Transactions: 12/13-2/2

Atlanta Hawks 

1/5    Waived Othello Hunter

1/12   Signed Mario West to a 10-day contract

1/22   Signed Mario West to a  second 10-day contract

2/1     Signed Mario West for the rest of the season 

West hasn’t done much this season for the Hawks to remedy their short bench but he is a good athlete and a local guy.  The Hawks have also used West to fill out the bench the last few years too.  West’s stats in college and in the pros show no indication that he’s really pro level (his career high in college is only 5.2 ppg).  Atlanta can likely get a little more upside in its bench but is content with a name they know.

Boston Celtics 

1/6    Waived Lester Hudson

Hudson hadn’t done much for the Celts.  The speculation is that the Celts will use the open roster spot to find a vet that they desperately need for the playoff stretch run. Given how bad the bench has been, the need is at pretty much every position so don’t expect a point guard necessarily to replace Hudson.  

Chicago Bulls 

1/25    Traded Aaron Gray to New Orleans for Devin Brown 

In terms of talent, Brown for Gray is pretty ho hum.  Gray was useful the prior two seasons but was terrible so far this year.  Brown is a non-descript shooting guard/small forward and offers an alternative to the struggling John Salmons.  

Cleveland Cavaliers 

1/6    Waived Coby Karl

1/23  Signed Cedric Jackson to a 10-day contract

2/2    Signed Cedric Jackson to a second 10-day contract 

Jackson is another local guy (Cleveland State) getting a shot.  He was not particularly good in college (10.9 ppg, .391 FG%, .306 3FG%, 5.8 rpg, and 5.4 apg as a senior in 2008-09) and still can’t shoot in the pros but he is active and passes well and rebounds well for a point guard.  Ultimately, he’ll have to seriously improve his shot to stick. 

Dallas Mavericks 

1/11    Traded Kris Humphries and Shawne Williams to New Jersey for Eduardo Najera 

This trade doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for Dallas.  I understand the logic here, I just think it was flawed.  Management thought Humphries was a bit passive at times and were comfortable with Najera from his hustling days in Dallas from 2000 to 2004.  Najera is 33, hasn’t been healthy for two years, and hasn’t been nearly as effective as Humphries. Humphries is no star but you may as well keep the active 24-year old. 

Golden State Warriors 

1/4    Waived Mikki Moore

1/10  Signed Cartier Martin to a 10-day contract

1/17  Signed Anthony Tolliver to a 10-day contract

1/20  Signed Cartier Martin to a second 10-day contract

1/27  Signed Anthony Tolliver to a second 10-day contract

1/28  Signed Coby Karl 

This is an object lesson why you don’t invest too much in older declining centers.  Moore looked as done as can be last year but the Warriors took a shot with him only to see that he still had little left.  Tolliver, as his replacement, promptly gave similar numbers at a fraction of the price.  Tolliver doesn’t look very good so far but if he can just show a little improvement, he’ll be a decent NBA bench player.  

It’s also interesting to see Nellie take a shot on Coby Karl.  Nelson and Coby’s father George Karl have had a complicated relationship over the years.  Nelson gave Karl a shot in Golden State in the 1980s, only to promptly fire him in when things got bad.  They apparently worked out their differences at that time and Karl would feed CBA players to the Warriors late 1980s (most notably Mario Elie) only to run into other issues in the mid-1990s, particularly after Karl’s Sonics upset the Warriors in the 1991-92 Playoffs.  I’m not sure the state of the Karl-Nelson relationship now but signing Coby Karl probably isn’t a bad indicator.  As for Coby the player, he is not a total nepotism case.  He showed some ability with the Lakers previously and plays most facets of the game to be a decent 11th or 12th man.

Houston Rockets 

12/22    Signed Mike Harris

1/6        Waived Mike Harris

1/28      Signed Will Conroy 

When choosing players from the waiver wire, a team has a wide range of options.  It seems that Houston does a bit better job turning the NBDL fodder into potentially useful assets.  Both Harris, who was waived, and Conroy have very nice stat lines in college and the NBDL, which may reflect Darryl Morey’s stat focus.  Conroy, in particular, is a nice passer and scorer from the point slot.  He likely won’t get much of a shot playing behind Aaron Brooks and Kyle Lowry but there is a shot Conroy could stick.  This is more than can you say for some other teams who give the 12th man gig to local college guys who really shouldn’t be in the NBA. 

Los Angeles Clippers 

1/22    Signed JamesOn Curry to a 10-day contract and waived Kareem Rush

1/26    Traded a conditional 2014 second-round pick to New Orleans for Bobby Brown

1/26    Waived JamesOn Curry 

The Clipps get a decent young backup point for almost nothing because the Hornets were looking to pare payroll.  Brown is pretty non-descript at this point and duplicates Sebastian Telfair (who is actually the younger player).  If Telfair is injured or traded, Brown might get a shot but is nothing more than a third point guard for now. 

