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.
Ed Cooley confirmed to The Providence Journal’s Kevin McNamara that Rodney Bullock has torn his ACL and will be out for the entire 2014-15 season. While this hurts for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which is that Bullock will now have to sit for a second straight season at Providence, as long as Ben Bentil gets cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse it will soften the immediate blow as Cooley will still have depth in the frontcourt. The injury occurred during one of the team’s first few practices of the season on Sunday, October 5th.
Cooley’s comments from McNamara’s article:
“I feel awful for Rodney. It’s very unfortunate,” Cooley said. “He’s had a rough go of it here but he’s committed to working on his academics and rehabbing and coming back with us next year.”
Bullock was slated to be a solid contributor this season and put up impressive numbers during the Friars’ Italy trip, albeit against lesser competition. It’s good to hear that Bullock will stay at Providence and if he gets approved for a medical redshirt he would essentially join the class of 2015 recruiting class which would mean that class now contains 4 members and the 2014 freshman class contains 5.
It’s getting to be that time again. The time that makes Friar fans cringe. It’s time for that other shoe to drop. The last few years any hope for the advancement of the basketball program would inexplicably get derailed or at least delayed by some ruling from the NCAA Clearinghouse or an injury to a key player or some off the court issue. Snake bitten is a term that a lot of fans have taken to using on message boards to describe the lack of luck that followed this program around during the offseasons. Just during Ed Cooley’s time at Providence we’ve seen the following:
Friar fans can stop holding their breath. Kris Dunn has been cleared for full contact and went through a full team workout on Wednesday without any issues. The news was reported by ESPN’s Jeff Goodman who also spoke with Dunn and Ed Cooley after Wednesday’s workout. “Physically, it felt great. I’m just glad to be back on the court,” Dunn said. Dunn also mentioned he is 80 percent back. Cooley told Goodman that he expects Dunn to be ready and playing for Providence’s season opener against Albany on November 15th. This will also be the night the Big East Tournament Championship banner will be raised to the rafters of the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
Replacing Bryce Cotton’s scoring and leadership is one of the keys for Providence being able to make a return trip to the NCAA Tournament but arguably even bigger than that is Kris Dunn’s health. Friar fans saw that even a less than 100% healthy Kris Dunn can make a difference in a game. The one game that sticks out in my mind from last season is the Vanderbilt game in the Virgin Islands where Dunn played 31 minutes and did a little bit of a everything to help the Friars defeat the Commodores, 67-60. That Vanderbilt game would be Dunn’s 2nd of 4 games played last season before having to shut it down and have surgery. The positive of this shoulder injury is that it was a totally different injury in the same shoulder and he didn’t simply reinjure the surgically repaired area. Cooley has dubbed it a “freak injury.”
Dunn will be the key to Providence’s season. If he can stay healthy and knock of the rust in the early non-conference schedule I like the possibilities for the 2014-15 Friars. Adding Kyron Cartwright and Tyree Chambers to the 2014 recruiting class gives Providence some backup and insurance behind Dunn in case something happens but Dunn’s dynamic playmaking ability on both offense and defense is something that can’t be replaced by players on the current roster.
There still hasn’t been an official release from Providence about adding German guard Tyree Chambers for the 2014-15 season. However, the new development today is that Chambers has been added to the official roster on Friars.com.
Chambers is enrolled in classes and has been on campus since late August. He will wear #14 for the Friars.
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!
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