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Four 2019 NBA Draft Picks Remain Unsigned

August 9th, 2019 at 2:01pm CST by Luke Adams

We’re about a month and a half removed from the 2019 NBA draft, and the contract statuses of 56 of the 60 players selected on that night have been determined.

As our list of draft pick signings shows, 53 players – 29 first-round picks and 24 second-rounders – have signed contracts with their new NBA teams. Three more players – Didi Louzada (Pelicans), Deividas Sirvydis (Pistons), and Vanja Marinkovic (Kings) – will reportedly spend the 2019/20 season overseas in various international leagues.

That leaves just four players whose contract situation for ’19/20 remains up in the air. Those players are as follows:

  1. Orlando Magic: Chuma Okeke, F (Auburn)
  2. Denver Nuggets: Bol Bol, C (Oregon)
  3. Charlotte Hornets: Jalen McDaniels, F (San Diego State)
  4. Brooklyn Nets: Jaylen Hands, G (UCLA)

Okeke is the lone 2019 first-rounder who remains unsigned, and it’s probably not just a coincidence that he’s the last one to ink his rookie contract. He tore his ACL in March and is expected to miss a good chunk – if not all – of his rookie season. While virtually every first-round pick signs for 120% of his rookie scale amount, the Cavaliers were able to get Kevin Porter for lower than that earlier in the offseason — it’s possible the Magic are exploring a similar deal with Okeke.

Bol, meanwhile, figures to sign with the Nuggets eventually. The team still has a projected opening on its 15-man regular season roster, plus a pair of open two-way contract slots. I’d expect Bol to sign a standard deal, but the two sides will have to reach an agreement on the years, dollars, and guarantee amounts. Since Denver has its full mid-level exception available, a variety of options are on the table.

As for McDaniels and Hands, they look like strong candidates to sign two-way contracts. Both the Nets and Hornets have an open two-way slot, and players selected in the 50-60 range frequently end up on two-way deals. While Brooklyn already has 15 players on guaranteed contracts, Charlotte is only carrying 13, so it’s possible a regular season roster spot is still in play for McDaniels.

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Hornets Sign Thomas Welsh

August 9th, 2019 at 10:40am CST by Luke Adams

The Hornets have signed free agent center Thomas Welsh to a contract, the team announced today in a press release. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but it’s likely a non-guaranteed training camp contract.

Welsh, 23, was selected with the No. 58 overall pick in the 2018 draft by the Nuggets. After signing a two-way deal with Denver, the seven-footer played limited minutes in 11 games for the club last season. He saw more extensive action in the G League for the Capital City Go-Go and Iowa Wolves, averaging 10.3 PPG and 8.1 RPG in 20 contests (23.0 MPG).

Welsh’s two-way contract with the Nuggets spanned two years, but the club opted to go another direction with that two-way slot for the 2019/20 season, waiving the former UCLA big man last week.

It’s possible Welsh will get the chance to earn a regular season roster spot in Charlotte. Currently, the Hornets are only carrying 13 players on fully guaranteed contracts. Caleb Martin, Joe Chealey, and Josh Perkins are believed to have non-guaranteed deals, while Robert Franks is on a two-way contract.

Welsh is the 18th Hornet under contract. Second-round pick Jalen McDaniels also remains unsigned and looks like the leading candidate to get the club’s second two-way deal.

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Kulboka Signs With Bilbao

August 7th, 2019 at 8:35pm CST by clarkcrum
  • Hornets draft-and-stash prospect Arnoldas Kulboka, a 21-year-old Lithuanian swingman who was drafted No. 55 overall in the 2018 NBA Draft, has officially signed his contract with RETAbet Bilbao Basket of Liga ACB, reports Donatas Urbonas (Twitter link).
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Jodie Meeks Drawing Interest From Clippers, Hornets?

August 7th, 2019 at 12:11pm CST by Luke Adams

The Clippers and Hornets have expressed some level of interest in free agent shooting guard Jodie Meeks, a source tells Ben Stinar of Amico Hoops.

Meeks, who will turn 32 later this month, appeared in 77 games in 2017/18 for the Wizards but saw his season come to an early end when he was suspended 25 games for violating the NBA’s anti-drug policy. Meeks was traded to Milwaukee in the offseason, where he served the rest of his suspension at the start of 2018/19 before being waived.

The former second-round pick caught on with the Raptors down the stretch last season, playing limited minutes in eight regular season games and 14 postseason contests for the eventual champions. Known for his ability to knock down long-range shots, Meeks made 8-of-18 three-pointers during the season, but just 2-of-13 in the playoffs.

The Clippers and Hornets are carrying fewer than 15 players with guaranteed salaries, so there could be an opportunity in each case for a veteran to claim a spot at the back of the roster. However, I’d be surprised if either team is willing to give Meeks a fully guaranteed salary on the heels of his modest contributions in 2018/19.

