Here are the G League moves from Thursday:
- The Hawks have assigned DeAndre’ Bembry, Tyler Cavanaugh and Isaiah Taylor to their G League affiliate in Erie, the team announced on its website.
Per a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Hawks are expected to guarantee the contracts of Isaiah Taylor and Tyler Cavanaugh before tomorrow’s guarantee deadline. Combined, that adds up to almost $2.0MM in guaranteed money that Atlanta could have saved by waiving the two players.
Taylor, a second-year guard out of Texas, played in seven total games for Houston last season as a rookie before signing with the Hawks in October. He has averaged 5.0 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game in 31 games so far this season primarily as a backup to Dennis Schroder.
Cavanaugh, an undrafted rookie big man out of George Washington, signed a two-way contract with the Hawks in November before ultimately having his contract converted to a standard NBA deal last month. In 26 games played so far this season, he has averaged 5.3 points and 3.6 rebounds per game.
The Hawks have converted Tyler Cavanaugh‘s two-way contract into a standard NBA deal, announcing today in a press release that they’ve signed the rookie forward to a multiyear pact. Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported (via Twitter) that the deal was done, while Shams Charania of The Vertical noted (via Twitter) that it’s a two-year contract.
Cavanaugh, who will turn 24 in February, initially inked an NBA contract with the Hawks in September, but it was a non-guaranteed camp deal. After being waived in October, the former George Washington standout signed a two-way contract with Atlanta in November. With the Hawks battling injury issues in the frontcourt, Cavanaugh has been on the NBA roster rather than with the Erie BayHawks since he signed, meaning his 45-day clock had nearly run out.
The Hawks won’t need to make a corresponding roster move today to create room for Cavanaugh, since they already did so earlier this month — the club waived Nicolas Brussino on December 8 and have been carrying an open roster spot since then. With Cavanaugh now on the NBA roster full time, Atlanta has 15 players on standard NBA contracts, with one (Josh Magette) on a two-way pact.
In 19 games (13.8 MPG) for the Hawks so far this season, Cavanaugh has averaged 5.5 PPG and 3.2 RPG with a .507/.409/.769 shooting line.
10:10am: The Hawks don’t intend to use their newly-opener roster spot right away, but eventually want to convert Tyler Cavanaugh‘s two-way contract into a standard NBA deal, per Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link).
10:03am: The Hawks have opened up a spot on their roster by waiving second-year forward Nicolas Brussino, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (Twitter link). Atlanta now has a total of 16 players under contract, but only 12 have fully guaranteed NBA salaries — two are on partially guaranteed contracts, and a couple more are on two-way deals.
Brussino, 24, signed with the Mavericks last summer and spent the 2016/17 season with the team, averaging 2.8 PPG and 1.8 RPG in 54 contests (9.6 MPG). Dallas didn’t want to guarantee Brussino’s salary for the 2017/18 campaign, so the club waived him July, at which point he was claimed by the Hawks. He appeared briefly in just four games for Atlanta this season.
Brussino’s minimum salary for this season became guaranteed in the summer, so the Hawks will remain on the hook for that amount, assuming the 6’7″ Argentinian goes unclaimed on waivers. Brussino’s contract also includes a $1,544,951 salary for 2018/19, but that figure is non-guaranteed.
It’s not clear if the Hawks have another roster move on tap after cutting Brussino. If not, they’ll have some flexibility going forward. NBA teams can begin signing players to 10-day contracts next month, so if Atlanta doesn’t fill its open roster spot before then, the club could use the opening to take fliers on multiple young players in the second half.
With Dewayne Dedmon and John Collins sidelined by injuries, Miles Plumlee made his first start today since joining the Hawks, notes Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Plumlee, who was part of Atlanta’s return from the Hornets in this summer’s Dwight Howard trade, had to overcome a right quad injury last month. He had played just two games for Atlanta before today’s start, which saw him post six points and seven rebounds in 19 minutes.
