I’ll be keeping a running log over the next week on players who have been waived during this period. I’ll also offer a few thoughts on whether or not those players can help some other team.
Late Addition: At the bottom of the page I’ll give links to reports of players who are save from being cut. I made an earlier post citing ESPN’s list of players who are in danger of being cut over the next few days.
So far we have four players:
- The Clippers waived Paul Davis and Fred Jones [Update: Clippers have since re-signed Jones to a 10 day contract]
- The Bucks waived Austin Croshere
- The Heat waived Shaun Livingston [Update: Miami ended up trading Livingston to Memphis where he was then waived]
Further players who have been waived
- The Suns waive Dee Brown
- The Warriors waive DeMarcus Nelson and sign Jarameo Davidson to a 10 day contract
- The Grizzlies have waived Darius Miles [Update: Grizzlies re-sign Miles to a 10 day contract]
- Spurs waive Anthony Tolliver
- Memphis waive Shaun Livingston
- The Clippers waive Hassan Adams after acquiring him in a trade
- The Cavaliers have waived Jawad Williams [Update: Cavs sign Williams to a 10 day contract}
Clippers Waive Two
I discussed this a bit and added some news reports on the Clippers situation in the comments section of another post, so click here for those details.
As for the players futures in the NBA, both are NBA level talents but are end of the roster caliber players. Fred Jones should be in this league, he can help someone. Jones could possibly crack a poor rotation somewhere. Davis is a serviceable third string center who can provide decent insurance for a team in need of extra size.
Edit: Fred Jones has been re-signed by the Clippers on a 10 day contract
Shaun Livingston
No surprises here with Miami letting Livingston go. Livingston is coming back from a dreadful injury and was always needed a lot of time to get himself physically back into basketball shape. No signs say that he’s achieved that yet, but once he crosses that bridge he has many more to follow – (1) mentally trusting his leg on basketball moves (2) Learning how the injury has changed his game (3) Developing an already flawed game.
Livingston will not help any team this season. If someone does sign him they should sign him to a two year (or a third non-guaranteed) minimum contract, and patiently let him develop off the court until he’s ready to return to action. If Livingston could get healthy he may be able to get his career back on track, and that would be a nice coup for a team.
Most likely scenario has Livingston out of the NBA for the rest of the year, and then spending the offseason trying to convince one of several NBA teams that he’s healthy enough to play again.
The article I linked to above mentions that newly open roster spot could be used for Alonzo Mourning. That’s good call, Miami will likely keep that roster spot open for the next 3-4 weeks while Alonzo decides whether or not to return.
Austin Croshere
Croshere struggled to earn a role in Milwaukee, playing just 7mpg in 11 contests. He was the only non-guaranteed contract on their roster.
Croshere is still an NBA level player, but not a rotation worthy player. He shouldn’t play regular minutes but he can provide solid irregular minutes and provide good insurance should one of your big men get injured. Croshere should be the fifth or sixth big man on whatever team he joins … he can help in that role.
Dee Brown
Surprisingly, the Suns have waived Dee Brown, surprising for four reasons
- They only signed him 10 days or so ago
- The Suns went through a lot of trouble to select Brown out of six available point guards.
- Dee Brown was a player who could actually help them be a better team. He was a good third string point and excellent insurance for Dragic. Brown was also someone who could have possibly played a larger role for the club given time.
- The Suns have only 13 players on their roster, the league minimum, so even if they wanted to waive Brown they’d have to sign someone to replace him. Not much, if any, opportunity to save money.
I wrote a post after Christmas offering three reports from Paul Coro on the Suns attempts to find a backup guard, and finally selecting Dee Brown. I found it in my drafts section a few minutes ago, forgot to publish it, but here’s the post.
Dee Brown is a good third string point guard in this league. He plays with excellent energy and hustle on the floor, he’s always ready to play (whether 1 or 2 minute stretches, or to fill in for an injured starter), plays good defense, and is a solid offensive player.
Dee Brown should be in this league.
DeMarcus Nelson
Hard to say much of anything about this guy, he didn’t play enough to leave a lasting impression. He played only 13 games, and only 13 minutes per game. In the games he did play, he struggled and clearly didn’t belong on the court.
Nelson will probably spend the rest of the season in the D-League. He didn’t do enough in GSW to attract offers from other NBA teams.
While we’re on Golden State, Jarameo Davidson is not an NBA level player. He’s also not a Don Nelson type player, so he has no hope of lasting past these 10 days … I’m amazed they signed him in the first place.
Darius Miles
Not surprising that the Grizzlies have waived Miles. The time constraints where the real key here.
Earlier in the season, Memphis were considering waiving Quinton Ross who was a key contributor for the team simply because they could save a few pennies. So for someone like Miles who isn’t a contributor, is coming back from injury and may not help them at all this season, well it was too large a strain for the franchise.
