Tim Frazier

Grizzlies Sign Tim Frazier

6:37pm: The signing is official, pursuant to the NBA’s hardship roster rules, according to a team press release. The Grizzlies took advantage of the league’s rule tweaks and made it a 10-day contract, according to NBA.com’s transactions log.


12:31pm: The Grizzlies are set to complete the first NBA transaction of the 2021 calendar year, with Shams Charania of The Athletic reporting (via Twitter) that the club has reached a deal to sign free agent point guard Tim Frazier.

While terms of the deal haven’t been reported, it will almost certainly be a non-guaranteed minimum-salary contract.

Frazier, 30, has a total of 272 regular season NBA games for six teams under his belt. In 2019/20, he appeared in 27 games for the Pistons, averaging 3.6 PPG and 3.4 APG on .362/.333/.792 shooting in 13.1 minutes per contest. He was cut by Detroit last February to accommodate a deadline-day trade.

The Grizzlies don’t currently have an open roster spot available, but won’t have to waive a player to add Frazier, since they’ll sign him via the hardship provision, according to Charania.

The NBA can grant a team a hardship exception when that team has at least four players who have missed three or more games due to injury or illness and are expected to miss at least two more weeks. A hardship exception allows the club to add an extra player to its 15-man roster, increasing its roster limit to 16. When one of the four injured players is ready to return, the team must once again reduce its roster count to 15.

The Grizzlies have been without Jaren Jackson Jr. (knee), Justise Winslow (hip), and Jontay Porter (knee) all season so far, and recently lost Ja Morant for several weeks due to an ankle sprain. Morant missed his third consecutive game on Sunday, making Memphis eligible for a hardship exception.

Pistons Trade Andre Drummond To Cavaliers

9:21pm: It’s a done deal, with the Cavaliers and Pistons both issuing press releases to confirm the trade. Detroit announced in a separate release that, as expected, Frazier has been waived to make room on the roster for the incoming players.

1:19pm: The Cavaliers are finalizing a trade with the Pistons that will see them acquire center Andre Drummond, a league source tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

According to Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer (via Twitter), Detroit will receive Brandon Knight and John Henson, both of whom are on expiring contracts. Cleveland will also send the Pistons a second-round pick, per O’Connor.

The pick will be the lesser of Cleveland’s 2023 own pick or the 2023 second-rounder Golden State owes the Cavaliers, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com tweets.

Drummond, the league’s premier rebounder, holds a $28.75MM option on his contract for next season and he’s expected to opt out and test a weak free agent market. The Pistons reportedly were prepared to retain Drummond after talks with the Hawks and Knicks fell through but ultimately decided to move on and go into rebuild mode. Detroit was looking for a first-round pick for Drummond but settled on the second-rounder, along with those expiring contracts.

The modest haul for Drummond was surprising but Detroit’s front office wanted to avoid the possibility of Drummond opting in, O’Connor adds in another tweet. It also gives Cleveland the opportunity to see how Drummond meshes with the young backcourt of  Collin Sexton and Darius Garland.

The Pistons will now have approximately $35MM in cap space this summer, Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets. Cleveland will be close to the cap if Drummond opts in or re-signs with the starting salary in the $29-$30MM range, Marks adds.

Knight is making approximately $15.64MM and Henson has a $9.73MM contract, so the Pistons will shave some money off this year’s cap. They were perilously close to the luxury tax line prior to the proposed deal. Detroit was less than $4,000 under the tax line but moves to $1.7MM under the threshold via this trade, according to Marks (Twitter link).

Drummond has a $857K trade bonus that will be applied to his $27.1MM cap hit for this season, Marks relays in another tweet. Drummond, who has spent his whole career with Pistons since being chosen in the 2012 lottery, is averaging 17.8 PPG and an NBA-best 15.8 RPG this season.

The Pistons will have to open up a roster spot before making the trade official since it is at the 15-man limit. It’s likely that Tim Frazier, who has served as the No. 3 point guard behind Derrick Rose and Reggie Jackson, will be waived unless Detroit makes another trade, Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press tweets.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pistons To Waive Tim Frazier

The Pistons will waive point guard Tim Frazier so they can complete their Andre Drummond trade with the Cavaliers, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Detroit is receiving Brandon Knight and John Henson in the deal, along with a second-round pick. The Pistons have a full 15-man roster, so another move is necessary before the trade can be finalized. Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press reported earlier today that Frazier would likely be the odd man out.

