NBA Blog – NBA Basketball Blog
NBA Blog: The NBA basketball news blog section of Inside Hoops
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Utah Jazz guard Raul Neto, currently out with a right hamstring injury, was reevaluated on Tuesday by Jazz medical staff. The team says he is showing progress, and will be reevaluated in two weeks.
Entering his fourth season with Utah, Neto played in 41 games last season, and averaged 4.5 points, 1.8 assists and 1.2 rebounds in 12.1 minutes per outing.
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The Dallas Mavericks have waived guard-forward Ding Yanyuhang (pronounced yin-you-hong).
Ding (6-7, 205) was originally signed by the Mavericks on July 23 and played in one preseason game for Dallas. His only action of the exhibition season was on Monday in Shenzhen, China where Ding scored 1 point in 9 minutes.
Ding has spent the last seven seasons playing professionally for China’s Shandong Golden Stars. In 45 games for Shandong in 2017-18, he averaged 26.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.6 steals per game en route to winning his second consecutive Chinese Basketball Association Domestic MVP award.
Ding also played on the Mavericks’ Orlando and Las Vegas summer league teams in 2017.
The Xinjiang, China native has represented the Chinese national team in international competition, including the 2016 Olympic Games.
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The Orlando Magic have signed free agent guard John Petrucelli and have waived B.J. Johnson.
Petrucelli (#12, 6’4”, 190, 10/27/92) appeared in 43 games (seven starts) last season (2017-18) with the Lakeland Magic of the NBA G League, averaging 8.3 ppg., 4.1 rpg., 1.2 apg. and 1.28 stlpg. in 20.9 minpg. He has played in 75 career NBA G League games with Erie and Lakeland, averaging 7.1 ppg., 3.6 rpg., 1.3 apg. and 1.09 stlpg. in 21.0 minpg. Petrucelli spent two seasons (2014-16) in Slovakia after playing collegiately at Molloy College (NY).
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The Cleveland Cavaliers waived guard Levi Randolph today.
Randolph (6-5, 205) participated in two preseason games with the Cavs.
Cleveland’s roster now stands at 19.
Preseason for the league ends Friday. Teams must then trim their rosters down to 15 players, plus they’re allowed to have two additional players signed to “two-way” contracts. Those two-way players will spend the majority of the season playing in the G League.
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The OKC Thunder waived center Richard Solomon, guard Bryce Alford and forward K.J. McDaniels today.
Solomon did not play at all in preseason.
Alford played in three preseason games, averaging 2.3 points and 0.7 rebounds in 3.0 minutes per outing.
McDaniels participated in two preseason games and averaged of 3.5 points and 3.0 rebounds in 8.2 minutes.
According to the Oklahoman, “the Thunder has until the NBA’s opening day (Oct. 16) to get its roster to 15 or fewer guaranteed contracts, not including two-way players. The Thunder is currently carrying 14 guaranteed contracts. Two-way contracts do not count against the NBA salary cap.”
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The L.A. Clippers waived forward Desi Rodriguez today.
Rodriguez, 22, appeared in two preseason games for L.A., tallying one assist and one steal in 9.3 minutes. The 6’6”, 220-pound swingman appeared in six games for the Clippers in the 2018 Las Vegas NBA Summer league, averaging 7.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 21.6 minutes. Rodriguez played four collegiate seasons at Seton Hall University, appearing in 129 games (97 starts) and averaging 12.8 points and 4.9 rebounds, while shooting 36 percent from three-point range in 26.3 minutes. He was named to the Second Team All-Big East as a senior, after averaging 17.5 points and 4.8 rebounds in his final collegiate season.
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The Houston Rockets have signed free agent guard Brandon Sampson.
The deal is likely non-guaranteed and will probably only last through preseason, which ends in a few days.
Sampson (6-5, 184) was eligible for the 2018 NBA Draft following his junior season at Louisiana State. He played for Atlanta in both the Utah Jazz Summer League and the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. Following his senior year of high school in 2015, Sampson was named Mr. Basketball in the state of Louisiana.
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The Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday signed guard C.J. Anderson. The deal will likely only last during preseason.
Earlier Tuesday, the team waived Isaac Humphries, who had signed with the Hawks on Oct. 8.
Last season, as a senior at University of Massachusetts, Anderson played in 32 games (28 starts), averaging 10.6 points, 5.2 assists and 5.0 rebounds in 35.2 minutes (.414 FG%, .400 3FG%, .813 FT%), ranking fourth in the Atlantic-10 Conference in assists.
He appeared in 126 games (47 starts) in his four years with the Minutemen. The native of Memphis, TN attended Arlington High School (Arlington, TN) for three years before finishing at Whitehaven High School in Memphis. He will wear No. 8.
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The Golden State Warriors on Tuesday signed free agent guard Will Cherry.
It’s probably a non-guaranteed deal that will only last during preseason, which wraps up in a few days.
Cherry, 27, appeared in eight games with the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2014-15 season, averaging 1.9 points and 1.0 assist in 8.6 minutes per game. The Oakland native went undrafted in the 2013 NBA Draft after a four-year career at the University of Montana and has played professionally with several international clubs: Cedevita Zagreb (Croatia) in 2017-18; Gaziantep Basketbol (Turkey) in 2016-17; Alba Berlin (Germany) in 2015-16 and Zalgiris Kaunas (Lithuania) in 2014-15.
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The Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday signed guard/forward D.J. Stephens to a two-way contract and waived forward Ismaila Kane.
Stephens (6-5, 188) played professionally last season in France, where he competed in 46 games (nine starts) and averaged 9.2 points and 3.7 rebounds in 21.3 minutes to help guide Le Mans Sarthe Basket to the French LNB Pro A championship and earn the league’s Sixth Man of the Year Award. Most recently, he appeared in seven games for the Grizzlies during MGM Resorts NBA Summer League 2018 in Las Vegas, his second summer league stint with the Grizzlies.
The 27-year-old saw action in three NBA regular season games for the Milwaukee Bucks during the 2013-14 season and split the 2015-16 season with the NBA G League’s Canton Charge and Iowa Energy (now Wolves). He holds NBA G League career averages of 10.5 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.03 steals and 1.26 blocks in 24.0 minutes in 38 games (29 starts). Stephens was named the NBA G League Performer of the Week on March 28, 2016 and competed in the 2016 Slam Dunk Contest as part of 2016 NBA G League All-Star Weekend.
Stephens went unselected in the 2013 NBA Draft following a four-year collegiate career at the University of Memphis, where he was named the 2012-13 Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year as a senior. The Killeen, Texas native also has played professionally in Ukraine (2016-17), Puerto Rico (2016-17), Russia (2014-15), Greece (2013-14) and Turkey (2013-14).
Kane (6-9, 200) was signed by the Grizzlies on September 24 and made one preseason appearance, logging two minutes on October 5 vs. Atlanta. The Senegal native went unselected in the 2018 NBA Draft after playing 13 games last season for Atlanta Metropolitan of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA).