Inside Hoops – Page 1040 – NBA Blog

Nuggets Sign guard Erick Green

The Denver Nuggets have signed guard Erick Green, General Manager/Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly announced today.

Green, 6-4, 185, was the 46th overall pick of the 2013 NBA Draft after leading the NCAA in scoring (25.0 ppg) as a senior at Virginia Tech. He spent the 2013-14 season with Montepaschi Siena of the Italian League, averaging 11.3 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists.

Playing at the 2014 Samsung NBA Summer League, Green averaged 16.6 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists in five games (all starts) with the Nuggets. He shot 50 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free-throw line.

Bucks adding Greg Foster to coaching staff

Here’s the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel blog with a Bucks update:

Coach Jason Kidd’s coaching staff is nearly complete with the addition of Greg Foster, who was a player development coach with the Philadelphia 76ers last season.

A source confirmed reports that Foster will join the Bucks staff and serve as one of the bench assistants.

“It is a great opportunity for Greg,” 76ers president and general manager Sam Hinkie told csnphilly,com. “We hate to lose him, but we don’t want to stand in the way of people when opportunities present themselves.”

Heat likely keeping Justin Hamilton

Here’s the South Florida Sun Sentinel reporting on the Heat:

Center Justin Hamilton is poised to become the 12th player under guaranteed contract to the Miami Heat, when his partial guarantee kicks in Friday.

Hamilton, an outside-shooting 7-footer who finished last season with the Heat, has an $816,000 contract for 2014-15 that becomes 50-percent guaranteed if not waived on or before Aug. 1, and 75-percent guarantee if he is on the roster on Dec. 1. All NBA contracts become guaranteed for the season the second week of January.

“I think we’re probably going to move forward,” Heat President Pat Riley said. “We like Justin and what he’s done in the summer league, from that standpoint. There have obviously been discussions with Justin and his agent. So he wants to be here and we want him to be here.”

Because of his Croatian lineage, Hamilton has drawn interest from European teams. He spent part of the 2012-13 season in Latvia, after he was acquired by the Heat in the second round of the 2012 NBA Draft out of LSU, and then split this past season between the Heat’s NBA Development League franchise, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, and the Charlotte Bobcats and Heat.

Jerryd Bayless excited to play for Coach Kidd

Free agent Jerryd Bayless signed with the Milwaukee Bucks in large part because of Jason Kidd.

The 6-foot-3 guard played for Memphis and Boston last season, averaging 9.3 points in 72 games. Now he gets a chance to play for Kidd, who left the Brooklyn Nets this summer to coach the Bucks.

“The thing that was most intriguing was Kidd,” Bayless said Thursday at the Bucks’ training facility. “He can help me in a variety of different ways. There aren’t a lot of guys like him that come around.”

— Associated Press

Photo: New official NBA game ball mentions league Twitter account

The new NBA game ball for the 2014-15 season includes a mention of the @NBA Twitter account. Photo:

Milwaukee Bucks sign Jerryd Bayless

The Milwaukee Bucks have signed free agent guard Jerryd Bayless, General Manager John Hammond announced today.

According to the Associated Press, “Bayless signed for two years at $3 million per season.”

Bayless, 25, split the 2013-14 season between the Memphis Grizzlies and Boston Celtics, and averaged 9.3 points, 2.0 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 72 games (19 starts). He was acquired by the Celtics in exchange for Courtney Lee on Jan. 6, and while with Boston, set season highs of 29 points – including a career-high 12 field goals made – on Feb. 26 vs. Atlanta and nine assists vs. San Antonio on Feb. 12.

Originally selected by the Indiana Pacers with the 11th pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, Bayless was traded to the Trail Blazers prior to his rookie season. Over his six-year career, Bayless has spent time with Portland, New Orleans, Toronto, Memphis and Boston, and has recorded career averages of 8.5 points, 1.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 381 games (59 starts). He has been to the playoffs three times with Portland (2009, 2010) and Memphis (2013), averaging 9.8 points, 2.0 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 23 games (two starts).

Bayless played one season at Arizona in 2007-08 where he became the first freshman in school history to lead the team in both scoring (19.7 points) and assists (4.0). In 2007, he was named a McDonald’s All-American as a high school senior at St. Mary’s (Phoenix).

Sixers reportedly dislike possible NBA draft lottery changes

Here’s the Philadelphia Daily News reporting on the 76ers and possible league changes to the draft lottery:

The league is looking into changing how the draft works, so that the bottom feeders of the league aren’t assured a top pick. A source told the Daily News that the NBA “has a strong incentive to get this done this year” on changing how the draft works. The source also said that the move is directly related to what the Sixers did last season and what they are forecasted to do this season, with top pick Joel Embiid most likely sidelined for the season after foot surgery and 10th pick Dario Saric contractually bound for two more seasons of play in Turkey.

An ESPN.com report said the Sixers have objected to the possible overhauling of the lottery for 2015, as they possibly could be hurt the most by the proposed changes.

That will probably all be sorted out in October, when the NBA’s Board of Governors meets. In the meantime, it will be another year of some bad basketball, a lot of players hitting the floor that maybe shouldn’t even be in the NBA and a whole lot of losses for the Sixers.

Lakers may want Michael Beasley

Here’s the South Florida Sun Sentinel reporting on Heat free agent forward Michael Beasley:

The Michael Beasley reunion tour is looking more and more like a limited engagement with the Miami Heat.

ESPN reported that the offensive-minded forward had a free-agent workout Wednesday with the Los Angeles Lakers at the team’s practice facility in El Segundo, Calif. Beasley has been in Los Angeles working out with childhood friend Kevin Durant, the Oklahoma City Thunder forward who now is working in Las Vegas with the U.S. national team.

Selected at No. 2 in the 2008 NBA Draft by the Heat and then dealt in the 2010 offseason makeover after the signings of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, Beasley was brought back in a limited role this past season, unable to crack the rotation. He appeared in just four of the Heat’s 20 playoff games.

Andre Drummond has good shot at making Team USA

Here’s the Detroit Free Press with an update on Team USA, which is currently training in Las Vegas and preparing to trim their roster:

Reports out of Las Vegas say Pistons third-year center Andre Drummond should make the USA FIBA World Cup team as a second-team backup to starters Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins.

Davis (New Orleans) is projected as the starter at power forward, Cousins (Sacramento) the starter at center.

Other projected starters are Stephen Curry (Golden State), James Harden (Houston) and Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City).

With decisions not to play from Kevin Love, Blake Griffin and Dwight Howard, the U.S. team is short on big men, which makes Drummond almost a lock to make team.

Mario Chalmers may play some shooting guard for Heat

Here’s the Miami Herald with an interesting update on the Heat backcourt:

Heat president Pat Riley said Wednesday that he sees an evolving role for starting point guard Mario Chalmers, while insisting LeBron James’ praise of Shabazz Napier had no influence on Miami trading up to draft him.

On the decision to give Chalmers a two-year, $8.3 million contract after a poor NBA Finals performance, Riley said: “Mario is a big-game player. He learned more than ever in this [Finals] that you can never take anything for granted at this level of play.

“We’re looking at Mario differently in this roster. He’s a point guard, but we’re also looking at him as a [shooting guard]. Mario can be very effective as a long-armed [shooting guard] who can shoot the three.”