Frazier averaged 3.6 points and 3.4 assists in 27 games in his first season as a Piston. His minimum-salary cap hit will remain on Detroit’s books, assuming he clears waivers. He’ll become an unrestricted free agent this weekend.

Blake Griffin Cleared For All Basketball Activities

Blake Griffin, who has yet to play this season due to hamstring and knee soreness, has been cleared by the Pistons‘ medical staff to participate in all basketball-related activities, the team announced today in a press release.

It’s not yet clear if Griffin will make his season debut on Friday in Indiana. According to the Pistons’ announcement, the star forward has “begun a return to game action progression” and is being considered day-to-day for now.

The Pistons have held their own despite being hit hard by injuries to start the season, posting a 4-5 record to date. That mark has been good for the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference and has been accomplished with Reggie Jackson missing seven games and Derrick Rose missing three, in addition to Griffin’s season-long absence.

Here’s more on the Pistons as they prepare for the return of their All-NBA forward:

  • Rose (hamstring) and Tim Frazier (shoulder) are continuing their treatment and rehab programs and are still considered day-to-day, according to the press release issued today by the Pistons.
  • With Griffin on the shelf, Christian Wood has gotten the opportunity to play regular minutes and has taken advantage of that opportunity, writes Rod Beard of The Detroit News. While Wood is subject to occasional defensive lapses, he has averaged 8.8 PPG and 4.3 RPG in just 15.1 minutes per contest. He’s looking to show the Pistons he deserves to have his 2019/20 salary fully guaranteed in January.
  • In case you missed it, Pistons forward Markieff Morris joined his brother Marcus Morris in signing with Roc Nation Sports for representation. Sam Permut will be their agent, tweets Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal. The Morris twins were previously represented by Rich Paul and Klutch Sports.

Pistons Notes: Griffin, Jackson, Drummond, Doumbouya

The absence of Blake Griffin has led to offensive struggles for the Pistons’ starting unit during their first two games, Keith Langlois of the team’s website notes.

With Griffin sidelined for at least five games by hamstring and knee injuries, Markieff Morris has taken his spot in the lineup and Detroit got off to slow starts both times. The situation has become even more complicated due to Reggie Jackson‘s lower back tightness, which forced him to depart the 117-100 home loss to Atlanta early on Thursday.

Casey would prefer to limit the minutes of backup point guard Derrick Rose, who has averaged 23 points in his first two games with Detroit. If Jackson needs to miss games, Rose might have to start instead of the other point option, Tim Frazier, because the offense would have even further limitations without Rose’s playmaking.

We have more on the Pistons:

  • Center Andre Drummond can opt of his contract after the season and enter unrestricted free agency. His opening-night performance showed that he’s going all out in his walk year, Rod Beard of the Detroit News tweets. After he racked up 32 points and 23 rebounds in a season-opening victory at Indiana, Drummond responded to a question regarding Twitter #ContractYearDre by saying, “You know it.”
  • The fact that Griffin, who has a long injury history, started the season in street clothes could eventually lead the front office to hit the reset button, Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press opines. Dealing Griffin is doubtful given those injury woes and that his max deal takes him through the 2021/22 season. But trade speculation has increased recently due to the possibility of the season going sour quickly, Ellis adds.
  • First-round pick Sekou Doumbouya isn’t expected to have much of an impact in his rookie season, senior adviser Ed Stefanski told Beard during a Q&A session. The 18-year-old was inactive during the first two games due to a concussion. “When we drafted him, we said early publicly that he’s going to take time to come around and we didn’t put any timetable on it,” Stefanski said. “We made a point that this year, early in the season, we didn’t expect him to be in that rotation. If he keeps playing well when February and March roll around, who knows? We’re not going to throw him to the wolves.”

Eastern Notes: Bulls, Frazier, Oladipo, Stoudemire

Bulls head coach Jim Boylen is excited about the new players his team brought in this offseason, and he hopes that the additions of veterans Thaddeus Young and Tomas Satoransky alongside rookies Coby White and Daniel Gafford will allow him to deploy a deeper roster during the 2019/20 season, writes Sean Highkin of NBC Sports Chicago.

“What we (the Bulls) talked about is we wanted to bring in high character depth that could support our current roster,” Boylen said. “I also wanted a team that was duplicit and redundant so we could play the same way (when we go to our bench).”

Specifically, Boylen spoke on how the last couple years’ lack of depth caused the Bulls to rely on G League level players whenever stars like Zach LaVine or Lauri Markkanen were out with injury or sickness.

