We have an opportunity for you to hit us up with your questions in this, our weekly mailbag feature. Have a question regarding player movement, the salary cap or the NBA draft? Drop us a line at HoopsRumorsMailbag@Gmail.com.
What will Oklahoma City do with Carmelo Anthony? Stretch, buyout or maybe even trade? — Ryan Stamps
The Thunder will explore all their options before making a final decision, but it’s clear that Anthony will become a free agent at some point this summer. He didn’t fit in well during his lone season in OKC, and the Thunder need to reduce a historically high payroll that stands at $310MM between salaries and luxury taxes. They could trim that figure for 2018/19 by $107MM and get rid of $90MM in tax payments by using the stretch provision — slicing Anthony’s $27.9MM salary into $9.3MM increments over the next three years. The Thunder would prefer to find a trading partner willing to take on the entire amount right away in exchange for some draft picks and possibly other assets. Chicago was floated as a possibility before matching Zach LaVine, but today’s decision makes a trade a long shot for the Thunder.
Have all the teams (especially those who, in your opinion, clearly need to make major offseason personnel changes after their performance last season) made them already? — Mark Imbong, via Twitter
It’s hard to say for sure. Most of the cap money in this year’s market dried up quickly, but there are still a few teams with the cash to make a move and a couple of attractive targets are left in Rockets center Clint Capela and Bucks forward Jabari Parker. It will be interesting to see how the Kings react now that the the Bulls have matched their four-year, $78MM offer sheet for LaVine. They could make that same offer to Capela or Parker, or maybe a smaller deal for the Celtics’ Marcus Smart, forcing their current teams into difficult decisions. The Lakers may not be done, either. They can get up to about $15.5MM in cap room by stretching Luol Deng‘s contract, but they won’t get a significant free agent if they stand firm on their current policy of one-year deals.
Will Jabari Parker stay in Milwaukee? — Macho Man Van E Savage, via Twitter
Like most restricted free agents, Parker is finding offers hard to come by. Teams are typically unwilling to tie up their resources while waiting for a matching decision early in free agency. With most of the major signings out of the way, teams can now turn their attention to players like Parker. The Kings could get involved, but a report this week indicates he is no longer in their plans. The Hawks have enough cap space, but may not want to use it on a player coming off a major injury. The Nets have about $11.5MM available after the Dwight Howard buyout and have shown a willingness to gamble on restricted free agents. Right now, the most likely scenario is that Parker takes his qualifying offer and uses next season to show he is fully healthy before becoming an unrestricted free agent.
With the few free agents left, Jabari is looking like a repeat of Nerlens Noel. ESPN has “moves all 30 teams can make” telling cap space left, how much luxury tax they currently owe, depth chart, etc.
Hoops Hype said this week the Thunder can save $91MM by stretching Carmelo and replacing him with a player on league minimum. I don’t see Melo in LA, they have too many headcases already. I do see Houston.
It would be nuts to trade draft picks for Melo. But OKC will probably wait to the last minute to buy him out. So silly but it’s not my money. Like Whiteside, get him out there and get your usage. Melo’s 3pt% is acceptable.
I actually wouldn’t be all that surprised if LA threw 1/15 ish at Smart, and he takes it. That’s more enticing than the QO, and it would still let him become a UFA next year. If he’s legitimately angry with Boston, don’t discount the possibility.
Intriguing idea about Smart gonna Lakers, we will have to keep an eye on that one, but it would be good, for the east as it would weaken Boston.
There will be a lot more money and a lot of free agents next summer, since it’ll be 4 years since the big tv revenue and salary cap increase. Smart is a good defensive player, but may be the worst shooter in the NBA.