Memphis Grizzlies 

1/8    Signed Lester Hudson 

After getting cut by Boston, Hudson was snapped up by Memphis.  The Grizz are jammed at point with Mike Conley, Jamaal Tinsley, and Marcus Williams already.  It’s not clear why they need Hudson too but everything has worked for Memphis this year so maybe this will too. 

Miami Heat 

12/14    Waived Shavlik Randolph

1/5        Traded Chris Quinn and a 20129 second-round pick to New Jersey for a 2010 second-round pick

1/7        Signed Rafer Alston 

Essentially, the Heat swapped Quinn for Alston.  This reflects a Pat Riley tendency to go with vets and defense over all else.  Quinn is a decent young point.  He’s not a great passer or scorer but Alston’s inability to score has become more and more pronounced.  It’s not crazy to think that Alston’s scoring issues were magnified by playing with the punchless Nets but things have looked as bad for him in Miami and may be his new level of ability.  In short, I don’t see Alston as a viable starting point option for the Heat.  While I wouldn’t weep over losing Quinn, he is the better player.  If the options were Alston or Quinn, the Heat should’ve seen if there was another option out there. 

Milwaukee Bucks 

1/4    Waived Roko Ukic

1/18  Signed Jerry Stackhouse 

Nice to see Stack back in the NBA.  Here he replaces Michael Redd, who unfortunately tore his knee up again.  Stackhouse has been struggling with injuries since 2006-07 and looked very done last year.  I frankly doubt Stack has much left.  His major strength, getting to the foul line, isn’t what it was (he was getting nine free throws a game at his peak in the early 2000s) but he might fill some need if he is still above average in this area.  

Indeed, the Bucks’ free throw drawing ability has been abysmal and they have been destroyed by opponents in this area.  Milwaukee has allowed 1,344 free throws (third most in the NBA) and have drawn only 967 free throws (the worst in the NBA).  The two main scorers, Brandon Jennings and Andrew Bogut seem to have problems drawing fouls.  I can understand Jennings problem–he shoots way too many long jumpers (the Bucks have shot almost 300 more threes than their opponents).  As for Bogut, I have no idea why he doesn’t get more free throws as an inside player.  No matter the cause, the inability to get an average amount of free points is killing the Bucks and they need to do something to fix this to keep their playoff hopes alive.  Even if Stack pans out a little bit the hole will still be glaring in this area. 

Minnesota Timberwolves

12/29    Traded Jason Hart to Phoenix for Alando Tucker and a second-round pick  

After one game, Hart was shipped off to the Suns to enable Phoenix to cut him and get some cap relief.  At the same time, the Suns paid off the Wolves with a little cash to facilitate the deal.  Getting Tucker was just a little throw-in.  Tucker has scored a little bit for Phoenix in his cameos.  We’ll see if the Wolves give him a chance to score off the bench where the other small forwards are pretty poor scorers. 

New Jersey Nets 

1/5    Traded a 2010 second-round pick to Miami for Chris Quinn and a 2012 second-round pick

1/5    Waived Rafer Alston

1/11  Traded Eduardo Najera to Dallas for Kris Humphries and Shawne Williams

1/11  Waived Sean Williams

1/15  Waived Shawne Williams

It’s been an ugly season but the moves of January were not terrible.  First and foremost, Humphries is a decent player and is worth that much more on a team like the Nets that is so thin up front (particularly when the trade is for the perpetually injured Najera).  Similarly, the Quinn for Alston swap is small win too (Alston’s scoring problems were discussed above).  None of this is enough to turn around the Nets season but small changes might help when the goal is to make it to 10 wins for the season. 

Finally, this is the appropriate time to write the epitaphs for Sean and Shawne Williams, two talented players who weren’t nearly good enough to put up with the baggage they carried.  Sean looked like a nice shot blocker center in his rookie year in 2007-08 (11.5 pts, 9.1 rebs, and 3.0 blks per 36 mpg and a 13.9 PER).  Since then, it’s been all downhill.  Sean’s mannerisms on the court would instantly turn you off to him as a player and his problems with fouls and shooting combined with some off-the-court issues just were too much for the Nets.  He’s only 23 but I doubt we see Sean in the NBA again.  Shawne, a nice athlete when he was in shape, is even less likely to be back in the NBA.  Whereas, Sean has had some minor incidents with the law in the pros, Shawne, who had past drug issues, was recently indicted on more drug charges shortly after his release from Jersey.  

