Beal and Ray Allen in a story for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, implying that Beal could be more versatile than Allen.
- Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group takes a look at potential Warriors targets Moe Harkless, Terrence Ross and Quincy Miller and where the selection of the three wings would make sense for Golden State.