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Details On Hornets’ Offer To Kemba Walker

August 7th, 2019 at 8:44am CST by Luke Adams

When Kemba Walker became a free agent this summer, he was eligible for a super-max offer from the Hornets that would have been worth $221.6MM over five years. While an offer in that range was always considered unlikely, a standard maximum-salary offer from Charlotte would have paid the All-NBA point guard $189.9MM over five years.

However, in late June, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith reported that the Hornets’ offer to Walker was “somewhere in the ballpark of $160MM-plus” (link via NBC Sports). And according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the team’s best offer wasn’t even quite that strong. League sources tell Charania that Charlotte’s best five-year offer to Walker came in just under $160MM, which frustrated the 29-year-old.

“Tough days, f—ing tough days, I can’t even lie,” Walker told Charania, referring to his free agency. “Excuse my language. It was difficult. I couldn’t see myself just being on another team. It was just hard. That’s all I’ve known was Charlotte. Definitely some tough times. I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to get the offer that I wanted, and maybe not close to it, because of cap space. I had to get my head wrapped around the feeling and picking another team.”

The Celtics didn’t initially project to have the cap room necessary to sign a player like Walker, but with Kyrie Irving, Al Horford, Marcus Morris, and others on the way out, the team gained increased flexibility. Kemba, meanwhile, became increasingly bullish on the idea of joining the C’s, with their proximity to his alma mater of UConn among the many factors that appealed to him, per Charania.

Walker ultimately landed in Boston on a four-year, $140.8MM contract, which didn’t match the overall value of Charlotte’s offer, but was a stronger deal on a per-year basis. Although it was bittersweet to leave the Hornets, the three-time All-Star said he understands “the business side of things” and isn’t upset about the way his old team handled things.

“I’m not mad at M.J. (Hornets owner Michael Jordan) or the organization for anything,” Walker told Charania. “I understand it. You have to look at both sides at the end of the day. Could M.J. have went over the luxury tax? Yeah, he could have. But why?

“At the end of the day, you have to see both sides of it. That’s what helped me wrap my head around not being around Charlotte anymore. I loved Charlotte. I had to shift my mindset more as free agency got close. I had some priorities and places I wanted to go and didn’t want to go if I didn’t stay in Charlotte, and that’s when Boston even came on the scene.”

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Hornets Sign Josh Perkins

August 6th, 2019 at 1:26pm CST by Luke Adams

The Hornets have signed undrafted Gonzaga guard Josh Perkins, the team announced today in a press release.

ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (Twitter link) first reported shortly after the June draft that Perkins would sign an Exhibit 10 deal with Charlotte, so today’s announcement doesn’t come as a surprise. The club also confirmed its new deal with Joe Chealey.

A fifth-year senior in 2018/19, Perkins averaged 11.0 PPG, 6.3 APG, and 2.7 RPG in 37 games for the Zags. Over the course of his college career, he knocked down 38.6% of 651 total three-point attempts.

While Perkins will likely end up playing for the Greensboro Swarm in his rookie year, it’s possible he’ll have a shot to earn a roster spot for the Hornets. The team is up to 17 players under contract after today’s signings, but only 13 have fully guaranteed salaries for 2019/20 (a 14th is on a two-way contract).

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Hornets Re-Sign Joe Chealey

August 6th, 2019 at 1:21pm CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 6: The Hornets’ new deal with Chealey is now official, the team announced today in a press release. It’s an Exhibit 10 contract, according to Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer (Twitter link).

AUGUST 1: After spending the entire 2018/19 season on a two-way contract with the Hornets, former Charleston guard Joe Chealey is expected to rejoin the team as a free agent.

Edge Sports, Chealey’s agency, published a tweet this week congratulating him on his new deal with the Hornets. However, the announcement doesn’t specify what kind of contract he’ll sign, and the team has yet to issue an official update. An Exhibit 10 pact is probably the most likely outcome, but Charlotte does still have a two-way slot open too.

Chealey, 23, signed with the Hornets as an undrafted free agent in July 2018 and had his contract converted to a two-way deal in October. He only appeared in one game with the NBA club in his rookie season, but was a regular starter for the Greensboro Swarm, Charlotte’s G League affiliate.

In 43 NBAGL games (31.3 MPG), the young point guard averaged 16.3 PPG, 5.3 APG, and 3.7 RPG with a .436/.340/.773 shooting line. His season ended in March when he suffered a torn left meniscus.

Chealey and fellow two-way player J.P. Macura became unrestricted free agents this summer, with the Hornets signing Robert Franks to fill one of the newly-opened two-way contract slots. Second-round pick Jalen McDaniels looks like the best candidate for the second slot, but the team has yet to tip its hand.

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NBA Teams With Hard Caps For 2019/20

August 6th, 2019 at 11:16am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA salary cap is somewhat malleable, with various exceptions allowing every team to surpass the $109,140,000 threshold once their room is used up. In some cases, teams blow past not only the cap limit, but the luxury-tax limit of $132,627,000 as well — the Trail Blazers have this season’s highest payroll at the moment, more than $11MM above the tax line.

