Rodney McGruder Rumors | Hoops Rumors

McGruder, McGee Receive Partial Guarantees

December 2nd, 2016 at 11:17am CST by Luke Adams

As our schedule of salary guarantee dates shows, four NBA players were originally believed to be on track to receive partial guarantees if they remained under contract through December 1. Two of those players – Briante Weber and Okaro White – were waived by the Heat earlier in the year, but the other two are still on their respective teams’ rosters.

The minimum-salary contract for Rodney McGruder, another member of the Heat, called for his partial guarantee to increase to $400K on Thursday, leaving only about $144K in non-guaranteed money on his deal. The rookie shooting guard has been a regular part of Miami’s rotation so far, averaging 22.9 minutes per game, so he looks like a safe bet to remain on the roster for the season, given his role and his contract situation.

Meanwhile, JaVale McGee‘s minimum-salary contract with the Warriors reportedly called for his partial guarantee to increase from $250K to $500K on Thursday. McGee has only played sparingly for Golden State in the early going, but he has a unique skill set on a Warriors team that lacks a traditional rim-protecting center. That could mean an increased role for him later this season, though his roster spot may not be entirely safe if the team finds a more reliable veteran center via free agency or trade.

So far, there have been no indications that either the Heat or Warriors pushed back their guarantee dates for McGruder or McGee, respectively, so we’ll assume both players received their increased partial guarantees unless we hear otherwise. Their salaries for 2016/17 will become fully guaranteed if they’re still under contract on January 10.

Heat Notes: Whiteside, Ellington, McGruder, Fizdale

November 27th, 2016 at 10:24am CST by Arthur Hill

Heat center Hassan Whiteside is ready to go from target to recruiter in the free agent market, according to Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel. Whiteside was one of the top names in free agency over the summer, attracting interest from several organizations before re-signing with the Heat for $98MM over four years. Now he wants to be part of the effort to bring other big names to Miami. “When you start being around those guys a lot more, when you’re making the All-Star Game and when you’re making those different events where you get to meet the best players and hang around, that’s especially when you can build a bond with a lot of those guys,” Whiteside said. “I think that’s where a lot of recruitment comes from.”

There’s more news out of Miami:

Wayne Ellington should return soon from the quad injury that has sidelined him since the final preseason game, Winderman writes in a separate piece. The Heat signed Ellington in July to a two-year deal worth more than $12MM to bolster their outside shooting.
The Heat’s injury problems have created more playing time for Rodney McGruder, writes Manny Navarro of The Miami Herald. The rookie guard played more than 30 minutes twice this week, including some late-game experience. “It just puts you in those situations earlier than you ever would have expected,” he said. “I’m in a great situation with great teammates, a great coaching staff that believes in all of us. It makes it that much easier to go out there and play. For me, I just try to stay the course, and the minutes I do have — whatever they are — I treat them like crunch-time minutes. Because whenever you get out there those are important minutes.”
Grizzlies head coach David Fizdale says work ethic was the most important thing he learned during his time as an assistant under Erik Spoelstra, Navarro adds in the same story. Fizdale spent eight seasons in Miami before taking the Memphis job over the offseason. “I would put him against anybody in the league from the standpoint of preparation, time spent on watching film, really time spent on deep thought on what motivates his team, what guys to play,” Fizdale said of Spoelstra. “He’s a forward-thinking guy, really open minded, forward-thinking guy.”

Heat Notes: McRoberts, McGruder, Wade, J. Johnson

November 20th, 2016 at 12:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

There are signs that the Heat have lost confidence in Josh McRoberts, writes Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel. Instead of turning to McRoberts when backup center Willie Reed suffered a hyper-extended knee recently, coach Erik Spoelstra rushed Hassan Whiteside back into the game. He used James Johnson and Luke Babbitt as reserves instead of McRoberts. Part of the problem is McRoberts’ lack of aggressiveness on offense, as he is averaging just 1.3 points in the three games he has played. He has a player option worth more than $6MM for next season.

