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The Atlanta Hawks have requested waivers on Arsalan Kazemi and Edgar Sosa, it was announced today by President of Basketball Operations/Head Coach Mike Budenholzer.
Each player appeared in one preseason contest.
Lots of players around the league were signed to non-guaranteed contracts that merely brought them onto the team’s training camp/preseason roster. The vast majority of them will be waived in the next few weeks as teams trim their rosters for the regular season.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have signed guard Dionte Christmas to a contract, General Manager David Griffin announced today from Cleveland Clinic Courts.
Christmas (6-5, 205) last played for the French professional basketball club, Paris-Levallois of LNB Pro A. He appeared in 42 games (two starts) with the team, averaging 8.9 points on .451 shooting from the field, including a .380 mark from the three-point line, 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 19.4 minutes per game.
Since going undrafted out of Temple in 2009, Christmas has played professionally in Israel, Turkey, Czech Republic, Greece, Russia, Italy and France. He has also appeared in 31 NBA games, all with the Phoenix Suns in 2013-14, when he averaged 2.3 points and 1.2 rebounds in 6.4 minutes per game.
Here’s the Oklahoman reporting on Thunder star forward Kevin Durant, who is coming off major injury and fortunately looks like himself again so far:
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The first dunk was uncontested, the kind he’s done in practice gyms for weeks. During the third quarter of his first game inside an OKC arena in more than seven months, Kevin Durant jumped a passing lane, sped by a retreating defender and dropped in a dunk with the type of ease that comes when you’re 6-foot-11 with an even longer wingspan.
But the second jam was much more powerful and encouraging.
Two possessions later, Durant shook a defender with a lefty in and out dribble, darted into the paint and, after spotting the rotating big, gathered with both feet, rose and hammered one through, landing, posing and pausing to enjoy the crowd’s roar.
It served as the final two of his 13 points during the Thunder’s 111-81 rout of Fenerbahce Ulker on Friday night and the greatest sign that the star forward is rounding into athletic form this preseason.
The Utah Jazz will hold a free open practice on Friday, Oct. 16 at 6:30 p.m. at EnergySolutions Arena. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. and no ticket is needed for admission.
The event will give Jazz fans an inside look at a Jazz practice and will feature returnees Trevor Booker, Trey Burke, Alec Burks, Derrick Favors, Rudy Gobert, Gordon Hayward, Rodney Hood and Joe Ingles, 2015 first round draft pick Trey Lyles, as well as rookies Raul Neto and Tibor Pleiss.
Head Coach Quin Snyder will lead the practice and wear a microphone to describe the drills and real-game scenarios that they will showcase. Jazz radio broadcaster David Locke will also be on hand to interview players throughout the evening.
Select concession stands will be open during the event, including new food options, such as Chick-fil-A and CupBop Korean BBQ. Food and non-alcoholic beverages will be discounted 10 percent.
The Trail Blazers beat the Warriors 118-101 yesterday. It’s just preseason, but for a rebuilding squad like Portland any sign of positivity is welcome. Here’s the Oregonian reporting:
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Allen Crabbe played his best game with the Blazers, Damian Lillard powered through a tough shooting night and the Blazers saw a wide range of contributions from virtually everyone who played. Eleven players scored and nine recorded an assist as the Blazers leaned on their entire roster.
But none was better than Crabbe, who finished with 25 points and four assists on 9-for-12 shooting, including 5-of-6 from three-point range. He swished threes, buried pull-up jumpers in transition and nailed midrange shots from all over the court. Crabbe was such a factor, he recorded a ridiculous plus-minus of plus-42. It was the first time he’s scored 20 or more points in any pre-or-regular season game with the Blazers.
As he scored from everywhere, his teammates followed suit. Lillard recorded 22 points, six rebounds and three assists, shaking off a 3-for-18 shooting night by making 15 free throws. CJ McCollum had 19 points and five assists, Al-Farouq Aminu had 11 points and eight rebounds and Pat Connaughton added 10 points. Every Blazer played less than 29 minutes as Stotts opted to limited minutes.
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The New Orleans Pelicans announced today that center Omer Asik is expected to miss the next three weeks with a right calf strain. The injury occurred during yesterday’s practice.
Asik, 7-0, 255, appeared in 76 games for the Pelicans in 2014-15, averaging 7.3 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. Drafted 36th overall by Portland in the 2008 NBA Draft, Asik has appeared in 354 career regular season games with Chicago, Houston and New Orleans, holding averages of 5.9 points and 7.7 rebounds. A native of Bursa, Turkey, Asik was originally acquired by New Orleans in a trade with the Houston Rockets on July 24, 2014. Asik re-signed to a multi-year contract with the Pelicans on July 9, 2015.
Here’s the New York Post reporting that Knicks tickets, at least for one preseason game, were available at face value from the box office for a change:
The 201-game Garden sellout streak dating to 2010 is over. The club announced a crowd of 19,037 — below the sellout number of 19,812 — for Tuesday’s preseason opener against Brazilian team Bauru.
The sellout streak had included preseason, regular-season and playoff games. The Knicks still will promote their regular-season/playoff streak that stands at 97.
The Knicks had an 87 percent season-ticket renewal rate, which was down considerably from last season. But one of the biggest upsets was the Knicks sold out all their regular-season games during their worst season in franchise history at 17-65.
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The Detroit Pistons announced today that the club has requested waivers on forward Eric Griffin.
He was signed to the training camp roster on September 28 and played for the Texas Legends of the NBA’s Developmental League last season. In 49 games, he averaged 19.0 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.3 steals and 2.4 blocks in 35.2 minutes. The Orlando native played collegiately at Campbell University and went undrafted in the 2012 NBA Draft.
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The Milwaukee Bucks have requested waivers on forward Jon Horford and guard Charlie Westbrook, General Manager John Hammond announced today.
Horford saw six minutes of action in last night’s preseason game at Chicago, while Westbrook posted four points, three rebounds, one assist and one steal in nine minutes. Both were signed by the Bucks as free agents on Sept. 18.
The Bucks roster now stands at 18 players.
The Memphis Grizzlies today announced the team has signed free agent forward/center Alex Stepheson. The contract is likely non-guaranteed and just for preseason.
Stepheson (6-10, 270) has played professionally in Greece, Slovenia and Turkey since finishing his collegiate career at the University of Southern California. The 28-year-old averaged 12.3 points and a league-leading 9.2 rebounds in 26.8 minutes while shooting 56.3 percent from the field, in 29 games (21 starts) last season for Istanbul Buyuksehir Belediyesi.
Unselected in the 2011 NBA Draft, the Los Angeles native also made three appearances for the Dallas Mavericks during the 2015 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.
The Grizzlies’ roster stands at 20 players.