- While Vince Carter could have spurned the Hawks and signed with a serious title contender this offseason, he tells Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that such a quest is “not his style.” Rather, Carter will be relied upon to be a veteran influence over the youthful roster Atlanta has assembled. “Let them see me and let them see how annoying I can be, but in a good way,” Carter said during an introductory press conference. “I’m going to stay in their ear. At least you know at any time throughout the year, whether it’s practice games, any situation, they will have me to fall back on. Or I’ll come up to them and help them out any way I can.”
In what could be Vince Carter‘s final NBA season, the two-decade veteran signed a one-year deal with the Hawks. The soon-to-be 42-year-old is the oldest active player in the NBA and is joining his fourth team in six seasons.
“I love to play, man. I have a young guy’s mentality with a 40-year-old body,” Carter said, per The Associated Press (via ESPN).
Last season with the Kings, Carter played nearly 18 minutes per night and averaged 5.4 PPG in 58 games. He has not been a starter since the 2011/12 season, instead transitioning into the effective veteran off the bench role.
The Hawks reportedly signed the eight-time All-Star to be a mentor to a young team in Atlanta. Even so, Carter said his goal is to prove that he can still be a productive player despite his age.
“I know playing this game that the media and the fans and people can be cruel,” Carter said. “It’s like, ‘You’re old and you’re playing against guys half your age. You shouldn’t be out here.’ But then for me that is my goal, to prove that I’m able to do that. And I put in a lot of work in mentally as well as physically just preparing myself.”
A former Rookie of the Year (1999), Carter’s career has included nearly every possible phase. He’s been the sensational rookie, perennial All-Star, dependable veteran and now, a seasoned asset with 21 years of NBA experience. Despite that, Carter still believes he can contribute when called upon.
“I’m still the same person,” Carter said. “My approach is still the same. My work ethic, my ability to play the game is still the same. Obviously it’s limited. You just don’t get to see it as much, but it’s the same guy.”
AUGUST 24: Nearly a month after agreeing to terms with the Hawks, Carter has officially signed his one-year contract with the team, tweets Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Atlanta now has 15 players on guaranteed contracts for the 2018/19 season.
[RELATED: Vince Carter likely to retire after 2018/19 season]
JULY 25: Vince Carter has reached agreement on a one-year deal with the Hawks, tweets Michael Scotto of The Athletic. Carter will receive a veteran’s minimum contract worth $2.4MM, adds Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).
The deal guarantees a 21st season for Carter, who will turn 42 in January. The oldest active NBA player, he spent last season with the Kings, playing about 18 minutes per night and averaging 5.4 PPG in 58 games.
The Hawks envision Carter as a mentor who will be a strong locker room leader for a young roster, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
After six years of playing for contenders in Dallas and Memphis, this is Carter’s second straight signing for a team that has little chance of making the postseason.
A return to the Raptors, where Carter began his NBA career in 1998, might have made a nice story, but it appears unlikely to ever happen, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports. Lewenberg adds that Carter has gotten opportunities to come back to Toronto, but hasn’t followed through.
The Hawks have used up virtually all of their cap space after completing their acquisition of Carmelo Anthony earlier today, and have committed most of their room exception to Alex Len. As such, it made sense that Carter would receive a minimum-salary contract — it’s all Atlanta could offer.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
After two years of being a fringe player for Oklahoma City, Daniel Hamilton is excited about the opportunity that awaits him with the Hawks, writes Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The 23-year-old shooting guard signed this week and hopes to become part of a young core in Atlanta.
- Nearly a month after Vince Carter committed to joining the Hawks, his official signing will take place tomorrow, Vivlamore tweets. The 41-year-old has said he expects this to be his final NBA season.
Nearly two-thirds of the NBA’s 30 teams are carrying some sort of “dead money” on their salary cap for 2018/19. This dead money is created as a result of having, at some point, waived a player who had guaranteed money left on his contract.
In some cases, teams are carrying cap hits for players even though they released them several years ago. That’s the case in Detroit, for instance, where the Pistons have a $5,331,729 cap charge for Josh Smith this season — the Pistons cut Smith in 2014.
In other situations, the dead money is a result of having waived a player within the last couple months. The Mavericks, for example, created $1,544,951 in dead money when they released Chinanu Onuaku earlier in August.
The dead money total for most teams will increase over the course of the season. A few players on guaranteed contracts will be cut when rosters are reduced to 15 players in October. Some clubs will carry players on non-guaranteed contracts for a little while, then waive them before their full salaries guarantee, leaving a partial cap charge on their books. Expired 10-day contracts are also a common source of dead money later in the season.
