Rockets to sign rookie guard Chris Clemons to three-year contract

With his Two-Way deal running out of NBA days, the Rockets are signing rookie guard Chris Clemons to a three-year standard contract.

The Houston Rockets agreed to a three-year contract with rookie guard Chris Clemons, as first reported by The Athletic‘s Shams Charania.

The 5-foot-9 Clemons had been on a Two-Way contract with the Rockets. A player on a Two-Way contract is primarily a G League player, but he can spend up to 45 service days with his affiliate NBA team.

Clemons’ allotment of NBA service days was close to running out, however, which prompted the move to a standard contract and allows him to stay with the Rockets as much as the team wants. Houston pulled a similar roster maneuver with undrafted rookie Gary Clark a season ago, once his Two-Way service days ran out at the NBA level.

The three-year deals were only made possible due to Houston preserving a portion of its Mid-Level Exception (MLE) money in both years, since a minimum contract could not be for longer than two years.

The Rockets (21-10) have had an open roster spot since waiving Ryan Anderson in late November. With the conversion of Clemons, the standard roster is now full, but they now have a Two-Way slot open.

Clemons played in college at Campbell University, where he was the NCAA’s top scorer in the 2018-19 season at 30.1 points per game. He is the third-highest scorer in Division 1 college basketball history. According to Basketball-Reference, Clemons’ offensive win shares (6.1) ranked second-best among all college players last season, while his player efficiency rating (33.0) was top 10 in the country.

Yet, primarily due to his small frame, Clemons was not selected by any team in the 2019 NBA Draft. The Rockets picked him up as an undrafted free agent and he quickly turned heads, averaging a team-best 20.8 points per game in Summer League, including 43.1% on 3-pointers.

In an exclusive July interview from Summer League, Clemons spoke with RocketsWire to explain his journey to the NBA; his skillset; the feedback he has received to this point; and much more.

Since then, in 20 games during the 2019-20 regular season, Clemons is averaging 4.8 points on 39.1% three-point shooting in 8.2 minutes per game. On Nov. 16, Clemons contributed to an important Houston win at Minnesota with a career-high 19 points (5-of-9 on three-pointers). That was a game where the Rockets were significantly shorthanded and missing a pair of veteran guards in Russell Westbrook and Eric Gordon.

With Westbrook and Gordon again out Dec. 14 versus Detroit, Clemons scored 17 points in just 16 minutes on 5-of-11 shooting from three-point range.

In addition to his gifts as a shooter, Clemons has also shown enormous athletic potential. Earlier this month, the 5-foot-9 guard finished an alley-oop on the receiving end following a pass from James Harden.

Harden, who leads the NBA in scoring and is clearly the team leader in Houston, has repeatedly sung the praises of Clemons in media interviews this season.

Now that Clemons is on a standard contract, the Rockets’ lone Two-Way player at the moment is guard Michael Frazier.

After missing all of training camp with an injury, Frazier’s NBA clock has yet to start, as he’s spent all of his time since returning with Houston’s G League affiliate — the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

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In five games with the Vipers, Frazier has averaged 15.6 points and 3.2 rebounds in 23.8 minutes. Clemons has also played in five games there, with a slash line of 21.6 points, 5.0 assists, and 2.6 steals in 31.0 minutes.

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Chargers’ Joey Bosa has played his way into a monstrous pay day

Los Angeles Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa is in line for a Brink’s truck.

Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa has played his way into a monstrous pay day after the season.

Bosa, who was recently named to his second Pro Bowl, is having one of the best campaigns yet. Making an impact as a pass rusher and run defender, Bosa is up to 11.5 sacks and 18 tackles for loss on the season, along with 51 quarterback pressures.

Bosa has 40 sacks in 50 career games, which makes him the 10th player since 1982 to total 40 or more sacks in his first 50 games.

At the moment, Bosa is slated to make $14.36 million on his fifth-year option next season. Based on the impact that he’s made since joining the team in 2016, he would be underpaid if he was to play making that much in 2020.

That is why Bosa could possibly hold out if he doesn’t receive a hefty contract.

General manager Tom Telesco elected to not re-sign quarterback Philip Rivers or running back Melvin Gordon this past offseason because he knew that he would need some change for Bosa if he played out of his mind in 2019, which he has.

