Veteran center Nerlens Noel has been listed as “not with team” on the Pistons‘ injury report since last Thursday’s trade deadline, leading to speculation that he’s headed for a buyout agreement. However, league sources tell Marc Stein (Substack link) that Noel hasn’t actively pursued a buyout to this point.
Noel, who signed a three-year contract with New York in 2021, was traded from the Knicks to the Pistons last summer in a salary-dump deal that helped New York create salary cap space for Jalen Brunson. The 28-year-old big man hasn’t had much of a role with the Pistons, appearing in just 14 games and logging a career-low 10.9 MPG.
The retooling Pistons have a crowded frontcourt that features a handful of young centers the team will want to take a long look at down the stretch. That group consists of a trio of former lottery picks: rookie Jalen Duren, recently acquired James Wiseman, and former King Marvin Bagley III, who is recovering from hand surgery and is in the first season of a three-year contract.
Given that he’s buried on the depth chart and isn’t owed any guaranteed money beyond this season (he has a $9.68MM team option for 2023/24), Noel looks like a logical buyout candidate. According to Stein, there would be multiple “playoff-bound” teams with interest in the former sixth overall pick if he reaches free agency.
It’s notable that Noel and his reps didn’t immediately seek a buyout last week after he stayed put at the deadline. Still, while he and the Pistons aren’t working on an agreement yet, that doesn’t mean one won’t happen by March 1, which is the deadline for a player to be waived if he wants to retain his playoff eligibility for his new team. Kevin Love, for instance, wasn’t initially considered a buyout candidate, but is now said to be nearing a deal with the Cavs.
On the other hand, agreeing to a buyout and then signing a minimum-salary contract with a new team would force Noel to give up his Bird rights and may pigeonhole him as a minimum-salary player going forward. So he has some incentive to pass on buyout talks and force the Pistons to make a decision on whether they want to simply waive him, paying his full salary, to open up a roster spot.
We’ll keep a close eye on Noel’s status in Detroit during the next couple weeks, but for now, it doesn’t appear that a buyout is imminent.
Does the NBA have an arrangement like MLB where if a player is waived, goes unclaimed, then released before signing with a new team for the minimum the salary would be deducted from the waiving team’s payment?
Exactly, from my understanding.
Whereas the buy-out is similar, but uses the minimum prorated amount that player can earn pre -deducted in the buy-out agreement.
Westbrook, and Love are pretty hefty contracts, and the buy-out saves teams $ over waiving them. Mutual parting gifts, so to speak (if the player has other successful suitors)
The cases with Noel & Love appear to be they want to stay, but the team is saying you won’t play in front of other guys we want to try out, and may waive you anyway, so help us out.
I think it’s actually the opposite for Love — it seems like the Cavs would like to keep him around, but he’d like to go somewhere he could play, so the Cavs are essentially saying, “We’ll do it, but you’ll have to make it worth our while by giving some money back.”
I think they just want Love too stick around
I don’t know whether the Cavs want to him gone or he wants to leave.
Just know that the $ savings, and Love’s lack of minutes when healthy shows a mutual benefit if the Suns want to give Love a shot.
Or Miami, not sure where Love is at in his mind about his career, or how it will go at his next stop.
Does anybody know for sure?
The waiving team has what are called “set-off rights” and can get some money back in this scenario, but not the full amount that the player signs for. And sometimes a team waives its set-off rights as part of a buyout agreement.
We don’t have a great glossary entry on this (I need to update ours), but you can read more here: link to cbafaq.com
Thanks. In a case like Noel’s where the salary is significantly more than the minimum, but nowhere near the level of Love’s or Westbrook’s, it’s likely that he would hold out to be waived instead of losing his Bird rights. For Westbrook, the Bird rights don’t apply for a max contract like his, but this is his last contract at that level. If he thinks he can play well for a Utah team that is in a similar situation re the play-in standings to the Bulls and Wizards, it’s probably in his best interest to avoid giving a significant amount of money back in a buyout. He should stay. If he’s successful in getting Utah to a play-in, at least, it’ll help him get a better contract than he would have otherwise.
I wouldn’t pursue a buyout if I missed out on as much money as he did in his career by bypassing that mavericks contract extension for $70MM+
My thoughts exactly
Crazy that he is still only 28 years old.
Just ask them to waive you and say please