There’s more news out of Miami:

The Heat look like they made a wise investment when they signed promising guard Rodney McGruder to a long-term contract, Winderman writes in the same piece. McGruder, who is averaging 4.8 points in 18.0 minutes through the first 11 games, signed a three-year deal in July with a small guarantee for next season and none for 2018-19. Miami will own his Bird Rights when that contract expires.
Former Heat player Antoine Walker thinks the team may suffer long-term damage from letting Dwyane Wade leave in free agency, Winderman writes in another story. “I think the situation with Dwyane Wade rubbed a lot of superstars the wrong way, to let Dwyane Wade walk out the door,” Walker said in a recent appearance on SiriusXM NBA Radio. “I think Dwyane Wade played excellent last year. I think he played good enough where he could have deserved a big-time contract. It was a no-brainer. He was healthy pretty much the whole season.”
The Heat are getting defensive value out of two of their offseason signings, notes Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. James Johnson leads all forwards in the league by holding the players he guards to 27.7% shooting. Dion Waiters is second among starting NBA shooting guards, limiting opponents to 36.4%.

Cap Details: Sixers, Heat, Pelicans, Warriors

October 28th, 2016 at 10:13am CST by Luke Adams

With regular-season rosters now set, Bobby Marks of The Vertical and Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders have been working hard to update details for recent signings, cuts, guarantee dates, and other aspects of the salary cap. Listed below are a few of their latest reports, which we’ve included in our latest updates of our own 2016/17 salary cap snapshots. Let’s dive in…

Dionte Christmas recently signed a contract with the Sixers that allowed the team to secure his D-League rights. Although he was waived almost immediately after signing that deal, Christmas landed a $50K guarantee from Philadelphia, per Marks and Pincus.
Filling in the blanks on a summer trade, Pincus tweets that the Heat sent $400K to the Pelicans in the deal that saw Luke Babbitt land in Miami.
According to both Marks and Pincus, the following players received increased guarantees for surviving preseason roster cuts: Dorian Finney-Smith (Mavericks) now has a $150K guarantee, Rodney McGruder (Heat) has a $300K guarantee, and John Jenkins (Suns) has a fully guaranteed $1.051MM salary.
Meanwhile, both Marks and Pincus now list Joffrey Lauvergne‘s $1.71MM salary with the Thunder as fully guaranteed. It was previously believed to be partially guaranteed.
According to Marks, Matt Costello got $31.5K guaranteed from the Grizzlies, Lamar Patterson received a $100K guarantee from the Kings, and JaVale McGee has a $250K partial guarantee from the Warriors. Marks indicates that McGee’s guarantee will increase to $500K if he’s still under contract through December 1.

Eastern Notes: McGruder, Bentil, Kidd-Gilchrist

October 25th, 2016 at 8:15pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Heat announcing that Rodney McGruder made the team’s regular season roster may have surprised some around the league, but coach Erik Spoelstra loves the player’s work ethic and grit, writes Manny Navarro of The Miami Herald. “You love his perseverance, his fortitude, the grit,” Spoelstra said. “These things you can’t teach, you have to go through life experiences to develop it. The way he came through is almost text book in how you would want to develop a player — go overseas, learn how to handle more responsibilities and then start the process of training camp and summer league. Then, play a season and a half with our D-League team under our staff and really develop there and then finish off with another summer league, a full summer of development, a training camp, all the way to the 11th hour. And he just pushed through and persevered and worked on just getting better as a basketball player. You really root for guys like that. By the end of it, he really felt like a veteran Miami Heat player through all those experiences. But a lot of guys don’t have the type of makeup to be able to go through all those experiences without getting discouraged.”

Here’s more from the East:

Ben Bentil got a solid partial guarantee of $250K when he signed with the Celtics earlier this year, and after he was cut by Boston, he received some more guaranteed money from a second time. Per Chris Reichert of Upside and Motor (via Twitter), the Pacers – who will send Bentil to their D-League affiliate in Fort Wayne – guaranteed $50K of his salary for the few hours he spent on the NBA roster.
Hornets small forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is tired of questions regarding his twice injured shoulder and insists he is 100% healthy entering the season, Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer writes. “I don’t want to talk about my injury anymore,” Kidd-Gilchrist said. “I’ve been back to my old self ever since I started playing again. I feed off my energy. That’s always how I’ve played. My goal is to be healthy the whole season. When I get to that point, I’ll say ‘Yes! Let’s Go!’“
The relationship between LeBron James and Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert has come a long way over the past few seasons, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com notes. “I think everybody learns every day in the decisions they make and the things they do,” Gilbert said. “It was just a whole different feeling from Day 1 [when James came back in 2014]. Keep in mind that we just had one bad night in five years that we were here with LeBron — remember the first two [years James played in Cleveland], Gordon Gund ran and owned the team. But we never had a bad day until the way it ended. And as bad as it was, it was one day, it was one night and everybody is a grown man and obviously we focused on the job here. And sometimes things happen for a reason, right? You just never know it at the time.“

Luke Adams contributed to this post.

