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Team USA Roster Announced For AmeriCup Qualifying Tournament

November 13th, 2024 at 8:38pm CST by Arthur Hill

Twelve players have been selected to represent Team USA in the next phase of the AmeriCup Qualifying Tournament, USA Basketball announced in a press release. All 12 have at least some NBA experience, and seven have represented the U.S. in the past.

One of the most notable names is Robert Covington, an 11-year veteran who remains a free agent after spending last season with the Clippers and Sixers. This is the first USA Basketball experience for the 33-year-old forward.

Also on the team is big man Frank Kaminsky, who was with the Suns during training camp but was waived before the start of the season. Kaminsky was hoping to return to the NBA after playing for Partizan Belgrade in Serbia last season.

Veteran forward Keita Bates-Diop, who was waived by the Timberwolves before the season began, is another prominent name on the roster. Bates-Diop divided last season between the Suns and Nets.

Rounding out the team are Henry Ellenson, Dusty Hannahs, Nate Hinton, Jahmi’us Ramsey, Chasson Randle, Javonte Smart, David Stockton, Paul Watson and Malik Williams.

Team USA will play two games in Washington, D.C., hosting Puerto Rico on November 22 and the Bahamas on November 25. Training camp will begin Friday and will run through November 21.

Former Rockets head coach Stephen Silas will coach the team during competition windows in November and February. His assistants will include Patrick Ewing and Keith Smart.

The Americans went 1-1 in the first window, splitting their games with Cuba. They will travel to Puerto Rico and the Bahamas in February.

The qualifying rounds involve 16 teams that are divided into four groups of four teams each. Each team plays the other members of its group twice, with the top three from each group qualifying for the FIBA Men’s AmeriCup tournament, which will take place August 23-31 2025, in Managua, Nicaragua.

The qualifying games can be viewed for free by setting up an account on Courtside 1891.

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Suns Sign, Waive Paul Watson

October 17th, 2024 at 7:31pm CST by Dana Gauruder

7:31 pm: As expected, Watson was waived by the Suns, according to the NBA’s official transaction log. Watson’s next stop will likely be with Phoenix’s G League affiliate.

8:16 am: The Suns have signed wing Paul Watson, according to RealGM’s transactions log.

Terms were not disclosed but it’s safe to assume it’s an Exhibit 10 contract. Phoenix’s NBA G League team, the Valley Suns, acquired Watson’s returning rights on Monday from the Austin Spurs in exchange for the rights to Lindell Wigginton and Matt Lewis.

Watson, 28, played in Germany briefly after going undrafted out of Fresno State in 2017, but has since bounced back and forth between the NBA and the G League.

The 6’6″ guard/forward, who has shown some three-and-D potential, appeared in 46 total NBA games for the Hawks, Raptors, and Thunder from 2020-22, as well as 142 regular season and Showcase Cup NBAGL contests for the Westchester Knicks, Raptors 905, and Oklahoma City Blue from 2017-22.

He’ll be eligible for a bonus worth up to $77.5K if he’s waived and then spends at least 60 days with the Valley Suns.

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Pacific Notes: Kaminsky, Suns, Watson, Kawhi, Kings

October 15th, 2024 at 11:34am CST by Luke Adams

It’s unclear whether or not the Suns will carry a 15th man on their standard roster to start the season, since doing so will cost them exponentially more in tax penalties beyond the player’s minimum salary. If Phoenix does carry a full roster, big man Frank Kaminsky looks like the favorite to be that 15th man, notes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. The Suns waived two other camp invitees – Mamadi Diakite and Moses Wood – on Monday.

“He’s a veteran, smart, a lot of things we want to be about,” head coach Mike Budenholzer said of Kaminsky. “Having Frank in camp has been great and those will be the hard decisions with (Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein and general manager James Jones) and the front office. We’ve got to sit down and put everything together and make good, hard decisions.”

Kaminsky’s minimum-salary contract is non-guaranteed, so if the Suns do decide to hang onto him beyond the preseason, they’d essentially be paying him by the day. However, they’d also be increasing their projected tax bill each day he remains on the roster. That projected bill is already worth north of $185MM based on the team’s current financial commitments.