Plumlee, who is making $12.5MM this season and each of the next two, may get an extended chance to show what he can do as a starter. Dedmon is projected to miss three to six weeks with a left tibia stress reaction, while Collins will be out at least two weeks with a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder. Plumlee was a full-time starter for the Suns during his second season in the league in 2013/14, but has been used mainly in a reserve role since.
There’s more out of the Southeast Division:
- Rookie power forward Tyler Cavanaugh may also see more playing time in the absence of Dedmon and Collins, Cunningham adds in the same story. The 23-year-old, who signed a two-way deal with the Hawks in early November, is mainly a stretch four, but was used in a lineup today with a point guard and three wings. Cunningham expects that alignment to continue until the front line is at full strength.
- The Magic may need to consider trades to address their problems on defense, suggests Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel. Orlando has been the worst defensive team in the league since November 11 based on points per possession and has lost 10 of 11 games in that span. Robbins points out that Jonathan Isaac‘s injury has been part of the problem, but adds that Elfrid Payton, Evan Fournier, Aaron Gordon and Nikola Vucevic all have issues on that end of the court.
- Wizards guard John Wall provided an update on his injured left knee Friday, but isn’t sure when he’ll be able to play again, relays Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. He had platelet-rich plasma treatment and viscosupplementation injections in the knee last weekend and is waiting for a medical report on how he is responding. Wall, who also this season has endured a sprained shoulder, sprained ankle, swollen knee, migraines and an illness that required an IV, said he tries to avoid missing games. “I’m the type of guy who likes to play through things,” he said. “It just got to the point where it was affecting my play. I tried to get through it as much as I could, but then everyone was like you have to care of it and think about the long-term, not just the short-term.”
The Hawks have filled their second two-way roster spot by signing power forward Tyler Cavanaugh, tweets Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The 23-year-old spent the preseason with Atlanta, but was waived before the regular season began. A rookie out of George Washington, he averaged 18.3 points and 8.4 rebounds for the Colonials last year.
As a two-way player, Cavanaugh will be limited to 45 days with the Hawks. He will spend most of his time with the team’s G League affiliate in Erie, Pa.
Point guard Josh Magette holds Atlanta’s other two-way deal.
The Hawks have waived Quinn Cook, Jeremy Evans and Tyler Cavanaugh, Bobby Marks of ESPN writes. The moves were required in order to create cap space to take on Richard Jefferson and Kay Felder.
Cook, a Duke product that suited up for both the Mavs and Pelicans last season, was signed by Atlanta in early September. Evans, a six-year NBA veteran and long-time Jazz forward was signed on later in the month.
The Hawks could potentially see all three players end up with their G League team in Erie, the first two with returning rights and undrafted rookie Cavanaugh as an affiliate player.
Atlanta will incur a $100K cap hit on Cook and another $50K on Evans but all were on non-guaranteed deals with opening day – and its inherent 15-player roster limit – looming.
The moves actually bring Atlanta’s roster down to 15 players but the additions of Jefferson and Felder will obviously push them back over until they’re themselves waived, which is expected.
Had the opportunity to land a pair of second-round picks by eating the Cavaliers’ unwanted contracts not fallen in their lap, it’s plausible that the Hawks could have carried Cook into the regular season. Shortly after the point guard was brought aboard by Atlanta we wrote about the opportunity in front of him.
The Hawks have signed rookie free agent Tyler Cavanaugh to an NBA contract, tweets Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal Constitution. The team has scheduled a press conference for Wednesday to announce new deals for Cavanaugh, Quinn Cook, and Josh Magette.
Cavanaugh, 23, went undrafted in June after spending the last two seasons playing for George Washington. Having transfered from Wake Forest to GW halfway through his college career, the 6’9″ forward enjoyed his best season in 2016/17, averaing 18.3 PPG and 8.4 RPG with a .448/.409/.848 shooting line.
