- The Celtics‘ trade for Kristaps Porzingis was the best offseason move in the Atlantic Division, David Aldridge of The Athletic contends in a discussion of the division with other Athletic writers. However, Aldridge, Josh Robbins and Jared Weiss all agree that Boston took a risk regarding team culture by parting with Marcus Smart in the deal and not keeping Grant Williams. Robbins and Weiss cite the Sixers‘ coaching change, replacing Doc Rivers with Nick Nurse, as the most impactful move.
Note: This is an updated version of an article that was sent exclusively to our Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers in June. Click here for more information on Trade Rumors Front Office.
The NBA’s Designated Veteran rule, as we explain in our glossary entry on the subject, allows players to qualify for a maximum salary worth 35% of the cap before they gain the required NBA service time.
Typically, a player is ineligible to receive a maximum contract that starts at 35% of the cap until he has at least 10 years of experience, but the Designated Veteran rule gives a player with between seven and nine years of experience the opportunity to do so if he meets certain performance criteria. This has become colloquially known as signing a “super-max” deal.
The performance criteria are as follows (only one of the following must be true):
- The player was named to an All-NBA team and/or was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in the most recent season, or in two of the last three seasons.
- The player was named the NBA MVP in any of the three most recent seasons.
Since the NBA introduced the concept of the Designated Veteran contract in 2017, 12 players have signed them across seven offseasons. Celtics wing Jaylen Brown became the latest player to join that group this summer when he signed a five-year super-max deal that could become the NBA’s first $300MM contract.
Brown will be the only player who signs such a contract this offseason, but it’s worth taking a peek down the road to see which players are the best candidates to join the list of super-max recipients in 2024 and 2025.
We can start by penciling in another Celtic, Jayson Tatum, for 2024. Although he doesn’t yet have enough years of NBA service to sign a Designated Veteran extension, Tatum met the performance criteria in the spring by earning his second consecutive All-NBA berth.
That means that even if he doesn’t make an All-NBA team in 2024, he’ll have received an All-NBA nod in two of the previous three seasons when he meets the service time criteria next summer, making him super-max eligible. It seems likely the Celtics will offer him a Designated Veteran extension at that time.
Here are some other candidates to watch during the 2023/24 season:
2024
- Bam Adebayo (Heat)
- De’Aaron Fox (Kings)
- Brandon Ingram (Pelicans)
- Jamal Murray (Nuggets)
- Pascal Siakam (Raptors)
Because a player become ineligible for a Designated Veteran extension if he’s traded after his first four years in the NBA, prime candidates like Donovan Mitchell and Domantas Sabonis won’t be able to qualify. Still, there’s an intriguing group of candidates in play for next summer.
Ingram, Murray, and Siakam, members of the 2016 draft class, would have become super-max eligible if they had made an All-NBA team this year. They’ll get another chance in 2024.
Ingram averaged a career-best 24.7 points and 5.8 assists per night in 2022/23, but injuries limited him to just 45 games. While he’s not one of the best 15 players in the NBA, it’s not impossible to imagine the 26-year-old earning an All-NBA spot if he stays healthy and helps lead the Pelicans to a top-four seed in the West. He’s probably a long shot, but we can’t rule him out entirely.
Murray was making his way back from an ACL tear last season, which meant he was subject to load management and wasn’t necessarily at his best from day one. But his postseason performance – 26.1 points per game on .473/.396/.926 shooting en route to a championship – served as a reminder that he has All-NBA upside.
Siakam made the All-NBA Second Team in 2020 and the Third Team in 2022 and received some votes in 2023. However, he still needs one more All-NBA nod in 2024 to become eligible for a Designated Veteran deal. He’ll be a candidate to watch as long as he remains in Toronto for the 2023/24 season. A trade – which would make him ineligible – still looms as a possibility.
Adebayo and Fox are 2017 draftees with just six years of NBA experience, which means that Fox didn’t meet the Designated Veteran performance criteria by earning All-NBA honors in May — he’ll need to do it again in 2024 to qualify for a super-max deal. His performance this past year showed that he’s capable of it.
Adebayo’s path to an All-NBA berth is complicated by the fact that the All-NBA teams will become positionless beginning in 2024. That means voters won’t necessarily have to choose three centers, which may reduce his odds of making the cut.