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

  • Phoenix’s G League affiliate, the Valley Suns, completed a trade on Monday, acquiring Paul Watson‘s returning rights from the Austin Spurs in exchange for the rights to Lindell Wigginton and Matt Lewis (Twitter link). Wigginton and Lewis are both playing overseas this fall, so the deal appears mostly about funneling Watson to the Suns’ NBAGL roster.
  • Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard won’t play at all during the preseason, head coach Tyronn Lue confirmed on Monday, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. Leonard, who dealt with inflammation in his right knee at the end of last season and during the offseason, has yet to take part in contact drills and is working on strengthening the knee. His status for the team’s regular season opener next Wednesday vs. Phoenix remains up in the air.
  • Breaking down the reported trade agreement that will send Jalen McDaniels to San Antonio, Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee wonders if the Kings might be setting up another deal by creating additional financial flexibility in their deal with the Spurs. The trade will move Sacramento about $5.8MM below the luxury tax line, with 13 players on standard contracts.
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Spurs Sign, Waive Paul Watson, Erik Stevenson

October 12th, 2023 at 6:30pm CST by Luke Adams

OCTOBER 12: Watson and Stevenson have been waived by the Spurs, per NBA.com’s transaction log.

OCTOBER 10: The Spurs have signed free agent wing Paul Watson and guard Erik Stevenson, per RealGM’s transaction log. According to Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link), both players received non-guaranteed training camp contracts.

Watson, 28, played in Germany briefly after going undrafted out of Fresno State in 2017, but has since bounced back and forth between the NBA and the G League. The 6’6″ guard/forward with some three-and-D potential, appeared in 46 total NBA games for the Hawks, Raptors, and Thunder from 2020-22, as well as 142 regular season and Showcase Cup NBAGL contests for the Westchester Knicks, Raptors 905, and Oklahoma City Blue from 2017-22.

Stevenson went undrafted earlier this year after playing five college seasons at four different schools. As a super-senior at West Virginia in 2022/23, he averaged 15.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2.5 assists in 34 games (26.0 MPG) and posted a shooting line of .430/.379/.796.

In all likelihood, both Watson and Stevenson signed Exhibit 10 contracts that will make them eligible for bonuses worth up to $75K if they’re waived by San Antonio and then spend at least 60 days with the Spurs’ G League affiliate in Austin.

San Antonio now has a full 21-man preseason roster.

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Joe Johnson, Langston Galloway Among Team USA Players For World Cup Qualifiers

February 15th, 2022 at 11:08am CST by Luke Adams

USA Basketball has announced its 12-man roster for the next two qualifying games for the 2023 FIBA World Cup. The team, coached by Jim Boylen, will be made up of G League players and current free agents. Here’s the roster:

With the exception of Ryan, all of the players on Team USA have some NBA experience, though some are certainly more accomplished than others. Johnson has earned seven All-Star berths and has appeared in 1,277 career regular season games. Bell, Black, and Galloway have also each played in more than 160 career regular season contests.

The 2023 World Cup will take place in the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia next August and September. Teams play 12 qualifying games before then — those contests take place across six windows, with World Cup hopefuls playing twice during each window.

Team USA went 1-1 in its first two qualifying games in November, defeating Cuba but losing to Mexico. Boylen coached that team and Bowen played for it, but the other 11 roster spots have since been turned over, with Isaiah Thomas among the players who aren’t back this time around. The new-look squad will face Puerto Rico on February 24 and Mexico again on February 27.

After this month’s games, the remaining four qualifying windows are scheduled for June, August, November, and next February. While the next two windows fall outside of the NBA season, the expectation is that USA Basketball will continue using G-Leaguers for the qualifiers before recruiting NBA stars for the event itself next summer.

As our JD Shaw reports (via Twitter), forward DaQuan Jeffries had been expected to be part of Team USA’s roster for this month’s qualifiers, but had to de-commit due to an injury.

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Thunder Sign Lindy Waters III To Two-Way Deal

February 10th, 2022 at 3:59pm CST by Rory Maher

The Thunder have signed Lindy Waters III to a two-way deal, the team announced. To make room for Waters, OKC waived Paul Watson.