So how much are we talking to avoid Bosa holding out this offseason?

Los Angeles would likely have to pay him in the ballpark of what Cowboys’ Demarcus Lawrence is getting paid, which is five years, $105 million, with $65 million guaranteed.

It’s going be an enticing offseason for the Chargers. They will have to decide who the starting quarterback will be in 2020, as well as figure out who’s coming back next season, with notables such as tight end Hunter Henry, safety Adrian Phillips and guard Michael Schofield.

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Locked On Wolverines Podcast (Ep. 272): Michigan Mailbag!

We finally get to your Michigan football questions after most of the week off due to the holidays.

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Talking a lot of recruiting, as we catch up on the Michigan football mailbag from last week.

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You can subscribe on iTunes, Google Podcasts, TuneIn Radio or Stitcher.

Or you can listen right here on WolverinesWire!

LISTEN below:

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Contact/Follow @WolverinesWire / @isaiahhole

Tests indicate Florida country club sits on former plantation’s burial grounds

Tests indicate approximately 40 burial graves lie on the grounds of Capital City Country Club in Tallahassee, Florida.

Earlier this month archaeologist Jeffrey Shanks said tests indicated with “a high level of confidence” that approximately 40 unmarked burial graves lie on the grounds of Capital City Country Club in Tallahassee, Florida.

“The preliminary results of this testing appear to confirm the presence of a cemetery at the site,” Shanks said in a release after a month-long test operated by the National Park Service in coordination with Capital City staff and the city of Tallahassee near the seventh hole on the property.

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, records suggest the cemetery is associated with the former Edward Houstoun Plantation, which operated from the 1830s through the Civil War. Approximately 80 slaves worked the plantation land, and it’s believed the formerly enslaved stayed on to work the land as agricultural laborers after the war.

“The cemetery likely includes burials of enslaved persons who worked on the plantation,” said historian Jonathan Lammers, who researched the site. “It may also include burials dating to the post-Civil War period, when formerly enslaved persons living nearby continued to use the site.”

Shanks said two acres (7,000 square meters) of property were surveyed by not only using ground penetrating radar (GPR), but also two trained human remains detection dogs who confirmed the presence of human remains.

A cadaver dog alerts to the possibility of human remains below ground near the 7th hole at Capital City Country Club. (Photo: National Park Service via Tallahassee Democrat)

“GPR, in cases like this, will not pick up all of the graves,” said Shanks. “It is safe to assume there are more graves present than what the (radar) is showing.”

A known gravesite is currently maintained by the country club and exists in an area that is not commonly disturbed by golfers.

What’s next

“A hundred years ago when the golf course was constructed there was certainly no technology to decipher what was or wasn’t here,” said Jay Revell, Capital City Country Club’s resident historian. “It’s fair to say that the golf course is one of the reasons why this burial ground has been preserved as well as it has for so long.”

Delaitre Hollinger, executive director of The National Association for the Preservation of African-American History & Culture, Inc., and immediate past president of the NAACAP in Tallahassee, is heading the efforts to memorialize the burial ground at the course.

“They deserve much better than this,“ said the 26-year-old Hollinger, whose ancestors were enslaved in Tallahassee’s Leon County. “And they deserved much better than what occurred in that era.”

From the Tallahassee Democrat:

Shanks said it was important to note the cemetery at the golf course “is not an outlier —there are many hundreds of these abandoned and unmarked historic cemeteries across the state, many of them African American … It is a major statewide issue that needs to be addressed.”

Archaeologists found 120 coffins in what is believed to be the first African-American burial ground in Tampa in September. Then in November, another 145 caskets were discovered in Tampa at King High School.

“The discovery of these graves at the Capital City Country Club will be an important part of the statewide conversation on how to best protect abandoned African American cemeteries,” Shanks said. “I would not, however, recommend any excavation or ground disturbing activities. These burials are not under threat of development or other disturbance and, in my opinion, should be left in place if possible.”

According to the Associated Press, there are no plans to exhume or disturb the rediscovered remains at Capital City Country Club.

“I want us to be accurate and truthful in the story we tell,” said Hollinger, who doesn’t want the site “to be prettied up.”

Shanks agrees: “Personally, I would like to see them memorialized in some way, so they are not forgotten to history.”

Contributing: Associated Press, Tallahassee Democrat.