Still, the field of All-NBA candidates may be more wide open than usual in 2024, since the league is also requiring players to appear in at least 65 games in order to be eligible for one of the 15 spots. That means a player who misses a few weeks with an injury might be out of the running. If Ingram, Murray, Siakam, Fox, and Abebayo can stay healthy and play at least 65 times, their All-NBA odds will increase.
It’s worth noting too that being named Defensive Player of the Year is another way to qualify for a super-max. Adebayo has finished in the top five in voting for that award in each of the last four seasons and is a legitimate candidate to win it at some point.
2025
- Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder)
- Jaren Jackson Jr. (Grizzlies)
Doncic, Gilgeous-Alexander, and Jackson were drafted in 2018 and have just five years of NBA experience, so they’re still two years away from having the service time required for a Designated Veteran contract — none of them would be able to sign a super-max extension until 2025. However, they all have an opportunity to meet the performance criteria in 2024.
Doncic and Gilgeous-Alexander made up the All-NBA First Team backcourt in 2023, so if they make an All-NBA team again next year, they’ll have done so in at least two of the three years leading up to the 2025 offseason.
As for Jackson, he missed out on All-NBA honors in 2023, but was the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. It’s a tall order, but if he can win a second DPOY award in either of the next two seasons, he’ll make himself eligible to sign a super-max contract in 2025.
The rookie scale extension recipients
- LaMelo Ball (Hornets)
- Anthony Edwards (Timberwolves)
- Tyrese Haliburton (Pacers)
Ball, Edwards, and Haliburton have all signed five-year, maximum-salary rookie scale extensions this offseason that project to start at 25% of the 2024/25 cap. If we assume the cap will rise by the maximum allowable 10%, those deals would be worth just shy of $217MM.
However, all three extensions include Rose Rule language. This is another form of the super-max — we can call it the “mini” super-max, paradoxical as that may sound. Unlike a player who signs a Designated Veteran contract, which starts at 35% of the cap instead of 30%, a player who meets the Rose Rule criteria can receive a starting salary worth 30% of the cap rather than 25%.
The performance criteria for a Rose Rule salary increase are essentially the exact same as for a Designated Veteran bump, but must be achieved by the end of the player’s four-year rookie contract. That means Ball, Edwards, and Haliburton would have to make the All-NBA team in 2024 in order to increase the projected value of their respective extensions to $260MM over five years — an All-NBA berth in 2025 or 2026 would be too late.
Each of these three players has an All-Star berth under his belt, so making the leap to All-NBA certainly isn’t inconceivable. Edwards may be the best bet of the three to qualify for the mini super-max, but if Ball and Haliburton can lead their teams to playoff spots, they’d certainly have a case.
Numerous teams have expressed interest in free agent Lamar Stevens, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. Scotto lists the Celtics, Rockets, Timberwolves and Heat among Stevens’ potential destinations.
The 26-year-old swingman had a workout last month with Boston, which decided to sign Svi Mykhailiuk to a one-year contract after auditioning several wing players. Scotto notes that the Celtics have an open roster spot remaining and may still be considering Stevens.
Scotto calls Houston “a team to keep an eye on” considering that Kevin Porter Jr.’s NBA future is in jeopardy after his domestic violence arrest. The Rockets will have an unexpected need for help at the wing if Porter is suspended for all or part of the upcoming season.
Miami will be searching for rotation players if it’s able to acquire Damian Lillard from the Trail Blazers before the start of the season, Scotto adds, while Minnesota also has a roster opening.
Stevens spent his first three NBA seasons with the Cavaliers after joining the team as a two-way player in 2020, but he was never able to earn rotation minutes. He appeared in 62 games last season and made 25 starts, but only averaged 5.3 points and 3.3 rebounds in 18.1 minutes per night.
Cleveland traded Stevens to the Spurs as part of a three-team deal in July, and he was waived a few days later. The partial guarantee on his minimum salary for 2023/24 was increased to $400K as a condition of the deal.
There won’t be many free agents who sign for more than the veteran’s minimum between now and the end of the NBA’s regular season. The majority of the players whose markets exceeded the minimum came off the board pretty quickly in July, and teams aren’t looking to spend big on the players who are still available.
