- Jazz forward Joe Ingles believes he’s among the league’s best shooters, relays Eric Woodyard of The Deseret News. He has the statistics to back up that statement, shooting 44% from 3-point range over the past two seasons. “The numbers I’ve shot, the percentages, they obviously are what they are and people are going to dissect everything,” Ingles said, “but, I honestly feel like they’re all going to go in when I shoot the ball.”
The Jazz have re-filled their 20-man preseason roster, announcing today in a press release that they’ve signed Isaiah Cousins to a contract. Cousins will replace Trey Lewis, who was waived by Utah earlier today.
A 6’4″ combo guard, Cousins was a second-round pick out of Oklahoma in 2016. Although the Kings drafted and signed Cousins, he didn’t stick with the club, instead spending the last two seasons in the G League and with French team Cholet Basket.
Last season, Cousins appeared in 36 games for Utah’s G League affiliate, the Salt Lake City Stars, recording 13.2 PPG, 4.2 APG, and 3.6 RPG with a .431/.408/.741 shooting line. The Jazz don’t project to have any openings on their 15-man NBA roster heading into the 2018/19 season, so they likely envision the 24-year-old as a G League piece once again.
Cousins was one of 32 veteran free agents who participated in a mini-camp with the Jazz back in June.
The Jazz have made their first roster cut of the preseason, announcing today in a press release that they’ve waived guard Trey Lewis. Lewis will clear waivers on Friday, assuming he goes unclaimed.
Lewis, who went undrafted out of Louisville in 2016, has played in Germany and France since beginning his professional career. He joined the Jazz for the Utah and Las Vegas Summer Leagues in July and made a strong enough impression that the club signed him in August, bringing him to training camp.
Although Lewis won’t crack Utah’s 15-man regular season roster, he looks like a candidate to land with the Salt Lake City Stars, the Jazz’s G League affiliate, assuming he opts to sign an NBAGL contract rather than heading back overseas.
The Jazz now have 19 players on their preseason roster, including 14 on fully guaranteed contracts and two on two-way deals.
- Dante Exum, Raul Neto, and Derrick Favors all have incentives on their new deals with the Jazz, with a focus on games played — they all must appear in at least 67 games to start earning their bonuses. Favors, in particular, has plenty riding on his performance, as he can earn $2.8MM in incentives. Of those incentives, $900K are considered likely and already count against his cap charge.
[SOURCE LINK]
- Jazz rookie guard Grayson Allen made a promising preseason debut, as Jordan Hicks of Basketball Insiders examines. Allen scored 19 points off the bench against Australia’s Perth Wildcats, making 7-of-14 shots overall while going 5-for-9 on 3-point tries. Bench scoring was an issue for Utah last season and the Duke rookie could prove to be a significant asset in another postseason run, Hicks points out.
Kristaps Porzingis offered an update on his condition at the Knicks‘ Media Day, but there’s still no timetable for him to start playing again, relays the Associated Press.
Porzingis has been doing some light running, but not sprinting, as he continues to recover from a torn ACL he suffered in February. The Knicks are being cautious with the rehab process and don’t want him to return to action until they are sure he is fully ready.
Porzingis adds that he isn’t concerned about getting a contract extension done quickly. He will have to wait until next summer for an extension if a deal isn’t reached before the start of the season.
There’s more injury news to pass along:
- Devin Booker got sutures removed from his right hand last week and is using a splint during workouts, Suns GM Ryan McDonough said today, per Gina Mizell of The Athletic (Twitter link). The team is still hoping Booker can be ready for opening night.
- The Warriors plan to re-evaluate free agent addition DeMarcus Cousins again in four weeks, tweets Mark Medina of The San Jose Mercury News. Team president Bob Myers is happy with the progress Cousins has made, saying, “We won’t rush him. But we also won’t hold him back.”
- Jazz guard Raul Neto has been diagnosed with a right hamstring injury and will be re-evaluated in two weeks, according to a tweet from the team.
- Hawks guard Justin Anderson is still recovering from surgery in late June to address recurring tibial stress syndrome in his left leg and won’t be ready for the start of training camp, the team announced on its website. Dewayne Dedmon will also be held out as he recovers from an avulsion fracture in his left ankle. He is in his second week of weight-bearing rehab work. Daniel Hamilton is taking a non-surgical approach to a torn rotator cuff and his progress will be reviewed in a week. Jeremy Lin has recovered from the ruptured patella tendon that caused him to miss nearly all of last season and will start camp with limited restrictions. Rookie Omari Spellman has soft tissue inflammation in his left shin and will be held out for the next seven to 10 days.
