The Suns are trimming their roster down in preparation of opening night. Guard David Kramer, center Norense Odiase, and forward Tariq Owens have all been waived, according to the team.
All three players were on Exhibit 10 deals. It wouldn’t be surprising if each player finds his way to the franchise’s G League affiliate, the Northern Arizona Suns.
Phoenix’s roster is down to 16 players. That figure includes Jared Harper, who is on a two-way deal.
The Heat have waived a pair of camp invitees, announcing in a press release that they’ve released guards Jeremiah Martin and Mychal Mulder.
Martin signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Heat in July, while Mulder did so in September. Miami is up against a hard cap and can’t afford to carry a 15th man, so neither player was considered a candidate to end up on the regular season roster. However, they were believed to be in the running for one of the Heat’s two-way contract slots. Instead, they may be on track to join the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the G League.
With Martin and Mulder on waivers, the Heat are now carrying 18 players, including four non-guaranteed camp invitees: Kyle Alexander, Daryl Macon, Davon Reed, and Chris Silva. Miami is expected to convert the contracts for two players from that group into two-way deals.
The Nets‘ preseason roster is back to the 20-players maximum, with the team announcing today in a press release that it has signed undrafted rookie guards Devin Cannady and C.J. Massinburg. Brooklyn opened up a pair of spots on its roster on Monday when the team waived Deng Adel and John Egbunu.
Cannady played college ball at Princeton for four years, averaging 18.2 PPG and 5.8 RPG with a .416/.360/.869 shooting line in 16 games (36.8 MPG) as a senior in 2018/19. He joined the Thunder’s Summer League roster in Las Vegas in July.
Massinburg also finished up his four-year college career this spring, capping off his time at the University of Buffalo by recording 18.2 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 3.0 APG, and a .399 3PT% in 35 games in his senior season. He played for the Nets’ Summer League team.
Neither Cannady nor Massinburg appears likely to make the Nets’ regular season roster, given the lack of available spots. But the duo could suit up for the Long Island Nets, Brooklyn’s G League squad. Today’s deals will give Brooklyn the opportunity to designate both Cannady and Massinburg as affiliate players.
The Lakers have made a minor change to their roster, announcing in a press release that they’ve signed guard Reggie Hearn and waived guard David Stockton.
Hearn, who appeared in three games for Detroit during the 2017/18 season, has spent much of his professional career in the G League, appearing in 227 total regular season games at that level. Last season, the 28-year-old played 40 games (29 starts) for the Stockton Kings, averaging 11.4 PPG and 4.5 RPG with a .429/.408/.873 shooting line.
The South Bay Lakers, L.A.’s G League affiliate, acquired the NBAGL returning rights to both Hearn and Stockton in a trade with the Kings’ G League affiliate last month, so it’s a safe bet that both players will suit up for South Bay this season.
Assuming Hearn and Stockton remain with the Lakers’ G League team for at least 60 days, they’ll be in line for Exhibit 10 bonuses worth up to $50K.
A day after signing Dusty Hannahs to an Exhibit 10 contract, the Grizzlies have waived him, replacing him on the roster with free agent guard Ahmad Caver, the club announced today in a press release.
Caver, who went undrafted this spring out of Old Dominion, averaged 16.6 PPG, 5.5 APG, and 4.3 RPG in 35 games (37.6 MPG) during his senior season.
Both Caver and Hannahs appears to be strong candidates to land with the Memphis Hustle, the Grizzlies’ G League affiliate. The team holds Hannahs’ returning rights and can make Caver an affiliate player after waiving him sometime in the next few days.
Of course, the Grizzlies could theoretically hang onto Caver into the regular season, but that’s extremely unlikely. The club already has a roster crunch, with 15 players on fully guaranteed salaries, plus Bruno Caboclo and Ivan Rabb with partial guarantees.
The Spurs have filled the two open spots on their preseason roster by signing Galen Robinson Jr. and Kenny Williams, according to RealGM’s official NBA transactions log. Kris M. Gardner reports (via Twitter) that Robinson’s contract is an Exhibit 10 deal, and it’s a safe bet that Williams’ is too.
Both Robinson and Williams are guards who went undrafted this spring. Robinson played his college ball at Houston, averaging 8.0 PPG and 4.9 APG in 37 games (29.9 MPG) as a senior, while Williams was a Tar Heel, winning a national title in 2017 and recording 8.6 PPG, 3.9 RPG, and 3.5 APG in 36 games for UNC as a senior in 2018/19.
Robinson and Williams also each suited up for the Spurs in Las Vegas Summer League play in July.
While neither player appears likely to open the regular season in San Antonio, their Exhibit 10 deals make them strong candidates to become affiliate players for the Austin Spurs in the G League. If they spend at least 60 days in Austin, they’ll be eligible for Exhibit 10 bonuses worth up to $50K to supplement their NBAGL salaries.
OCTOBER 14: The signing is official, per the NBA.com transacations log.
OCTOBER 7: The 2019/20 season won’t be a contract year for Kyle Lowry after all, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who hears from agent Mark Bartelstein that the Raptors and their starting point guard have agreed to a one-year contract extension worth $31MM.
The extension will lock up Lowry through the 2020/21 season, putting him on track for unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2021 and taking another top player off the 2020 market. As a result of the deal, Lowry will no longer be part of the group of Raptors who enter the season on pricey expiring contracts, though Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, and Fred VanVleet still fit that bill.