Still, that doesn’t mean every signing for the next seven months will be of the minimum-salary variety. In certain cases – especially on the buyout market in February – being able to offer a couple million dollars more than the minimum could be the difference between a team landing a free agent and missing out on him.
With that in mind, it’s worth checking in on which teams don’t currently have the ability to offer more than the minimum. By our count, about a third of the NBA is in this boat, though some of those clubs could generate some spending flexibility by making cost-cutting trades.
Here’s a breakdown of the teams currently limited to minimum-salary contract offers for free agents:
Teams above the second tax apron:
- Golden State Warriors
- Los Angeles Clippers
- Miami Heat
- Phoenix Suns
Beginning this offseason, the NBA added a second tax “apron” and introduced new restrictions for the teams whose salaries exceed that apron. In 2023/24, the second apron is set at $182,794,000 ($17.5MM above the tax line) — it will increase along with the cap in future years.
In addition to being prohibited from using the standard mid-level exception and the bi-annual exception, teams whose salaries are above the second apron aren’t permitted to make use of the taxpayer mid-level exception, which is worth $5MM. The Warriors, Clippers, Heat, and Suns all fall into that group and therefore don’t have any cap exceptions available to use on free agents besides the minimum exception.
Teams very close to the second tax apron:
- Boston Celtics
- Milwaukee Bucks
The Celtics and Bucks may be able to start the season with team salaries below the second apron, but from a practical standpoint, it will be extremely difficult for them to make use of the taxpayer mid-level exception, which would hard-cap them at that second apron.
Milwaukee, in particular, has several contract bonuses to account for and would find its team salary well above the second tax apron if certain players earn those unlikely incentives. Boston has slightly more cap flexibility, but will still almost certainly be limited to minimum-salary offers for the rest of 2023/24, barring a cost-cutting move.
Over-the-cap teams that have used all their cap exceptions:
- Denver Nuggets
- Oklahoma City Thunder
- Toronto Raptors
The Nuggets are the only team this season to use the taxpayer mid-level exception. It’s the lone cap exception available to them in free agency, since their team salary is above the first apron, so they can’t offer more than the minimum to free agents.
The Thunder, meanwhile, used their entire room exception, while the Raptors used their non-taxpayer mid-level exception and bi-annual exception. Both teams are now over the cap and only have the minimum salary exception left to sign a free agent outright (a sign-and-trade remains possible, but is unlikely at this stage of the offseason).
Over-the-cap teams whose remaining exception money is less than the two-year veteran’s minimum:
- Los Angeles Lakers
- Sacramento Kings
The Lakers have $1,905,000 remaining on their non-taxpayer mid-level exception, while the Kings have $1,381,536 left on their room exception. Both figures fall short of the full-season minimum salary for a two-year veteran ($2,019,706), so neither club could offer more than the minimum to a veteran free agent at this time.
However, that leftover exception money isn’t useless. Los Angeles and Sacramento could each offer more than the minimum to a rookie free agent, for instance. And their remaining exception money won’t begin prorating downward until after the trade deadline. So if L.A. wants to sign a veteran free agent in December, it could use its MLE to offer more than the player’s prorated minimum salary at that point.
Former NBA forward Brandon Hunter has died at age 42, according to announcements from his college coach Jeff Boals (Twitter link) and the Magic (Twitter link).
A standout at Ohio University from 1999 to 2003, Hunter was selected 56th overall in the 2003 draft by the Celtics. He appeared in 36 games for Boston as a rookie, then was picked in the 2004 expansion draft by the then-Bobcats, who traded him to Orlando.
Hunter played in 31 games for the Magic in 2004/05 before making the move to international basketball. He spent time in Greece, Italy, Puerto Rico, Israel, Turkey, Latvia, Germany, France, and Uruguay between 2006-13. As an NBA player, he averaged 3.3 points and 2.8 rebounds in 9.4 minutes per night across his 67 appearances (12 starts).
Boals’ announcement refers to Hunter as “one of the best to ever put on the green and white” for the Ohio Bobcats. The former standout forward is still the program’s all-time leading rebounder, having grabbed 1,103 boards during his four college seasons. He averaged a double-double (21.5 PPG, 12.6 RPG) as a senior, earning his third consecutive All-MAC first team nod.