- While it may be a little early to start speculating about 2019’s free agent period, Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune suggests (via Twitter) that Bucks wing Khris Middleton is a player the Jazz like a lot. With Ricky Rubio, Alec Burks, and others on expiring deals this season, Utah could have plenty of cap flexibility next summer.
Semaj Christon, who appeared in 64 games for the Thunder during the 2016/17 season, will play in Israel this season, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Hapoel Be’er Sheva has announced the signing of the 25-year-old point guard, who split last season between China and Puerto Rico.
Christon was part of Oklahoma City’s rotation two seasons ago, averaging 2.9 points and 2.0 assists in about 15 minutes per game. The 55th pick in the 2014 draft, he was waived by the Thunder prior to the start of last season. A former star at Xavier, Christon played in the G League and Italy before coming to Oklahoma City.
There’s more international news to pass along:
- Lucas Nogueira‘s contract with Fuenlabrada in Spain has been approved, tweets Varlas Nikos of Eurohoops.net. Nogueira’s former Estudiantes club in Madrid had objected to the signing, claiming it still owned his rights, but the team refused to send documentation to ACB. Nogueira spent four seasons with the Raptors, who paid a $650K buyout to Estudiantes to get his release. Nogueira was with Estudiantes from 2009 to 2014.
- Sergio Llull has turned down numerous opportunities to join the Rockets and is now talking about staying with Real Madrid for the rest of his career, relays Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. “It is difficult to say to the NBA because it is an important League,” Llull said in a recent interview with Radio Marca. “But I have said several times that I am happy with Real Madrid. I want to remain here and win again. I would love to finish my career with Real Madrid. I have a contract for a lot of my year. But my goal now is to play a huge season.”
- The Jazz, Hawks and Nets all have interest in signing Nicolo Melli for next season, tweets Orazio Cauchi of Sportando. Atlanta and Brooklyn both made contact with him this summer, Cauchi adds.
The Jazz were fairly quiet in free agency over the summer, reaching new deals with their own free agents like Derrick Favors, Dante Exum, and Raul Neto, but not bringing in any outside targets. However, according to Blake Murphy of The Athletic, Utah was in the mix for at least one noteworthy free agent: Fred VanVleet.
In a story on VanVleet’s restricted free agency, Murphy – citing a league source – reports that the Jazz “somewhat unexpectedly tried to get into the mix” for the Raptors’ point guard. Utah didn’t have cap room this offseason, but could have used the mid-level exception to give VanVleet a similar deal to the one he received from Toronto (two years, $18MM). It’s not clear how seriously the Jazz considered VanVleet, but if they had landed him, it’s unlikely that the club would have invested so heavily in Exum ($28.8MM over three years).
- Eric Woodyard of The Deseret News takes an in-depth look at Jairus Lyles‘ quest to earn a roster spot with the Jazz for the 2018/19 season. The former UMBC standout will face an uphill battle — Utah has 14 players on guaranteed contracts, with Royce O’Neale expected to fill the 15th and final roster spot.
Jazz assistant GM Justin Zanik and Rockets VP Gersson Rosas have earned second interviews for the Sixers’ GM opening, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets.
Philadelphia’s ownership group dined with Zanik on Sunday and will do the same with Rosas on Monday. The ownership group will also hold second interviews with internal candidates on Thursday and Friday, Pompey adds in another tweet. The news was confirmed by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Warriors assistant GM and director of player personnel Larry Harris was also recently interviewed for the vacancy, though there’s no indication if he’ll receive another interview.
Some of the internal candidates for the job who were reportedly interviewed this month include former Sixers player Elton Brand, Marc Eversley, Ned Cohen and Alex Rucker.
The organization has been operating without a GM since Bryan Colangelo departed in June amid charges of releasing sensitive information on Twitter.
The Sixers initially targeted big-name NBA GMs and presidents like Rockets GM Daryl Morey, but have since cast a wider net, focusing more on executives who would view the Philadelphia job as a promotion rather than a lateral move.