Waters is a native of Norman, Oklahoma and attended Oklahoma State in college. He went undrafted after his senior season in 2020. Through 25 games with the Blue this season, OKC’s G League affiliate, Waters has averaged 11.7 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 1.6 APG, and 1.8 SPG on .548/.513/.941 shooting.

Watson, 27, has bounced around the past few years. He signed a 10-day contract with Atlanta in 2019/20 before catching on with the Raptors for a two-way deal. That deal was converted into a standard contract last season after Watson had a strong performance with the club, but he was waived in August 2021.

Through nine games with the Thunder this season, Watson averaged 3.4 PPG and 3.0 RPG. He struggled mightily with his shot, putting up a .343/.231/.500 shooting line in just 17.3 MPG.

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Thunder Notes: Roby, Watson, Deck, Player Development

November 30th, 2021 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

After playing a regular role for the Thunder in 2020/21, Isaiah Roby has been one of the odd men out of the frontcourt rotation so far this season, appearing in just 10 of the team’s first 20 games. However, with Derrick Favors and Kenrich Williams unavailable on Monday, Roby logged a season-high 27 minutes. He put up 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting and was a plus-five in a game the Thunder lost by 13 points.

As Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman writes, Roby has accepted his reduced role, telling reporters on Monday that he understands it and is just doing his best to stay ready. While Roby made a case for more playing time on Monday, head coach Mark Daigneault said there are still some things he wants to see from the forward on a consistent basis before reinserting him into the rotation.

“The things we’ve talked about is his rim protection and pick-and-roll coverage, which I thought was good at times (on Monday),” Daigneault said. “And then offensively just kinda being a floor-spacing, ball-moving, drive-and-kick player.”

The Thunder can make Roby a free agent in 2022 by turning down the team option on his minimum-salary contract, so if he continues to play limited minutes going forward, it’s possible his days in Oklahoma City are numbered.

Here’s more out of OKC:

  • Paul Watson, who is on a two-way contract, made his Thunder debut on Monday. Oklahoma City is a young team and two-way deals are typically reserved for younger players, so the choice to fill one of the club’s two-way slots with Watson (27 next month) is somewhat unusual. “You can’t develop 10 20-year-olds at the same time,” Daigneault explained, per Mussatto. “You’ve gotta have a level of functionality and allow people to develop in context. Otherwise you’re just kinda rolling the balls out and just hoping that the experiences are just adding up.”
  • Here’s more from Daigneault on the Thunder’s rebuild and the decision to try to develop players like Watson and 26-year-old Gabriel Deck: “It’s not a requirement moving forward that all of our players have to be 22. We have to continue to mine for opportunities with everybody.”
  • Having played in just five games with the Thunder this season, Deck has been assigned to the G League to get him more playing time, tweets Mussatto. The Argentine forward is a EuroLeague veteran, but has appeared in just 15 NBA contests since arriving in Oklahoma City late last season.
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Thunder Sign Paul Watson To Two-Way Contract

September 13th, 2021 at 8:37am CST by Luke Adams

After opening up one of their two-way contract slots by waiving Josh Hall, the Thunder have filled that opening by signing Paul Watson to a two-way deal, reports Kelsea O’Brien of BasketballNews.com (Twitter link).

Watson, 26, made his NBA debut with Atlanta, but spent most of the last two seasons with the Raptors, having signed a two-way contract with Toronto in January of 2020. The former Fresno State standout had that deal converted to a standard contract for the 2020/21 season, then was released last month before his ’21/22 salary became guaranteed.

During his time with Toronto, the 6’6″ swingman appeared in 35 games, averaging 4.1 PPG and 1.7 RPG on .475/.466/.706 shooting in 10.5 minutes per contest. He spent most of his time in 2019/20 with the Raptors 905 in the G League, putting up an impressive 19.0 PPG, 6.5 RPG, and 1.9 APG on .495/.423/.648 shooting in 30 NBAGL games (35.3 MPG).