The NBA doesn’t have a “hard cap” by default, which allows a club like Portland to build a significant payroll without violating CBA rules. However, there are certain scenarios in which teams can be hard-capped.

When a club uses the bi-annual exception, acquires a player via sign-and-trade, or uses more than the taxpayer portion ($5,718,000) of the mid-level exception, that club will face a hard cap for the remainder of the league year.

When a team becomes hard-capped, it cannot exceed the “tax apron” at any point during the rest of the league year. The tax apron was set $6MM above the luxury tax line in 2017/18 (the first year of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement) and creeps up a little higher each season. For the 2019/20 league year, the tax apron – and hard cap for certain clubs – is set at $138,928,000.

More teams than ever this offseason have been willing to hard-cap themselves, and in at least a couple cases, it will significantly impact a team’s ability to add further reinforcements later in the league year. The Warriors and Heat are nearly right up against the hard cap, and won’t be players in free agency during the season unless they can shed salary.

So far this year, half the teams in the NBA have imposed a hard cap on themselves by using the bi-annual exception, using the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, or acquiring a player via sign-and-trade. Listed below are those 15 teams, along with how they created a hard cap.

Boston Celtics

  • Acquired Kemba Walker from the Hornets via sign-and-trade.

Brooklyn Nets

  • Acquired Kevin Durant from the Warriors via sign-and-trade.

Charlotte Hornets

  • Acquired Terry Rozier from the Celtics via sign-and-trade.

Chicago Bulls

Dallas Mavericks

  • Acquired Delon Wright from the Grizzlies via sign-and-trade.
  • Used approximately $7.46MM of their mid-level exception to sign Seth Curry.
  • Used their bi-annual exception to sign Boban Marjanovic.

Detroit Pistons

  • Used approximately $7.32MM of their mid-level exception to sign Derrick Rose.
  • Used their bi-annual exception to sign Markieff Morris.

Golden State Warriors

Indiana Pacers

Memphis Grizzlies

  • Used their full mid-level exception ($9,258,000) to sign Tyus Jones.
  • Used their bi-annual exception to sign Marko Guduric.

Miami Heat

Minnesota Timberwolves

  • Acquired Jake Layman from the Trail Blazers via sign-and-trade.

Orlando Magic

  • Used their full mid-level exception ($9,258,000) to sign Al-Farouq Aminu.

San Antonio Spurs

Toronto Raptors

Washington Wizards

Outside of the Warriors and Heat, no clubs on the list above are really being restricted by the hard cap at this time. A few teams – such as the Pistons and Magic – are near the luxury tax threshold, but that still gives them several million dollars in breathing room below the hard cap.

While it’s possible that trades could push some teams closer to the apron, Golden State and Miami appear to be the only clubs that will be noticeably affected by the hard cap in 2019/20.

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Examining Contract Details For Cody, Caleb Martin

August 4th, 2019 at 7:08pm CST by JD Shaw
  • Bobby Marks of ESPN (via Twitter) provides cap details on the contracts inked by Cody Martin and Caleb Martin, who both signed with the Hornets. Cody’s contract ($1.17MM in the first season) is guaranteed in the second season and non-guaranteed in the third, while Caleb signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the team.
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Derrick Jones’ 2019/20 Salary Becomes Guaranteed

August 1st, 2019 at 7:38pm CST by Luke Adams

Derrick Jones‘ $1,645,357 salary for the 2019/20 season has become fully guaranteed as a result of the Heat standing pat today. The small forward had an August 1 guarantee deadline on his deal, which meant that if he remained under contract through today’s waiver deadline (5:00pm ET) and didn’t agree to push that date back, he’d be assured of receiving his full salary for the coming season.

Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel wrote earlier today that a source close to the situation stressed there were “no plans” to make any roster moves that would allow the Heat to avoid Jones’ guarantee.

Jones had a promising season for the Heat in 2018/19, averaging 7.0 PPG and 4.0 RPG in 60 games (19.2 MPG). On the opening night of free agency a month ago, it appeared that the 22-year-old might be Dallas-bound as part of the multi-team trade that would ultimately land Jimmy Butler in Miami. However, that deal fell through, with reports indicating that the Heat didn’t want to part with Jones. Now, it looks like a near-lock that he’ll be part of the team’s regular season roster in 2019/20.

August 1 also represented a guarantee deadline for a handful of other players around the NBA. It’s possible that one or more of these players agreed to push his deadline back at the request of his team, but nothing along those lines has been reported.

Unless we hear otherwise, we’re assuming the following players received full or partial guarantees by remaining under contract through today’s waiver deadline:

  • Dwayne Bacon (Hornets): $1,618,520 salary becomes fully guaranteed (Twitter link via ESPN’s Bobby Marks).
  • Deonte Burton (Thunder): $1,416,852 salary becomes fully guaranteed (Twitter link via Marks)
  • Kendrick Nunn (Heat): $50,000 partial guarantee increases to $150,000 (link via Winderman). Nunn is no longer eligible to sign a two-way contract with Miami. His full salary is $1,416,852.
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