Even at this point in the offseason though, there are several teams with a substantial amount of 2018/19 dead money on their cap. This isn’t necessarily a sign of cap mismanagement — the Hawks, for instance, lead the way with nearly $28MM in dead money on their books, but those charges are a result of acquiring and waiving Carmelo Anthony and Jamal Crawford. Both of those players came with first-round picks attached, so Atlanta doesn’t mind the fact that they’re taking up a chunk of the team’s cap room this year.
Here’s the full list of 2018/19 dead money by team, as of August 23, starting with those Hawks:
- Atlanta Hawks: $27,838,479
- Brooklyn Nets: $24,394,512
- Milwaukee Bucks: $7,372,604
- Indiana Pacers: $6,245,400
- Detroit Pistons: $5,331,729
- Portland Trail Blazers: $5,091,108
- Sacramento Kings: $4,651,161
- Minnesota Timberwolves: $2,045,645
- San Antonio Spurs: $1,881,250
- Dallas Mavericks: $1,544,951
- Memphis Grizzlies: $1,541,538
- Orlando Magic: $1,333,333
- Toronto Raptors: $1,000,000
- Golden State Warriors: $945,126
- Los Angeles Clippers: $902,043
- Washington Wizards: $833,333
- Miami Heat: $350,088
- Houston Rockets: $122,741
- Boston Celtics: $92,857
- Charlotte Hornets: $0
- Chicago Bulls: $0
- Cleveland Cavaliers: $0
- Denver Nuggets: $0
- Los Angeles Lakers: $0
- New Orleans Pelicans: $0
- New York Knicks: $0
- Oklahoma City Thunder: $0
- Philadelphia 76ers: $0
- Phoenix Suns: $0
- Utah Jazz: $0
Of the teams with no dead money on their book so far for the 2018/19 season, the Knicks and Suns are the most likely candidates to jump to the upper tier of this list at some point. New York has reportedly been considering waiving and stretching Joakim Noah after September 1, while Phoenix is still expected to buy out Darrell Arthur at some point.
Contract information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.
For the 10th time in 12 years, John Schuhmann of NBA.com got the opportunity to ask the NBA’s incoming crop of rookies a series of questions related to their fellow draftees.
Historically, the NBA rookies haven’t been particularly clairvoyant when it comes to their predictions — they haven’t accurately identified a Rookie of the Year winner since Kevin Durant in 2007/08. Still, it’s an interesting exercise, and one that occasionally results in a dead-on prediction, like when last year’s rookie class named Donovan Mitchell the steal of the 2017 draft.
Here are a few of the most interesting responses from this year’s rookies about the 2018/19 class:
- Deandre Ayton (Suns) and Collin Sexton (Cavaliers) are viewed as the co-favorites for the Rookie of the Year award this season, with each player earning 18% of the vote. No other rookie had more than a 9% share of the vote.
- Opinions were a little more divided on which player would have the best long-term NBA career, with Wendell Carter Jr. (Bulls) narrowly earning that title by receiving 13% of the vote. Interestingly, reigning EuroLeague MVP Luka Doncic (Mavericks) wasn’t picked by a single player for this question.
- No. 48 overall pick Keita Bates-Diop (Timberwolves) was named the steal of the 2018 NBA draft by his fellow rookies, edging out 14th overall pick Michael Porter Jr. (Nuggets) and 18th overall pick Lonnie Walker (Spurs).
- Trae Young (Hawks) is widely considered the best shooter and play-maker in this year’s class. Jevon Carter (Grizzlies) earned the most votes for best rookie defender, while Zhaire Smith (Sixers) is viewed as the most athletic rookie.
- Be sure to check out Schuhmann’s full piece for the rest of the rookie survey results.
AUGUST 20: The Hawks have finally made it official with Hamilton, confirming his deal today in a press release. The team now has 14 players on guaranteed NBA contracts, with Carter poised to become the 15th when he officially signs.
JULY 25: The Hawks will sign forward Daniel Hamilton to a one-year contract, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. According to Wojnarowski, the deal will be guaranteed.
Hamilton, 22, spent last season on a two-way deal with the Thunder, appearing in six NBA games and averaging 2.0 points in 4.7 minutes per night. He was a 16.1 PPG scorer in the G League and pulled down 7.2 RPG in 45 games with the Oklahoma City Blue.
A second-round pick by the Nuggets in 2016, Hamilton was traded to OKC on draft night. Today’s agreements with Hamilton and Vince Carter gives the Hawks 18 players heading into camp, two short of the league maximum.
AUGUST 20: Nearly a month after agreeing to terms with him, the Hawks have officially signed Poythress, the team announced today in a press release.