Heat Rumors: Weber, Udrih, McGruder, Dragic

October 23rd, 2016 at 10:08am CST by Arthur Hill

The Heat plan to send point guard Briante Weber to their D-League team in South Dakota if he clears waivers, writes Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. Weber was among five players released Saturday as Miami trimmed its roster to the limit of 15. The 23-year-old Weber is trying to come back from from tears in the ACL, MCL and meniscus in his right knee that he suffered in January. He had 19 steals in 149 minutes during the preseason, but struggled with his shot and had 20 turnovers to go with 23 assists. Jackson writes that Miami officials believe Weber, who has a has a $328K guarantee, is an “intriguing” prospect, but needs regular playing time to develop his game.

There’s more this morning from Miami:

Veteran point guard Beno Udrih, who was also waived Saturday, will receive the $1.5MM veteran’s minimum, Jackson notes in the same piece. That’s much more than the $90K he sacrificed as part of a controversial buyout last season that helped the franchise escape the luxury tax. Udrih reportedly passed up several overseas opportunities to re-sign with Miami.
Getting rid of Weber and Udrih leaves the Heat without a proven backup at point guard, writes Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. Miami opted to keep 6’5″ shooting guard Rodney McGruder, a key player for the Heat’s affiliate in Sioux Falls, which won the D-League title last season. McGruder had an impressive preseason, averaging 7.4 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 152 minutes of action. Winderman believes injuries to Josh Richardson and Wayne Ellington could make McGruder a rotation player in three-guard lineups when the season starts.
The Heat have told Goran Dragic that they aren’t trying to trade him, but that situation could change as the season wears on, claims ESPN’s Marc Stein. A slow start could alter the front office’s thinking about the 30-year-old point guard, who still has four years and more than $70MM remaining on the contract he signed last summer. There have been rumors that Miami was talking about sending Dragic to Sacramento in exchange for Rudy Gay and Darren Collison.

Heat Notes: Bosh, D-League, Winslow, Weber

September 6th, 2016 at 2:47pm CST by Luke Adams

Discussions between the Heat and Chris Bosh remain focused on the team’s comfort level with the All-Star big man taking new blood thinners, says Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. According to Jackson, those thinners would be out of Bosh’s system within eight hours or so, and the Heat are exploring ways for him to play while taking that type of medication. Jackson recently reported that Bosh’s camp was frustrated with the way the Heat had handled the situation. However, the club is trying to work on a solution, which has led to some optimism on both sides, according to Jackson.

Here’s more on Bosh and the Heat:

Former Florida Panthers player Tomas Fleischmann, who deals with blood clot issues frequently, has spoken to Bosh over the phone, according to Harvey Fialkov of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (Twitter links). Fialkov notes that Bosh “picked Fleischmann’s brain” on how he might be able to stay on the court while managing those health issues, with the NHL veteran advising the NBA veteran to continue his career.
Within his previously-linked piece, Jackson writes that it’s tough to imagine Rodney McGruder, Stefan Jankovic, or Okaro White making Miami’s regular-season roster unless the team trades or waives veterans. However, the Heat would like to stash all three players in the D-League.
Jackson’s piece also features rave reviews on Justise Winslow‘s development, with one Heat staffer asserting that we’ll “see a major difference” with Winslow’s jump shot in 2016/17. The 20-year-old has been working with a shooting specialist this summer.
In a pair of mailbags, Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel discusses Bosh’s situation, the potential Heat starter at shooting guard, and Briante Weber‘s roster spot — or possible lack thereof.

Rockets To Keep Michael Beasley

July 31st, 2016 at 10:06pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Rockets will hold on to combo forward Michael Beasley, whose contract guarantee date is Monday, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Beasley’s salary for next season will be $1,403,611 if Houston does keep him on the roster.