Why Bills fans shouldn’t let themselves get too excited about Josh Allen

The numbers and film do not paint a very encouraging picture for the Bills’ QB of the future.

It appears Josh Allen is, at the very least, OK at football. That obviously isn’t a high bar to clear, but based on the way he was covered before the Bills drafted him in 2018, Allen being good enough to lead his team to a 10-5 record in his second season has proven a lot of people wrong.

In the process, Allen has put up impressive numbers and turned in some exciting performances in nationally televised games, forcing a lot of NFL fans and analysts to adjust their priors. The Bills ended up falling short in Foxborough last Saturday, but the 24-17 loss to the Patriots, which included some remarkable plays by Allen, definitely changed a few minds.

Since Week 7, Allen has thrown 15 touchdowns and rushed for another six, all while turning the ball over just four times in 10 games. While he hasn’t thrown for a lot of yards this season, the Bills have won and Allen has played a significant role in those wins, orchestrating an NFL-leading five game-winning drives.

We’ve gotten to the point where the Bills are being discussed as Super Bowl sleepers, and Allen’s improvement — especially in the turnover department — is actually one of the reasons people believe in this Buffalo team.

While it would be foolish (or downright ignorant) to deny that Allen has improved, I’m just not sure that his improvement is as significant or encouraging as many people seem to believe. There is overwhelming statistical evidence backing that up, but before we get to the numbers, we’ll go to the film, which shows a tremendously flawed quarterback who still struggles with the most basic aspects of playing the position.

Footwork is the foundation for every quarterback, and this is the area where Allen may need the most work. He takes awkward drops, from both under center and the gun, which gets his feet all out of whack when it’s time to throw. Here’s a particularly ugly drop that leads to an even uglier delivery.

The pass is batted down, but that’s not the point. Look at his base when he releases the pass. This is a clean pocket by NFL standards and Allen throws it as if he’s never thrown a football in his life.

Obviously, not all of Allen’s drops are that ugly – but that lack of rhythm is almost always present, and that’s what leads to unsightly misses.

More concerning than the footwork is Allen’s inability to anticipate his receivers coming open, which throws off his timing. While most franchise quarterbacks are able to read the leverage of a defender to figure out if the receiver will get open, Allen needs to see it happen before starting his throwing motion.

The ball should be coming out when the receiver is coming out of his break. That’s how plays are designed. When the quarterback is late (and inaccurate to boot) the defender has time to get back into the play.

Allen also struggles coming off his first read in a timely manner. He’ll lock his eyes onto receivers and just hope they get open rather than immediately looking for other options.

It looks bizarre at times. Allen will freeze in an upright position as he stares down a receiver.

This leads to an inordinate number of avoidable sacks. The Bills rank 24th in adjusted sack rate, per Football Outsiders, while the offensive line ranks fifth in ESPN’s Pass Block Win Rate metric. The offensive line is doing its job, but you wouldn’t know by looking at Allen’s sack totals.

But the most concerning issue for Allen is, of course, his accuracy. He ranks dead last in completion percentage. Now, completion percentage isn’t the best measure for accuracy as it doesn’t account for drops (the Bills receivers have dropped more passes than all but two teams) or how far downfield a quarterback is throwing, but Allen also ranks poorly in the accuracy metrics that do. He ranks 32nd in on-target throw percentage, per Sports Info Solutions. Only four quarterbacks have a lower “completion percentage over expectation” — David Blough, Dwayne Haskins, Gardner Minshew and Jared Goff — per Next Gen Stats.

Allen has, however, improved in the intermediate range, where he’s completing passes at a rate higher than the league average.

AirYards.com

But everywhere else on the field, Allen’s accuracy has been scattershot. His deep-ball accuracy has been particularly bad and has cost the Bills some big plays in recent weeks. Allen ranks 27th on throws over 10 yards, per Sports Info Solutions.

Overall, Allen’s advanced metrics do not paint an encouraging picture. He ranks 24th in QBR and has a negative Expected Points Added total. And he’s 25th in net-yards-per-attempt due to all of those sacks he takes.