Watson and Aaron Wiggins are now Oklahoma City’s two-way players. The team has 18 players under contract, including 13 on guaranteed salaries and three on non-guaranteed deals, leaving a pair of openings on the 20-man training camp roster.

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Raptors Waive Hood, Bembry, Watson

August 3rd, 2021 at 4:29pm CST by Eli Cohen

The Raptors have waived DeAndre’ Bembry, Rodney Hood, and Paul Watson, according to a team press release. All three players had non-guaranteed contracts for the 2021/22 season.

According to Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports, the Raptors had always planned to waive Hood, who was acquired as part of the team’s trade of Gary Trent for Norman Powell, unless they could use his contract as filler in another trade. Lewenberg also suggests the decisions to waive Watson and Bembry indicate the team is either looking to create added cap flexibility or will simply go elsewhere with its end-of-bench roster spots.

Hood has been a productive player since being drafted 23rd in the 2014 draft by the Jazz, but staying healthy has been a challenge for the 6’7 lefty. Hood fractured his hand after coming over to Toronto, putting an early end on the least productive season of his career.

As we relayed earlier today, Hood already has a deal lined up with the Bucks, who are looking to add more shooting for next year’s playoff run.

In a separate tweet, Lewenberg reports that Toronto’s plan is to waive backup center Aron Baynes before his guarantee deadline tomorrow unless his money is needed in trades, and will retain Chris Boucher through his Sunday guarantee date.

Baynes came over as a free agent in the hopes that he would help stabilize the center position upon the departure of Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol, but his lone year with the Raptors was a disappointment, with the 34-year-old Australian unable to carve out a role for himself. Boucher, meanwhile, has been a massive development success for the Raptors, turning into a solid rim-protector and three-point shooter in his fourth season.

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Raptors Notes: Lowry, Ujiri, Bembry, Watson

March 26th, 2021 at 1:15pm CST by Luke Adams

During the hours leading up to Thursday’s trade deadline, Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca tweeted that the Sixers and Raptors appeared to be “at the one-yard line” in their discussions on a Kyle Lowry trade. Obviously, those talks didn’t make it into the end zone and Lowry ended up staying put. But Sam Amick of The Athletic hears that Toronto did feel at one point as if a deal with Philadelphia was close.

According to Amick, the deal would have included Danny Green, who would’ve been re-routed to a third team. It’s a safe bet that at least one of Tyrese Maxey and Matisse Thybulle would have been part of the package too. However, the draft compensation involved in the proposed trade was the obstacle that held things up, a source tells Amick.

Following up today on the Lowry discussions, Grange says (via Twitter) that the Sixers knew Miami was Lowry’s preferred landing spot, so they had to view him as a possible rental. That limited what they were willing to offer beyond Maxey, Grange adds. The Lakers were in a similar boat with Talen Horton-Tucker, writes Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca, while the Heat were unwilling to offer Tyler Herro for a player they could theoretically sign in free agency this summer.

Here’s more on the Raptors:

  • While the Raptors didn’t trade Lowry at the deadline, it’s hard to shake the sense that more drastic changes could be coming as soon as this offseason, Grange writes for Sportsnet.ca. While Lowry could sign a new contract with Toronto, it seems just as likely that he could head elsewhere, possibly in a sign-and-trade deal.
  • Like Lowry, Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri is also on an expiring contract, and while he spoke glowingly about the franchise on Thursday, he gave no indication that an in-season extension is around the corner. “We’ll visit this at the end of the season at some point,” Ujiri said of his contract with Toronto, per Grange.
  • During his media session on Thursday, Ujiri addressed the idea that the Raptors’ asking price for Lowry was too high: “I was surprised (the offers) weren’t better because, to be honest, I’ve viewed him as somebody that can go out and put a stamp on what you can do this year. … I’ve lived it, I’ve seen it… I know what the guy does. I know who he is. And that’s the truth. So, yeah, we’re going to (be) skewed in some kind of way and I’m biased in many ways with the players we have and I hope I’m pardoned that if I valued him too much, but that’s what I believe in today.”
  • Raptors reserves DeAndre’ Bembry and Paul Watson have entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols and won’t play on Friday night, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca.
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