Our condolences go out to Hunter’s friends and family.
- Could Jayson Tatum eventually carve out a space on the Celtics’ Mount Rushmore, as he openly expressed a desire to accomplish? Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston explores that topic, opining that Bill Russell, Larry Bird and John Havlicek would occupy the first three spots. Forsberg writes that delivering titles, and staying in Boston long-term, would boost Tatum’s candidacy.
The Celtics have signed former Utah State forward Taylor Funk to an Exhibit 10 deal, a source tells Bobby Manning of CLNS Media (Twitter link).
Funk played his first five collegiate seasons with St. Joseph’s before moving to Utah State as a grad transfer. In 34 games with Utah State, Funk averaged 13.4 points and shot 37.0% from deep on 6.4 attempts per night. After going undrafted in the 2023 draft, Funk joined the Heat for the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer League, but played sparingly across both events.
Boston is now up to 17 players under contract, four away from the offseason limit. That total includes 11 players on guaranteed contracts and three on partially or non-guaranteed deals (Svi Mykhailiuk, Dalano Banton and Luke Kornet). The Celtics also have JD Davison and Jay Scrubb signed to two-way deals. DJ Steward will reportedly get an Exhibit 10 contract too, but it isn’t yet official.
Funk will likely end up with the Maine Celtics, where he could earn a bonus worth up to $75K if he spends at least 60 days with Boston’s G League affiliate.
The Kings beat out the Warriors for free agent center JaVale McGee, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic, who suggests both Pacific clubs were in pursuit of the big man after he was waived by Dallas last week.
McGee’s new deal with Sacramento is only for one year and is worth the veteran’s minimum, but it’s fully guaranteed. It’s unclear whether or not Golden State was willing to offer a fully guaranteed contract to the former Warrior. According to Amick, the Kings envision McGee playing a “significant” role in 2023/24 if he shows he’s capable of handling it.
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- The Stockton Kings – Sacramento’s G League affiliate – announced in a press release on Thursday that they’ve acquired Skal Labissiere‘s returning rights from the Mexico City Capitanes in a three-team trade that sent DJ Steward‘s rights to the Maine Celtics. Labissiere has agreed to sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Kings, while Steward has reached an agreement on an Exhibit 10 deal with the Celtics. This trade will ensure both players are in line to receive their Exhibit 10 bonuses.
- Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt became extension-eligible on Thursday, notes Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype (Twitter link). Vanderbilt, whose maximum extension would be $75MM over four years, will be an unrestricted free agent in 2024 if he doesn’t sign a new contract before then.
- In a two-part interview with Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic, new Suns head coach Frank Vogel discussed several topics, including the philosophy he’ll bring to his new job and what he’s looking for in Phoenix’s fifth starter alongside Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, and Deandre Ayton. “We’ll have a lot of guys that have an opportunity to be that fifth guy,” Vogel said. “The versatility of maybe being able to guard multiple positions or maybe it’s an elite shooter. Maybe it’s just another play-maker. I think we have a lot of guys with a lot of different skill sets and we’ll put a lot of different combinations throughout the year.”
Teams are getting closer to training camp, which means lingering questions facing NBA clubs will be answered sooner than later. The Knicks, like every team, have several issues to sort out either before training camp or shortly before the season begins writes Zach Braziller of the New York Post in a mailbag.
The biggest question the Knicks must answer is whether or not Immanuel Quickley will get a rookie scale extension before the regular season tips off. In his own mailbag, SNY’s Ian Begley writes that New York and Quickley are expected to negotiate a contract sometime this month. However, if the Knicks decide to make him available via trade, they’ll have plenty of suitors, per Begley.
Begley hears that the Knicks had several trade talks with teams surrounding Quickley at the beginning of the 2022/23 season, prior to his breakout that saw him finish as the Sixth Man of the Year runner-up. However, Begley ultimately expects Quickley to extend with New York, and believes the team will begin extending other core players – Jalen Brunson, Julius Randle and Quentin Grimes – down the road.