The time issue is the key, Miles had to serve his 10 game suspension before appearing in a game so he ended up playing only two games, 1 minute and 48 seconds in the first and 7 minutes 23 seconds in the second, over the course of about 3-4 weeks before the Grizzlies where on the clock and had to make a call about whether or not to keep him. Miles never had enough time or enough of an opportunity to prove himself in game situations.
That said, it’s doubtful Miles could have proven himself even if he did have the opportunity. We really don’t know what he’s capable of since he’s returning from a supposedly career ending injury, and because he hasn’t played since 2005 …. and the limited action he has played in, he clearly has lost a huge amount of his athleticism which is a key factor for a guy who used to rely so heavily on physical talents. I didn’t see either Miles performance in Memphis so I’m basing those athleticism statements off his games in preseason for the Celtics.
I think another team will offer Miles a 10 day contract or something like that, but that he once again will fail to stick around. There’s too many teams that are intrigued by him for Miles not to get an offer from someone.
There’s also plenty of teams who’d love to ruin Portland’s cap situation but I think anyone has the backbone to sign Miles and make their coach play him just to hurt the Blazers. For those keeping track, Miles has to play 10 games in order for his salary to count against Portland’s cap. His 2 games in Memphis carry over, so he’s 8 shy of achieving that target.
Going back to Memphis’ decision to waive Miles, if you clicked the above link, GM Chris Wallace reportedly said that Darko’s injury (out 4-6 weeks) was a key factor because they wanted to bring in another center in his absence. Again, we go back to the money, and Memphis wanting to stick to a league minimum 13 players, which hurt Miles chances.
Edit: Update on Miles situation, I was incorrect when I said he was 8 games away from the 10 game mark. His Celtics preseason games count, so he has actually played 8 games and is now only two away.
Update: The Memphis Grizzlies have re-signed Miles to a 10 day contract. Appearantly they never wanted to lose him, just wanted to avoid the guaranteed money they would owe him.
Anthony Tolliver
I’m surprised that the Spurs waived Tolliver, I thought they liked him. I barely saw him play so I can’t really comment on him.
Stats wise, in the limited minutes he did play he was fairly awful. Spurs fans praised his passing ability though.
Hassan Adams
Hassan Adams is not an NBA level player. He shouldn’t get another contract this season and he won’t.
At one time Adams was a decent prospect, hopefully a tour in a foreign league will help him get his career back on track.
Jawad Williams
Jawad Williams played only 4 minutes in Cavaliers uniform despite being there for almost half a season. That is the only NBA game experience he’s had in his career so far.
Williams went un-drafted in 2005 after winning the NCAA Championship with North Carolina. Since then he’s had a spell on the Clippers training camp roster, played in Spain, Israel and Japan.
Jawad Williams hasn’t played enough against NBA competition to get a good read on what he’s capable of … likely that he isn’t an NBA caliber player though. He’ll be 26 in a month.
Non-Guaranteed Minimum Contracts That Are Safe
I made a previous post a couple of days ago citing ESPN’s list of players that are under the microscope at this stage. So click that link for the complete list.
- Houston Rockets’ head coach Rick Adelman declares Von Wafer safe from the firing line, and offers up some complimentary quotes on the young lad. Good decision by Houston.
- The Chicago Bulls are going to keep both Lindsey Hunter and Michael Ruffin. Both players are safe. The article has some nice quotes about the role Hunter is playing as a mentor to the Bulls and in particular Derrick Rose.
Okay, we’ve past the deadline and here’s a follow up summary of the players who ended up being safe from ESPN
That left 14 players you could hear exhaling loudly this week, as two others had to be taken off our original list as explained below.
The 14 players who were thrilled to see Saturday arrive: Mario West (Atlanta); Lindsey Hunter and Michael Ruffin (Chicago); Rob Kurz and Anthony Morrow (Golden State); Von WaferJosh Powell (Los Angeles Lakers); Jamaal MagloireKevin Ollie (Minnesota); Sean Marks (New Orleans); Jeremy Richardson (Orlando); Malik Hairston (San Antonio); Jake Voskuhl (Toronto) and Juan Dixon (Washington). (Houston); (Miami);
The two guys on the original list who actually had nothing to worry about were Charlotte’s Juwan Howard and Golden State’s C.J. Watson (above, right). That’s because, according to the Bobcats, Howard’s veteran minimum contract was guaranteed for the season when he signed on Dec. 12. And because Watson, according to NBA front-office sources, has quietly played so solidly for the Warriors that he’s likely to land a multiyear contract in the summer with the Dubs or someone else. I’m told that no Warrior generates more trade interest than the bargain-priced guard.