JULY 24: The Hawks have agreed to sign free agent forward Alex Poythress to a two-way contract, per Chris Haynes of ESPN.
Poythress, 24, played his college ball at Kentucky before going undrafted in the 2016 NBA Draft. After initially playing for the Pacers’ G League affiliate, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, to begin his rookie season, Poythress was signed by the Sixers near the end of the 2016/17 season, where he played in six games for Philadelphia.
Poythress returned to Indiana for the 2017/18 season, signing a two-way contract with the Pacers in August 2017. He appeared in 25 games, averaging 1.0 points and 0.7 rebounds in 4.2 minutes per game. He was waived by Indiana earlier this summer.
The Hawks already have Jaylen Adams under contract as one of their two-way players, so absent another move, he and Poythress will occupy Atlanta’s two-way contract slots for the upcoming season.
At this point in the NBA offseason, most teams are carrying 14 and 15 players on guaranteed salaries. The clubs with 14 guaranteed contracts on their books will likely either enter the season with an open roster spot or allow camp invitees to compete for that 15th-man role. Teams with 15 players already on guaranteed deals have their regular-season rosters all but set already.
Still, several teams around the NBA have more than 15 or fewer than 14 fully guaranteed salaries on their cap for now. Using our roster counts tool, here’s a look at those teams, with details on what they might be thinking as the 2018/19 season nears:
Fewer than 14 guaranteed contracts:
Houston Rockets (11 guaranteed contracts): In addition to their 11 fully guaranteed contracts, the Rockets also figure to hang onto Michael Carter-Williams, who has a significant partial guarantee. Second-round pick De’Anthony Melton is a good bet to sign a guaranteed contract at some point too. That would increase the Rockets’ roster count to 13, with Zhou Qi the most likely candidate for the 14th spot.- Cleveland Cavaliers (12): While they only have 12 guaranteed salaries on their books for now, the Cavaliers figure to increase that count by two once they officially sign David Nwaba and bring back Rodney Hood.
- Miami Heat (12): The Heat continue to wait on Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem to make decisions on whether or not they’ll continue their respective careers. They’ll be penciled in to the 13th and 14th spots if they elect to return.
- Minnesota Timberwolves (12): Although he only has a partial guarantee, James Nunnally is a safe bet to make the Timberwolves’ roster as the 13th man. It’s not clear what the team intends to do with its last opening or two.
- New Orleans Pelicans (12): Only 12 Pelicans have fully guaranteed salaries, but there are several legit NBA players – Emeka Okafor, DeAndre Liggins, Jahlil Okafor, and Troy Williams – vying for roster spots on non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed contracts. At least two of them figure to make the team.
- Atlanta Hawks (13): The Hawks will increase their roster count to 15 guaranteed salaries once Vince Carter and Daniel Hamilton make their deals with Atlanta official.
- Golden State Warriors (13): The Warriors plan to enter the season with 14 players under contract, leaving a spot open for flexibility. Their 14th man will likely be Patrick McCaw, who is still a restricted free agent for now.
- Toronto Raptors (13): The Raptors may enter the season with a 14-man roster. Lorenzo Brown is currently the top candidate for that 14th spot, though Chris Boucher and others could provide competition.
More than 15 guaranteed contracts:
- Sacramento Kings (16): When the Kings took advantage of their leftover cap room to sign Nemanja Bjelica and Yogi Ferrell, it created a roster crunch. If the club doesn’t trade a player before the season begins, Iman Shumpert, Kosta Koufos, Ben McLemore, and Deyonta Davis are among the release candidates on the roster — all four are on expiring contracts.
- Los Angeles Clippers (15 + Patrick Beverley): The Clippers technically only have 15 players on guaranteed salaries, but Beverley, who is on a non-guaranteed deal, will probably make the team. Assuming he does, that will mean trading or releasing another player, perhaps Wesley Johnson or Jawun Evans.
- Memphis Grizzlies (15 + Andrew Harrison): Like Beverley in L.A., Harrison is on a non-guaranteed salary, but may not be expendable. If he remains on Memphis’ roster, the Grizzlies may end up releasing Dakari Johnson.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
- Rookie Trae Young realizes the commitment the Hawks made to him by trading starting point guard Dennis Schroder to the Thunder, Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. While Young was non-committal about whether he or Jeremy Lin should start, Young knows he’ll get ample playing time. “Obviously when they move the point guard they’ve had for a while, their starting point guard, it definitely opened my eyes,” Young told Vivlamore. “It shows how much they are committed to me. Bringing Jeremy in as well is a good fit for us. I know there is a lot on my plate.”