When Vivlamore first reported Cavanaugh’s agreement with the Hawks, he noted that the deal would include a partial guarantee. However, Cavanaugh is unlikely to earn a spot on Atlanta’s 15-man regular season roster. He’ll likely end up with the Erie BayHawks, the club’s G League affiliate.
Once the Hawks officially announce the Cavanaugh, Cook, and Magette signings, their roster count will be up to 17 players, including one (Magette) on a two-way deal. That will leave three openings on Atlanta’s offseason roster.
With the No. 3 pick in this month’s draft, the Sixers aren’t overly likely to have a chance to draft either Markelle Fultz or Lonzo Ball, but that doesn’t mean the team isn’t doing its due diligence on those top prospects. President of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo told reporters today, including Derek Bodner (Twitter link) that they’ve talked to Fultz’s reps about the possibility of working him out, though it seems like he may only audition for the Celtics.
Meanwhile, Colangelo said the Sixers haven’t yet met with Ball, but would still like to do so, as Jessica Camerato of CSNPhilly.com tweets. With the exception of those two point guards, Philadelphia has workouts lined up for all of this year’s top prospects, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link).
Here’s more on the Sixers:
- According to Colangelo, the Sixers have their eye on six or seven prospects with the No. 3 overall pick (Twitter link via Bodner). In addition to Fultz and Ball, I’d imagine guys like De’Aaron Fox, Jayson Tatum, Josh Jackson, and Malik Monk are under consideration.
- Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons won’t participate in Summer League play for the Sixers, Colangelo confirmed today (Twitter link via Bodner). Both players are coming off season-ending injuries, so it seems the team will take it slow and look to get them ready for the fall.
- 2016 first-round pick Furkan Korkmaz, a draft-and-stash prospect, may play for the Sixers in the Summer League, depending on his international commitments (Twitter link via Bodner). For now, Korkmaz is traveling to Philadelphia to visit the Sixers and work out with some of the club’s players, per Pompey (Twitter link). The young shooting guard wants to come stateside for the 2017/18 season, but has a pricey buyout – $2MM, according to David Pick – and the 76ers may want to stash him for a little while longer.
- Tyler Cavanaugh (George Washington), Derrick White (Colorado), Tahjere McCall (Tennessee State), Isaiah Briscoe (Kentucky), Reggie Upshaw Jr. (Middle Tennessee State), and Melo Trimble (Maryland) worked out today for the Sixers, as Pompey writes for The Inquirer.
Knicks president Phil Jackson has made it clear that his preference is to move Carmelo Anthony to another team this offseason, but if it were up to Lance Thomas, Anthony would be staying in New York. As Marc Berman of The New York Post writes, Thomas called Carmelo one of his “best friends” and a great teammate.
“I love him here,” Thomas said. “I love him as a teammate, love him as a competitor, love him as a person. Everything else is out of my control, but his approach has always been great. He’s an amazing professional. I’m not going to comment on what’s happening with him and the [Knicks] and trade rumors. I just know I love him as a teammate. I want it to work out.”
Here’s more from around the Atlantic division:
- Although the Sixers head into this summer with plenty of cap flexibility, they shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that they’ll need to account for big raises for their young players on rookie contracts in the not-too-distant future, writes David Murphy of The Philadelphia Daily News. Joel Embiid will be the first youngster in line for a big payday, as he becomes extension-eligible for the first time this offseason.
- Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka will see their contracts expire this summer, but they’re not the only Raptors with uncertain futures, as Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post outlines. In his end-of-season post-mortem on the Raps, Bontemps wonders if players like Jonas Valanciunas and DeMarre Carroll will be on the move in trades anytime soon.
- UCLA’s T.J. Leaf and GW’s Tyler Cavanaugh worked out for the Raptors on Thursday, according to Blake Murphy of Raptors Republic (Twitter link). Leaf is considered this year’s 26th-best prospect by DraftExpress, meaning he could be on the board when Toronto picks at No. 23.