Lowry publicly expressed his desire for an extension in early August at Team USA’s pre-World Cup camp, and according to Wojnarowski, the Raptors’ brass – including president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri and GM Bobby Webster – has been motivated for months to get a deal done. The new extension should be a win-win for the two sides — Lowry gets one last big payday, while Toronto retains its cap flexibility for the ’21 offseason, when several stars are projected to reach free agency.
“We are so appreciative of how Masai and Bobby handled every aspect of this negotiation,” Bartelstein told Wojnarowski. “Once again, they displayed how they look after their players in a first-class manner, especially someone like Kyle who they recognize has such a legacy with the franchise.”
Lowry, who has made the Eastern Conference All-Star team for five consecutive seasons, scored a modest 14.2 PPG in 2018/19, but averaged a career-high 8.7 APG and had some big games during the Raptors’ championship run. In addition to doing the little things on defense (he led all players in the postseason in charges drawn and loose balls recovered), the 33-year-old also memorably opened Game 6 of the NBA Finals by scoring Toronto’s first 11 points.
While Lowry’s cap charge for 2019/20 is about $35MM, he may not actually earn quite that much, since he has $1.7MM in likely bonuses tied to individual and team accomplishments. If the Raptors don’t make the Eastern Conference Finals and Lowry doesn’t earn a spot on the All-Star team, his cap hit would be reduced to approximately $33.3MM at season’s end.
Lowry will still have the opportunity to earn some or all of those incentives in the newly-added year of his contract, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, who notes (via Twitter) that the usual six-month trade restriction won’t apply to the veteran. Lowry’s new deal doesn’t exceed the limits of an extend-and-trade, since it’s just for one year and doesn’t feature a raise. Still, unless things really go south in Toronto this season, it seems unlikely the Raptors will consider trading the Villanova alum within the next six months.
As for the effect of Lowry’s new deal on Toronto’s 2020 cap space, the club still has a good amount of flexibility, though a lucrative extension for Pascal Siakam by the October 21 deadline would all but eliminate that flexibility. Guaranteed 2020/21 salaries for Norman Powell, OG Anunoby, Patrick McCaw, and Lowry add up to approximately $50MM, with cap holds for Siakam and VanVleet pushing that number up to about $75MM. The NBA’s latest projection calls for a $116MM cap in ’20/21.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
The back of the Timberwolves‘ roster has undergone some turnover today, with the team announcing in a press release that it has signed guards Tyus Battle and Barry Brown. The two new Wolves will occupy the roster spots vacated by forward Jordan Murphy and guard Lindell Wigginton, who have been waived.
Battle, who went undrafted out of Syracuse, agreed to an Exhibit 10 deal with the Timberwolves right after the draft ended in June, but the two sides didn’t finalize that agreement until now. That’s a signal that Minnesota views the 6’6″ guard as someone who will join the Iowa Wolves – the team’s G League affiliate – after he’s waived.
Brown, who played his college ball at Kansas State, also went undrafted this spring. He averaged 14.6 PPG, 4.1 RPG, and 1.9 SPG in 34 games (35.0 MPG) during his final college season, then played for the Wolves’ Summer League team in Las Vegas in July. His contract, like Battle’s, is an Exhibit 10 pact, tweets Darren Wolfson of SKOR North.
According to Wolfson, it appears likely that all four players involved in today’s transactions – including Murphy and Wigginton – will ultimately end up playing for the Iowa Wolves.
The Nets have become the latest NBA team to make cuts to their preseason roster, announcing today in a press release that they’ve waived forward Deng Adel and center John Egbunu.
Adel and Egbunu were two of four players on Brooklyn’s roster with non-guaranteed contracts. Lance Thomas and C.J. Williams remain in the mix, joining the Nets’ 15 players with guaranteed salaries and one (Henry Ellenson) on a two-way contract.
After going undrafted out of Louisville in 2018, Adel spent his rookie season playing for the Cavaliers, the Canton Charge, and the Raptors 905. He signed an Exhibit 10 contract with Brooklyn in July and the Nets’ G League affiliate – the Long Island Nets – acquired his returning rights in September.
Egbunu, a 6’11” center who went undrafted out of Florida in 2017, has never played in the G League, so Brooklyn could make him an affiliate player after he clears waivers and the NBAGL season begins.
The Bucks have requested waivers on training camp invitees Jaylen Adams and Luke Maye, the team announced today (via Twitter). Both players were on non-guaranteed contracts, so Milwaukee won’t carry any dead money as a result of the cuts.
Adams, a 6’2″ point guard, spent last season with the Hawks, first on a two-way contract and then on a standard deal. He appeared in 34 games for Atlanta but was waived by the team in July and signed with Milwaukee in August. In two preseason games for the Bucks, he averaged 4.5 PPG and 3.0 RPG in 13.0 minutes per contest.
Maye, a 6’8″ forward who went undrafted out of North Carolina, joined the Bucks’ Summer League roster in July, then signed a contract with the club shortly thereafter. He appeared in three preseason games, recording 2.3 PPG and 1.3 RPG in just 5.8 MPG.
It’s possible – but not a lock – that both Adams and Maye will end up playing for the Wisconsin Herd, Milwaukee’s G League affiliate. As for the Bucks, they now have 18 players under contract and will have to make at least one more cut before opening night to get down to the regular season limit.