New Orleans Hornets 

1/11    Traded Hilton Armstrong and cash to Sacramento for a 2016 conditional second-round pick

1/25    Traded Devin Brown to Chicago for Aaron Gray

1/26    Traded Bobby Brown to the L.A. Clippers for a 2014 conditional second-round pick 

Not much to see here but the Hornets’ desperate attempt to get under the luxury tax threshold.  The Armstrong trade saved about $1.4 million (half of his salary for the year), the Brown-Gray trade was almost cap neutral (a small savings), and the Brown deal saved about $350,000.  Usually, salary slashing can be disheartening to a fan base but the Hornets gave up little of consequence and if this saves  New Orleans from trading a serious contributor like David West to save money, it was well worth it.  

New York Knicks 

12/13    Signed Jonathan Bender

Definitely an unanticipated move.  Bender had been out of the league for years with knee issues and his career was deemed done long ago.  Donnie Walsh was obviously curious to see how his old lottery pick from the Pacers was doing.  As a role player, Bender has looked okay on occasion.  He’s still a 6’11 jump shooter, who can’t rebound and shoots lots of threes (essentially a worse version of Danilo Gallinari).  I don’t see where the Knicks are going with this move, other than to sign a decent player to a short term deal and avoid long contract entanglements.  This whole affair does remind us of the Grizz’s dabbling with Darius Miles last year (without the whole Blazer complaining angle).  Unlike Bender, Miles looked pretty good in his return, putting up a 16.1 PER in 34 games.  Miles did not get another NBA gig this year and I assume Bender’s signing will also be a one shot deal. 

Oklahoma City Thunder 

12/22    Waived Shaun Livingston and Mike Wilks

12/22    Traded the rights to Peter Fehse to Utah for Eric Maynor and Matt Harpring 

OKC’s favorable cap situation allowed it to steal Maynor from the Jazz.  The Jazz wanted Harpring’s contract off the cap (Harpring’s career is over and is covered mostly by insurance) and the Thunder could handle the cap hold.  Maynor was the reward.  He’s not a star but Maynor looks like a capable rookie with an outside shot of being a decent regular NBA player. 

Phoenix Suns 

12/29    Traded Alando Tucker and a second-round pick to Minnesota for Jason Hart; Waived Jason Hart 

As mentioned above, the trade was purely to get Tucker’s contract off the books and save a little cash.  Hart will probably be seen somewhere again. 

Sacramento Kings 

1/11    Traded a 2016 conditional second-round pick to New Orleans for Hilton Armstrong and cash 

Armstrong is one of the more underwhelming lottery picks of the last few years.  He was not considered a great player coming into the pros and played pretty much up to expectations, a warm body to foul and rebound.  Unfortunately, he’s better at the fouling than the rebounding so far.  Still, Armstrong is an NBA level player and makes an adequate fourth big man off the bench.  

Just in case you kill the Hornets for taking Armstrong so high in the draft (12th overall), remember the picks taken around 12: 

9.  Patrick O’Bryant (GS)

10. Saer Sene (Sea)

11. J.J. Reddick (Orl)

12. Hilton Armstrong (NO)

13.  Thabo Sefolosha (Phi)

14.  Ronnie Brewer (Uta)

15.  Cedric Simmons (NO)

16.  Rodney Carney (Chi)

17.  Shawne Williams (Ind)

18.  Oleksiy Pecherov (Was)

19.  Quincy Douby (Sac)

20.  Renaldo Balkman (NY)

21.  Rajon Rondo (Bos) 

While Rondo would’ve helped, the Hornets already had Chris Paul.  If you assume (rightly) that another point made no sense, Armstrong is better than most of these guys.  So, remember that Armstrong’s potential bust status is not a fair label.  Given another shot, the Hornets obviously would’ve taken Rondo and traded him.  Taking away Rondo, Paul Millsap was the pick but everyone else passed on him too.  Eliminating those two, most of those mid-first rounders were very average or below. 

San Antonio Spurs 

1/22    Waived Marcus Haislip 

Haislip was waived to take shot at a deal in Europe.  Hope it works out. 

Utah Jazz 

12/22    Traded Eric Maynor and Matt Harpring to Oklahoma City for the rights to center Peter Fehse

1/5        Signed Sundiata Gaines to a 10-day contract

1/15      Signed Sundiata Gaines to a second 10-day contract

1/25      Signed Sundiata Gaines for the remainder of the season 

The Jazz also have to feel fortunate that they found another good back up after having to trade Maynor to save a few bucks.  As a result of the deal, they signed Gaines out of the NBDL, where he was playing great (23.9 ppg, .522 FG%, 6.9 apg).  Gaines’ story is the stuff of legend.  He hit a game winning shot his first game against the Cavs.  Since then, Gaines has continued to player pretty well too (15 PER).  Gaines can create shot, defend, and pass.  His major problem is an inability to shoot the three.  He is 1-7 from three in 10 games so far and was only 32% from three in the NBDL.  If he can improve this small hole, Gaines looks like he could be a legit player.

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