“We’ve struggled the last couple years to play on a night when we had injury or illness, where we had to change our style of play before the game. I don’t want that (for the Bulls). The good teams don’t have that.”

There’s more news out of the Eastern Conference tonight:

  • Veteran point guard Tim Frazier is eager for the opportunity that awaits him with the Pistons, writes Rod Beard of The Detroit News. While Frazier may see limited minutes behind Reggie Jackson and Derrick Rose, Detroit sees value in having a young and experienced option in case Jackson or Rose get hurt.
  • As Jackie MacMullan of ESPN explains, Pacers guard Victor Oladipo has seen his appreciation for basketball grow as he’s been sidelined with a ruptured right quadriceps tendon. Regarding watching his team’s performance during the playoffs last season, Oladipo said “It was so hard. It makes you appreciate the game more, your teammates more, even yourself more… Sometimes we don’t realize our own impact. You take it for granted. I won’t ever do that again.”
  • The Knicks do not plan on signing former NBA All-Star big man Amar’e Stoudemire to a contract for the 2019/20 season, reports Marc Berman of The New York Post. Stoudemire worked out for the Knicks and 14 other teams in Las Vegas on Monday. He last played in the NBA for the Heat during the 2015/16 season.

Pistons Sign Tim Frazier To One-Year Deal

JULY 6: The Pistons have officially signed Frazier to his new contract, the club announced today in a press release.

JULY 1: Point guard Tim Frazier has agreed to a one-year deal for approximately $2MM with the Pistons, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). It’ll be a veteran’s minimum deal, Rod Beard of The Detroit News confirms (via Twitter).

With Ish Smith and Jose Calderon becoming free agents, the Pistons were looking for depth in the backcourt. Smith agreed to a deal with the Wizards.

The Pistons reached a two-year agreement with Derrick Rose, who could start alongside Reggie Jackson or play a sixth-man role. Rose’s deal will eat up most of the team’s mid-level exception, but the club still has a little of that MLE available, along with the $3.6MM bi-annual exception.

Frazier has bounced around the league since his rookie campaign of 2014/15. Detroit will be his sixth team. He saw action in 47 regular-season games, including 17 starts, with New Orleans last season and 12 more with the Bucks. He also made 11 postseason appearances with Milwaukee. Overall, he’s appeared in 245 NBA games, averaging 5.2 PPG and 4.1 APG in 18.2 MPG.

Bucks Sign Tim Frazier, Waive Christian Wood

MARCH 19, 10:22am: The Bucks have officially signed Frazier to a rest-of-season deal, according to a press release from the team.

MARCH 18, 11:05am: The Bucks have officially waived Wood, the team announced today (via Twitter).

MARCH 18, 9:32am: The Bucks are making a change to their 15-man roster in the wake of Malcolm Brogdon‘s foot injury, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, who reports (via Twitter) that the team will sign free agent guard Tim Frazier. Milwaukee will waive forward Christian Wood to open up a spot for the new addition.

It’s a logical move for the Bucks, who carried Frazier on their roster during training camp and the preseason last fall before releasing him. The 28-year-old was claimed off waivers by the Pelicans at that point, but once New Orleans fell out of playoff contention in February, the club cut Frazier to take a flier on EuroLeague sharpshooter Dairis Bertans.

In 47 games (17 starts) this season with the Pelicans, Frazier averaged 5.0 PPG, 4.4 APG, and 2.9 RPG with a .451/.351/.780 shooting line.

Signing Frazier will allow the Bucks to address an area of need, with Brogdon expected to miss approximately six to eight weeks due to a minor plantar fascia tear in his right foot. However, the move will cost the team Wood, who was a “valued member” of the organization, as Haynes tweets.

The 23-year-old played sparingly for Milwaukee this season, but has put up massive G League numbers, averaging 29.3 PPG, 14.0 RPG, 2.4 APG, and 2.1 BPG on 55.9% shooting in 28 games (35.3 MPG) for the Wisconsin Herd. He’s expected to draw interest from other NBA clubs, per Haynes, though he wouldn’t be playoff-eligible this spring.

If Wood goes unclaimed on waivers, the Bucks will remain responsible for his $1,512,601 cap hit for 2018/19, but would be off the hook for $1,645,357 salary for 2019/20, since it’s non-guaranteed. Wood might be an appealing target on waivers though, since his two-year, minimum-salary contract allows any club to place a claim using the minimum salary exception. If he’s claimed, his cap charge would be removed from Milwaukee’s books.

