The San Antonio Spurs announced Thursday afternoon that they have released Bryce Cotton along with Josh Davis. It was the longest of longshots that Cotton would make the Spurs’ roster because they returned everyone from their 14 man roster last season and added UCLA’s Kyle Anderson in the late 1st round of the 2014 NBA Draft. Additionally, Cotton didn’t have a great preseason for the Spurs though he did flash potential on occasion.
What Cotton will do now remains unclear. He had interest from multiple NBA teams as a draft and stash prospect (including San Antonio) and I’m sure he would garner interest from a number of international teams as well. While the NBA D-league is a low paying option, Cotton could potentially stick it out in the D-league for a season before making a more long term decision because signing the partially guaranteed deal with the Spurs will leave him with $50,000 if he clears waivers which would supplement a minuscule D-league salary in the range of $18,000 to just over $30,000.
A source indicated that a decision on what Cotton will choose to do from here likely won’t be made for at least a week.
It’s probably been a bit of a whirlwind for Bryce Cotton since he graduated from Providence College in mid-May. Since then he has traveled all across the country working out for NBA teams, signed a contract with the San Antonio Spurs, played in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas and, most recently, got married!
Today Bryce Cotton turns 22 so I’m sending my birthday wishes to Mr. Cotton and I hope that 22 is an even better year than 21!
Below is from this link at Spurs.com where they released the roster and schedule for the Vegas Summer League. The Summer League team will be coached by Spurs’ assistant coach Ime Udoka. It will be interesting to see how 1st round draft pick Kyle Anderson is used as many believe they will not use him as a point guard.
The first report came on July 2nd by Shams Charania of RealGM. A source confirmed to me that Cotton was in San Antonio on Monday and the deal is done. The Spurs have now announced it to make it official.
The #Spurs have announced the team has signed PG Bryce Cotton.
— San Antonio Spurs (@S_AntonioSpurs) July 7, 2014
The terms were not released but a source confirmed the report from Charania that its a 2 year deal where the 2nd year of the deal would be guaranteed if Cotton makes the team out of training camp.
Cotton will suit up for the Spurs in the Las Vegas Summer League beginning on July 11th.
RealGM.com is reporting that Bryce Cotton and the San Antonio Spurs have agreed to a two year deal that will be signed Wednesday. The report says that the deal is partially guaranteed with the guarantee portion being that if Cotton makes the roster after training camp, the second season becomes guaranteed. The salary is reportedly at the league minimum which is $507,336 for the 2014-15 season.
Undrafted free agent Bryce Cotton of Providence has agreed with Spurs on a partially guaranteed two-year deal, league sources tell RealGM.
Cotton will suit up for the Spurs’ Summer League squad in Las Vegas from July 11th-21st. His final decision reportedly was between San Antonio and Dallas.
One interesting note is that Spurs’ free agent guard Patty Mills will have surgery to repair his rotator cuff that could keep him out until at least January 2015. ESPN.com’s Marc Stein is reporting that the Spurs do want to re-sign Mills and contract negotiations have already begun. This injury might ultimately hurt Cotton ironically because less teams may be willing to offer Mills a free agent contract now that he is injured.
While it was surely disappointing to Bryce Cotton that he wasn’t drafted, sometimes being an undrafted free agent with a lot of interest can be even better because you get to evaluate each situation and find the best fit. It’s sort of like high school recruiting but this time Cotton had multiple teams to choose from. In the end, there was interest from multiple teams but Cotton will play for the San Antonio Spurs in the Las Vegas Summer league. No official word has come from the Spurs themselves but the Providence Journal’s Kevin McNamara is reporting that Cotton will play for the Spurs in Vegas from July 11th-21st.
Looks like Bryce Cotton, Melvin Ejim and Durand Scott all could be w Spurs in Vegas summer league next month. @projo
Looking at the Spurs roster, the most obvious opportunity for Cotton to latch on would be if the Spurs didn’t re-sign Tony Parker’s backup, Patty Mills. Mills seems in line to receive a deal in the JJ Barea range of 4 years and $19 million. Cotton would be on the roster for a fraction of that if he makes the team. Once confirmation comes down from San Antonio I’ll have a more detailed breakdown of the Spurs opportunity.
It’s nothing new for Bryce Cotton. He is being overlooked again by evaluators. Last time it was colleges. This time it’s NBA executives. Cotton sat through all 60 picks without hearing his name called while players with names no one can pronounce were picked only to be stashed in Europe for a year or more in most cases for team’s to develop and save cap space.
I’m told that there was interest from San Antonio to draft Cotton but they wanted him to agree to be stashed overseas. Ultimately it appears Cotton will have plenty of suitors as an undrafted free agent so he will be able to select the best situation. While he showed very well in his workouts, the draft continues to be more about potential, upside and measurables than purely good basketball players so Cotton will have to earn his way onto an NBA roster by showing well during NBA Summer league and training camp.
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