Braziller concurs with Begley, and sees the two sides agreeing to a deal that winds up in the four-year, $90-95MM range. Other topics included in Braziller’s mailbag include the future of Evan Fournier and what a matchup between Team USA and Canada in the 2023 FIBA World Cup would look like, with Brunson and Josh Hart potentially squaring off against RJ Barrett.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- Celtics guard Payton Pritchard has never averaged more than 19.2 minutes per game in his first three seasons in the league, with his playing time declining in each subsequent season. Jared Weiss of The Athletic explores what Pritchard’s role may look like in 2023/24, which will be instrumental in determining his future with the organization. Pritchard, who wished to be moved at last year’s deadline, could be in line for more minutes with Marcus Smart‘s departure, but will need to improve. Weiss does a full video breakdown of the guard’s game to determine how he can take the next jump.
- Battling plantar fasciitis, Kristaps Porzingis was forced to be a spectator as Latvia made the final eight of the World Cup and fell to Germany in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston writes that Porzingis choosing to preserve his body in such a crucial moment for his national team is a key indicator that he’s all in on the Celtics this year. Porzingis, whom Boston traded Smart for, is expected to be ready to go by the time the NBA’s training camps begin.
- While Harry Giles has an uphill climb to make Brooklyn’s roster out of training camp, the Nets have one of the more interesting roster battles on deck, Lucas Kaplan of NetsDaily writes. Giles, Trendon Watford and Darius Bazley appear to be in direct competition for two roster spots on the Nets. Giles, who hasn’t appeared in a game since 2020/21, only has 142 games of NBA experience and is just 25 years old, indicating he may have plenty left in the tank.
In an interview with Jeff Goodman of The Messenger, Jayson Tatum talks about his desire to add his name to the long list of Celtics legends.
Tatum is off to a strong start, with nearly 10,000 career points, four All-Star appearances and several long playoff runs by age 25. But he understands that being an all-time great in Boston requires championship banners, and he hopes to win a few of those before he’s done.
“I would love to be on the Mount Rushmore of Celtics,” Tatum says. “(Larry) Bird, (Bill) Russell, Paul Pierce and those guys. They paved the way. The one thing all those guys have is chips. I have to get to the top of the mountain to even be considered as one of those guys. I want to be an all-time great, I want to be known as a winner, and I believe I will be.”
A year ago, the Celtics appeared to be in a strong position to win their 18th title as they prepared to report to training camp. They were coming off a tough Finals loss to the Warriors and had added Danilo Gallinari to an already impressive roster.
Things began to unravel when head coach Ime Udoka was suspended on September 22. Gallinari suffered an ACL tear that wound up sidelining him for the entire season, and an injury kept Robert Williams out for the early part of the year.
“It was a lot, a lot to process and deal with,” Tatum said. “And I give us credit, we came together. I think it brought us together as a team. We had the second-best record. We could have had every excuse to start off slow and make excuses.”
Tatum touches on several other topics in the lengthy interview:
On head coach Joe Mazzulla, who was frequently the target of criticism, especially as Boston fell behind 3-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals:
“I think it was unfair. I don’t know what more Joe could have done. He wasn’t out there turning the ball over and missing free throws. That was us.”
On the loss of Marcus Smart, who was sent to Memphis in the Kristaps Porzingis trade and had been the team leader since Tatum arrived in 2017:
“I am for sure going to miss Smart. He was my teammate for six years and we’ve been through it all. We had good moments together, we had bad moments together. He’s somebody that I wish was going be my teammate forever.”
On the record-setting five-year, super-max extension that Jaylen Brown received this summer:
“I was excited for Jaylen, and I wasn’t surprised. That was a no-brainer for me because he deserves it. He had a hell of a year, the best year of his career, and he was rewarded for that. It was the right time. People make a big deal of $300 million. The NBA makes a lot of money. Contracts will be $350 and then $370 million. That’s the way it’s going. I was happy for him. I knew it was going to happen, it was a no-brainer, but I still reached out to him and told him he should be proud of himself and his family. Don’t take it for granted. This is generational.”
On his own NBA future and whether he wants to spend his entire career with one team:
“Just recently I started to feel the connection with Boston. I have spent my adult life here, my son has grown up here, I’ve grown up here. I’ve accomplished so many things. … You never know what can happen, but I love playing for the Celtics. I figured out my space in the city and have grown to really enjoy it. I love the fans. It would be really hard to leave this place.”