Beasley became an impact player for the Rockets late in the season after signing with the team March 4th following the end of his season in China. Beasley appeared in 20 games for Houston, averaging 12.8 points and 4.9 rebounds in 18.2 minutes per night.

The 27-year-old Beasley was the second player taken in the 2008 draft, but he admits that he damaged his career with a lack of effort and a series of off-court incidents. Beasley was part of the Rockets’ Las Vegas Summer League roster earlier this month and spent most of the time as a mentor, telling younger players not to make the same mistakes he did.

Other players with salary guarantee dates on Monday are the Heat’s Rodney McGruder [$150,000 of $543,471 salary becomes guaranteed] and Josh Richardson [full $874,636 salary] and the Pacers’ Glenn Robinson III [full $1,050,500 salary].

Heat Notes: Richardson, Wade, Waiters

July 31st, 2016 at 2:07pm CST by Will Joseph

Josh Richardson‘s minimum salary deal doesn’t become guaranteed until August 1st, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel reports. It’s the maturity of the 2015 second round draft pick of the Heat which allowed him to play without thinking about the situation, the scribe relays. Richardson’s minimum-scale 2017/18 salary doesn’t become guaranteed until June 30th, Winderman adds.

Here’s more out of Miami:

Rodney McGruder‘s guarantee will jump from $100,000 for the upcoming season to $150,000 on Aug. 1st, Winderman relays in the same post.
If the Heat had offered more money up front or money for a third season then Dwyane Wade would have never bolted for the Bulls, Winderman contends in a mailbag response. It’s not like Wade had a falling out with one of the Heat’s veterans, so the star leaving for his hometown was very much a money issue, Winderman adds.
The Heat recently added Heat Dion Waiters and the team is looking at him as a potential starter at shooting guard, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald details. Last season, however, Waiters’ stats indicate that he was far better as a backup, as Jackson points out.

Southeast Notes: Jack, Magic, Cuban, Whiteside

July 30th, 2016 at 4:22pm CST by Arthur Hill

Veteran point guard Jarrett Jack is looking forward to a “new start” in Atlanta after a torn ACL cost him most of last season, writes Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com. Jack, who played in just 32 games for the Nets before suffering the injury in January, signed with the Hawks two weeks ago. Jack lives in Atlanta and played at Georgia Tech, so he said the city was an obvious destination. “I was flattered that they called and wanted to take a chance on me, knowing that I’m coming off knee surgery,” he said, “but I’m willing to prove to everybody that I’m more than capable of withstanding the physical challenges of the season and just contributing to the team.” Jack continues to rehab the knee and said he plans to be fully ready by the start of the season. He is about a month away from being cleared for full five-on-five basketball.

There’s more news from the Southeast Division:

Developing chemistry is the next challenge in Orlando after this summer’s huge turnover, writes Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel. The changes started with the hiring of coach Frank Vogel and continued through a revamped roster that has just six players back from the end of last season. The most notable additions for the Magic were Serge Ibaka, who was acquired in a draft night trade, and Bismack Biyombo and Jeff Green, who signed as free agents. “To me, chemistry and togetherness is something you earn, something you achieve and something you work towards by creating this culture where people like to come to work and people are playing for each other,” Vogel said. “You talk about selflessness and a team-first mentality. Whether we’ve been together for five years or are brand new to each other, every year you’ve got to work to achieve chemistry.”
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who lost DeAndre Jordan to a change of heart in free agency last summer, said he never tried to persuade Heat center Hassan Whiteside to reconsider before this year’s moratorium was lifted, relays Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. Whiteside was Dallas’ top target in free agency, but he decided rather quickly to stay in Miami. “Never crossed our mind,” Cuban said in an interview with Dallas radio station 105.3-FM. “… We were happy with the direction we were going in and we had made our pitch to Hassan, but we didn’t really think he was going to leave and we didn’t go back to him and even bring it up.”
Offseason signings have left the Heat with 11 players who are ineligible to be traded before December 15th, Winderman notes in the same piece. In addition to Whiteside, they are Wayne Ellington, Udonis Haslem, Stefan Jankovic, James Johnson, Tyler Johnson, Rodney McGruder, Willie Reed, Dion Waiters, Okaro White and Derrick Williams.