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The Philadelphia 76ers today announced that they have waived center Daniel Orton.
Orton (6-10, 255) signed as a free agent with Philadelphia on October 16, 2013 and appeared in 22 games with four starts.
The Sixers are 12-22 this season, and their 2013-14 bright spot has been the fine play of rookie point guard Michael Carter-Williams. Also, Thaddeus Young has been on a tear lately and was named Eastern conference Player of the Week.
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The Atlanta Hawks have requested waivers on forward Cartier Martin, it was announced today by President of Basketball Operations/General Manager Danny Ferry.
Martin was signed by the Hawks on Oct. 15 and appeared in 25 games (two starts), averaging 6.6 points and 2.0 rebounds in 17.5 minutes.
Atlanta’s roster now stands at 14.
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The Cleveland Cavaliers have acquired All-Star forward Luol Deng from the Chicago Bulls in exchange for center Andrew Bynum, three future draft picks and the right to swap 2015 first round picks with the Cavs (1-14 protected), Cavaliers General Manager Chris Grant announced tonight from Cleveland Clinic Courts.
“We are very excited for Luol to join the Cavaliers organization, ” said Grant. “We have worked to acquire and maintain flexibility in order to capitalize on opportunities such as this. Luol reflects all that we are striving for in building our team. He’s a tremendous defensive player that can impact the game on both ends of the court with a team first mentality and is a high character leader.”
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In exchange for Deng, the Cavs send Chicago Bynum, Cleveland’s right to the Sacramento King’s first round draft pick conveyed in a June 30, 2011 deal, the right for Chicago to swap its own 2015 first round draft pick with the Cavs own 2015 first round draft pick (only in the case that the Cleveland 2015 first round draft pick is between 15 and 30) and the Portland Trail Blazer’s 2015 and 2016 second round draft picks acquired from the Trail Blazers via 2013 draft night trade.
“We have great respect for Luol Deng, as a player and a person. He has been an incredible contributor to our team on the court, and he has also done great things in the community,” said Chicago Bulls General Manager Gar Forman. “On behalf of the entire Bulls organization, I want to thank Luol for his years in Chicago.”
It is extremely likely that the Bulls will waive Bynum. According to ESPN.com, “the deal will save the Bulls more than $15 million in salary and luxury taxes, taking them below the salary-cap threshold.”
Deng has been an NBA All-Star in each of the past two seasons (2012 and 2013) and was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team in 2012. He also received the NBA Sportsmanship Award in 2007 and All-Rookie First Team honors in 2005.
This season, Deng appeared in 23 games (all starts) for Chicago, averaging a career-best 19.0 points on .452 shooting, 6.9 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.0 steal in 37.4 minutes per game. The 6-9, 220-pound forward has scored at least 20 points 10 times this season, including a stretch of six straight 20-point games from Nov. 24 to Dec. 5.
Deng was originally drafted by Phoenix in the 2004 NBA Draft as the No. 7 overall selection. He has spent his entire nine-year career with the Bulls and owns career averages of 16.1 points on .460 shooting, 6.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.0 steal in 35.9 minutes over 637 games (591 starts). He has also played in 48 playoff games (42 starts) with averages of 16.7 points on .452 shooting, 7.0 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.1 steals in 40.3 minutes per game.
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The Los Angeles Clippers announced today that they have signed guard Darius Morris to a 10-day contract.
Morris started the season with the Philadelphia 76ers where he averaged 6.9 points and 2.6 assists in 12 games before being waived on Nov. 20. The third-year player has career averages of 4.1 points, 1.6 assists and 1.1 rebounds in 79 games (17 starts) with the 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers. A Los Angeles native, Morris was the 41st overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Lakers out of the University of Michigan.
The 6’4” point guard played two seasons for the Wolverines, earning third team All Big-Ten honors as a sophomore with averages of 15.0 points, 6.7 assists and 4.0 rebounds.
With Clippers start point guard Chris Paul out for up to six weeks, the Clippers were in need of some backcourt depth. If Morris performs well in games or even in practice, he could stick around longer.