Frazier, meanwhile, would have a $205,098 cap hit for the rest of the season if the Bucks officially sign him today.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pelicans Waive Tim Frazier, Sign Dairis Bertans

MARCH 1: Both Frazier’s release and Bertans’ signing are now official, according to NBA.com’s transactions log.

FEBRUARY 28: The Pelicans are making a change to their roster, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports that the team has waived guard Tim Frazier and is working to sign EuroLeague guard Dairis Bertans.

Although neither move has been officially announced yet, Wojnarowski suggests Frazier was released on Wednesday night, while Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets that Bertans has agreed to a two-year deal with a team option for 2019/20. Will Guillory of The Athletic notes (via Twitter) that Bertans will require FIBA clearance, but the hope is that he can join the Pelicans later this week.

Bertans, 29, is the older brother of Spurs sharpshooter Davis Bertans. Like his brother, Dairis is most dangerous from beyond the arc — while Davis ranks second in the NBA with a .469 3PT%, Dairis leads the EuroLeague with a .536 3PT% in 22 games this season for Italian team Olimpia Milano.

Once the elder Bertans exercises the out clause in his deal with Olimpia Milano and officially joins the Pelicans, he’ll be able to sign for a deal worth up to about $274K in 2018/19, ESPN’s Bobby Marks observes (via Twitter). However, that figure is only possible if New Orleans uses the remainder of its bi-annual exception, having given most of it to Elfrid Payton last summer. The Pelicans used their full mid-level exception on Julius Randle.

If New Orleans opts for a minimum salary contract instead, it’ll be worth approximately $199K for this season. Both that figure and the bi-annual number are based on Bertans signing today, so they’d dip a little each day if the move is delayed. Either contract will include a minimum salary (about $1.42MM) for 2019/20. Even if the Pelicans had wanted to go beyond two years for the Latvian guard, they wouldn’t have been able to due to their limited available exceptions.

Meanwhile, Frazier will retain his playoff eligibility for a new team, since he’s being waived before the end of March 1. It’s not clear whether he’ll catch on somewhere else right away, but he could provide some depth at the point for a contender. In 47 games (19.3 MPG) this season, he has averaged 5.0 PPG and 4.4 APG with a .451/.351/.780 shooting line.

These two moves will represent the first two transactions for new Pelicans interim GM Danny Ferry.

Central Notes: Jackson, Arcidiacono, Frazier, Bucks Arena

Pistons coach Dwane Casey plans to play his point guards Reggie Jackson and Ish Smith together on a regular basis this season, as he told the Free Press and other media outlets. Casey paired them up during stretches of the second and fourth quarters during the team’s 103-100 season-opening win over Brooklyn. “I really liked it,” Casey said. “I think Ish and Reggie together gives us a different pick-and-roll look, an opportunity to have multiple pick-and-rolls and two attackers. … It really gives us some energy, juice, speed, quickness and attackers.”

We have more from the Central Division:

  • Guards Ryan Arcidiacono and Tyler Ulis could receive extensive playing time as the Bulls search for answers behind starting point guard Kris Dunn and at the off-guard position, Mark Strotman of NBC Sports Chicago reports. Arcidiacono, whose $1,349,383 salary doesn’t become fully guaranteed until January 10th, collected eight points and eight assists in 28 minutes during the team’s opener. Ulis, who received a two-way contract this week after being claimed off waivers, could spark the second unit. “He’s ready. He’s done a good job in practice,” coach Fred Hoiberg said of Ulis.
  • The Bucks saved a little money — $18,321 to be exact — when guard Tim Frazier was claimed off waivers by the Pelicans, Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets. New Orleans inherited Frazier’s $1.5MM non-guaranteed contract. He was Milwaukee’s final roster cut prior to opening night.
  • The Bucks franchise would have relocated if the new Fiserv Forum hadn’t been built, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today writes. Milwaukee played its first regular-season game there on Friday. “We were going to do everything we could to stay in Milwaukee,” Bucks co-owner Mark Lasry said. “That was ultimately something that was outside our control in that the NBA wanted a new arena, and if we couldn’t get one, they would have forced us to move.” When the current ownership group bought the Bucks for $550MM in 2014, the purchase agreement included a clause allowing the league to buy back the team for potential relocation if the new owners didn’t get a formal arena construction plan in place, Zillgitt adds.