Under the NBA’s previous Collective Bargaining Agreement, a player with a $10MM guaranteed salary and a player with a $10MM non-guaranteed salary were essentially treated the same way in trades for salary-matching purposes. However, that’s no longer the case under the league’s current CBA.
We’ve written about this in the past, but it’s a point worth reiterating with the 2022 offseason around the corner: A player’s outgoing salary for matching purposes is now only equivalent to his salary guarantee. So a player with a $5MM partial guarantee on a $10MM contract counts for $5MM in outgoing salary. A player with a non-guaranteed $10MM contract counts as $0 in outgoing salary.
For the team receiving the player, however, the full cap hit still applies. So even though a player on a $10MM non-guaranteed contract would count as $0 for outgoing purposes, he’d be considered $10MM in incoming salary to the team acquiring him.
Since over-the-cap teams must match salaries in trades within a certain percentage, this rule is worth keeping in mind when considering a handful of possible trade candidates this summer.
For example, the Hawks have Danilo Gallinari under contract for $21.45MM in 2022/23, but only $5MM of that amount is guaranteed. As a result, Atlanta wouldn’t be able to use Gallinari as the primary salary-matching piece in a deal for, say, Jerami Grant and his $20MM+ salary this offseason unless they significantly increased Gallinari’s partial guarantee (to $15MM+).
As it stands, Gallinari’s $5MM partial guarantee would be enough to net the Hawks a player earning up to $8.85MM. However, since Gallinari’s incoming salary to a new team would count as $21.45MM, that team wouldn’t be permitted to trade only an $8.85MM player for Gallinari unless it had the cap room necessary to accommodate the forward’s full $21.45MM cap hit.
For an over-the-cap team, acquiring Gallinari would mean sending at least $16.45MM in outgoing salary, which the Hawks wouldn’t be able to accommodate using only Gallinari’s $5MM partial guarantee.
This rule affecting non-guaranteed contracts applies even if the Hawks were to trade Gallinari before the 2022/23 league year begins on July 1. Once Atlanta’s season ended, Gallinari’s ’22/23 partial guarantee replaced his ’21/22 salary as his new outgoing salary for matching purposes. So the Hawks can’t circumvent the rule by moving Gallinari during or before the draft.
The Hawks are hardly the only team affected by the trade rules for non-guaranteed salaries. Kelly Oubre (Hornets), Mason Plumlee (Hornets), Danny Green (Sixers), Eric Bledsoe (Trail Blazers), Josh Hart (Trail Blazers), and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (Wizards) are among the players with partially guaranteed or non-guaranteed salaries who won’t be especially useful as trade chips unless their guarantees are increased or they’re sent to teams with the cap room to absorb their full salaries.
The smaller a player’s salary and the smaller the gap between his guarantee and his full cap hit, the easier these rules are to work around.
For instance, Plumlee has a $9.08MM salary for next season, with a $4.26MM partial guarantee. If he were swapped for a player earning $7MM, both teams would meet the salary-matching requirements. It wouldn’t be so easy in a trade involving a player like Bledsoe, since the gap between his partial guarantee ($3.9MM) and his full cap hit ($19.38MM) is so substantial.
Lakers should target the following players after buyout
Kelly Oubre (Hornets), Mason Plumlee (Hornets), Eric Bledsoe (Trail Blazers), Josh Hart (Trail Blazers), and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (Wizards)
For tax purpose, Lakers can also stretch out Westbrook to clear up a roster space. I take Hart and KCP over Westbrook.
Brother enough. They’re not stretching Westbrook (and they’re not trading Westbrook attached to a first-round pick.)
Not happening.. it’s his contract year. All that stuff is unnecessary.
They’re going to ride this horse the entire season unless they can dump him at the trading deadline for a couple players to benefit the Lakers who don’t fit in with their current team. That’s it. No more Westbrook trade suggestions Sillivan.
I heard that idea on Bill Simmons podcast, moving Westbrook at deadline and it makes sense. Lakers paying half of Westbrook, making him look better and then dumping him at deadline, especially if some teams and players situations go thr wrong way. Teams could then dump salaries to the Lakers for assets with additional teams, and buyout Westbrook for a % of his salary at halfway point which would be half of about $47M. So team X buys out Brodie, say $10-15M at deadline to dump X amount of salaries.
Great explanation! Well done, Luke.
Definitely makes those fan made trades a lot trickier
I think it is not so hard to guarantee all of a salary as part of a trade. Of course the new team would have to pay it all, but if they were planning to keep him, they would anyway. Most of those named would be worth keeping… except Bledsoe at $19m. Josh Hart’s contract is confusing but he is still worth a 2/$26m after July 1. Just tell Cronin to guarantee it all on trade day, no?— unless Cronin does not want to take back as much salary, or talent attached to it.
The stipulation (low guarantee) does transfer power from Hart to Hart’s current GM.
Hart’s contract is like a mutual option, he decides whether he’s in or out and then the team has the final word. Both steps must be completed before he becomes trade eligible. This mutual option must be decided on every year but no decision on 23-24 is needed to make a trade between now and the 23 trade deadline.
I’m guessing Gallinari, Green, and Bledsoe won’t be guaranteed. The numbers for Gallinari and Bledsoe are too high, and Green will be injured for most of the season. The other ones I mentioned in the story aren’t bad values.
I believe Hart is worth 13 million at least on the open market. So if they cut him or someone else did he could easily get the MLE at minimum on multiple years if he goes that route.
A new CBA rule inspired by the likes of Brendan Haywood and Luke Ridnour, both of whom were passed around like used joints for free trade exceptions.
Keith Bogans got traded like 5 times one off-season
“used joints”
No one under 35 has any idea what you’re talking about.
Van Horn and Ryan Anderson as well.