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The Los Angeles Clippers announced that point guard Chris Paul underwent an MRI today and was reevaluated by team doctors.
Paul has been diagnosed with a Grade 3 AC joint separation and will be out up to six weeks. No surgery is required for Paul, who suffered the injury in the third quarter of the Clippers win over Dallas on Jan. 3.
The six-time NBA All-Star has appeared in 34 games this season, averaging 19.6 points, a league-high 11.2 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game.
The Memphis Grizzlies waived guard Seth Curry, the team announced today.
Curry (6-1, 180) was signed by Memphis on Dec. 24 after averaging 21.3 points, 3.5 rebounds, 7.8 assists and 1.58 steals on .439 shooting in 37.3 minutes in 12 games (11 starts) for the Santa Cruz Warriors of the NBA Development League.
The 23-year-old made one appearance for the Grizzlies, logging four minutes in his NBA debut on Jan. 5 at Detroit.
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The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced the club has assigned rookie guard/forward Shabazz Muhammad to the Iowa Energy of the NBA Development League. Muhammad has appeared in 11 games with the Wolves this season, averaging 1.1 points and 0.7 rebounds per game.
Muhammad, originally selected with the 14th overall pick, was acquired by the Wolves in a draft-day trade with the Utah Jazz. He averaged 17.9 points and 5.2 rebounds per game last season at UCLA, leading the Bruins to the Pac-12 regular season championship.
Iowa, the D-League affiliate for Minnesota as well as Chicago, Denver, New Orleans and Washington, is 10-5 this season, third place in the Central Division. Led by Othyus Jeffers’ 23.5 points and 8.7 rebounds per game, the Energy has a pair of games in the NBA D-League Showcase in Reno, Nev. on Tuesday, Jan. 7 and Thursday, Jan. 9 before traveling to Fort Wayne, Ind. on Saturday, Jan. 11.
The Los Angeles Clippers announced today that they have waived guard Maalik Wayns.
Wayns, 22, did not appear in a game for the Clippers in 2013-14 after missing the first 33 games of the season due to a torn left meniscus.
The former Villanova stand-out appeared in six games with the Clippers last season and averaged 3.3 points and 1.2 assists. Overall, Wayns has played in 27 career NBA games with the Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers.
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The Orlando Magic have waived forward-center Solomon Jones, General Manager Rob Hennigan announced tonight. Orlando’s roster now stands at 13 players.
Jones has appeared in 11 games this season with Orlando, averaging 1.3 ppg. and 1.5 rpg. in 7.7 minpg. He was signed by the Magic as a free agent prior to training camp on Sep. 27.
Originally selected in the second round (33rd overall) of the 2006 NBA Draft by Atlanta, Jones has played in 281 regular season games with Atlanta, Indiana, New Orleans, the L.A. Clippers, New York and Orlando, averaging 3.0 ppg. and 2.3 rpg. in 11.0 minpg.
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Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez underwent successful surgery this morning, January 4, to repair the fractured fifth metatarsal of his right foot, Nets’ General Manager Billy King announced. The procedure was performed by Dr. James Nunley, Duke University Medical Center’s Department Chair of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nets’ foot and ankle specialist Dr. Martin O’Malley and team medical director Dr. Riley Williams III. In addition to the fracture repair, a second procedure, a first metatarsal osteotomy, was performed to unload and protect the injured area.
“With this procedure, we both fixed the broken bone (fifth metatarsal) in Brook’s right foot and repositioned another bone, so that his sole of his foot will bear weight more evenly than before,” said Dr. Williams. “The repositioning portion of the surgery lessens the stress on the fractured bone, and decreases the likelihood of re-injury in the future.”
Lopez, who was injured during the December 20th game at Philadelphia, is out for the remainder of the season, but is expected to make a full recovery (or so the Nets hope) and will be back on the court for offseason workouts.
At the time of his injury, Lopez was averaging a team-high 20.7 points along with 6.0 rebounds and 1.76 blocks through 17 games played this season.