Even Allen’s improvement in the turnover department appears to be flukey. Yes, Allen has turned the ball over only four times (two interceptions and two fumbles lost) in the last 10 weeks, but only two players in the entire NFL have fumbled more often over that time — Buffalo has just recovered seven of his nine fumbles. And, according to Sports Info Solutions, defenders have dropped five would-be interceptions thrown by Allen since Week 10 alone. Allen hasn’t really protected the ball any better. He’s just been luckier.

How about that game-winning drive stat I cited earlier? Well, that’s not nearly as impressive as you probably think. Here are some other notable quarterbacks who have led the league in game-winning drives in recent years: Geno Smith (2013), Blake Bortles (2015), Marcus Mariota (2017). It’s a fun stat, but it means very little.

The main argument for Allen is that he’s still young and has a lot of room for improvement, which is certainly true. It’s just that there isn’t a whole lot of evidence to suggest that he will greatly improve. His clean pocket stats, which carry the most predictive power of any statistical split, are not very good. He ranks in the bottom-third in the league in every major metric from a clean pocket, including EPA, yards-per-attempt and accuracy percentage. This was the major knock on both Mitchell Trubisky and Blake Bortles after their sophomore seasons and we all know how that turned out.

This is even more concerning…

Allen (or Sam Darnold for that matter) is not in good company there on the right, which is concerning because it looks like we can pretty much call these things after just two seasons. There isn’t a quarterback from the right side of that list that turned out to be any good, except for maybe Ryan Tannehill, who is having a breakout season in Tennessee … at age 30. And even if you just use Allen’s 2019 ANY/A (5.75) as the cutoff, the only quarterback of note you’re adding to the “bad” side is Andy Dalton. Now, Bills fans may love Dalton for ending their playoff drought in 2017, but I don’t think they’d want him as their franchise quarterback — and that’s looking like a best-case scenario.

The 2019 Bills might be this year’s version of the 2018 Bears and the 2017 Jaguars: A dangerous playoff team led by an elite defense that is ultimately held back by its young quarterback before regressing the following season. Like Bortles and Trubisky, Allen has certainly shown enough flashes of brilliance to give Bills fans hope for a brighter future. Like this throw to Dawson Knox in the Patriots loss…

The problem is there are even more examples of him missing the exact same throw…

History has not been kind to quarterbacks like Josh Allen. He has the physical talent to be a special player but so have many failed quarterbacks before him. If Allen is going to turn things around and blossom into the franchise quarterback Buffalo is hoping for, he will have to overcome some seriously long odds to do it.

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Mike Yurcich expected to be named offensive coordinator next week

Ohio State PGC Mike Yurcich was the top candidate for the Longhorns’ OC position and now he will be named to the position next week.

After reporting that Ohio State passing game coordinator Mike Yurcich was the top candidate for the Longhorns’ offensive coordinator position, Brett McMurphy is now reporting that he will be named to the position next week. Currently at the Fiesta Bowl for the College Football Playoff with Ohio State, Yurcich would not comment on the position and said his focus is “100% on Clemson.”

Demoting Tim Beck at the end of the season, Texas will be without an offensive coordinator during their bowl game against Utah. If the Buckeyes beat Clemson, it is not known if Yurcich will stay with the team during preparation for the national championship.

Ohio State’s passing game has been one of the best in the country this season, with quarterback Justin Fields traveling to New York City for the Heisman ceremony. Currently at 2,953 passing yards, Fields is a dual-threat quarterback as he also has 471 rushing yards. A total of 50 touchdowns, Yurcich will be dealing with another dual-threat quarterback in Sam Ehlinger.

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WATCH: Ohio State head coach Ryan Day gets jokingly swarmed by his offensive line

Ohio State is preparing for Clemson, but it’s also having fun out in the desert. Get a look of the offensive line swarming Ryan Day.

If you’ve been wondering what the mood of the Ohio State football team is out in Phoenix, wonder no more. Of course the team is down to business and focused on preparing to install a game plan to slow down defending champion Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl, but the team also seems to be finding ways to stay loose and have fun out in the desert.

Take the video shared by the Playstation Fiesta Bowl for example.

Ryan Day is out welcoming the offensive line, joking with some resistance with a tackling pad, when a training apparatus is removed to allow the entire offensive line group to begin going after him like free tacos have just been offered up.

Click on the below to watch the humor of the team having fun at the expense of Ryan Day. Of course, it’s all in good fun.

We can only wonder if the team would have done this to Urban Meyer under the same circumstances.