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And-Ones: ROY Predictions, Offseason Rankings, NBAGL

August 6th, 2018 at 4:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Mavericks guard Luka Doncic has the best chance to win the Rookie of the Year award, according to an ESPN panel. Doncic will fill up the stat sheet and might wind up with the ball more often than second-year guard Dennis Smith Jr., according to Mike Schmitz. Top overall pick Deandre Ayton ranks second on the poll, with Schmitz noting that the Suns big man likely to get more playing time than any other rookie. Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr., Cavaliers point guard Collin Sexton and Bulls center Wendell Carter Jr. round out the top five.

We have more from around the league:

Retaining Paul George in free agency and dumping Carmelo Anthony‘s contract while receiving projected sixth man Dennis Schroder in return earned the Thunder the top spot on NBA.com’s David Aldridge’s offseason rankings. The rankings are based upon what teams have done during the offseason. The Lakers ranked No. 2 by virtue of signing LeBron James and handing out one-year contracts to other players, thus allowing them to be a force again in next year’s free agent market. The Nuggets gained the No. 3 spot by locking up Nikola Jokic and making trades that cleared roster spots and eased their luxury-tax situation.
Forwards DJ Hogg (Texas A&M) and Malik Pope (San Diego State) and swingman BJ Johnson (LaSalle) are among the top 10 prospects at the G League Invitational, according to Bryan Kalbrosky of HoopsHype. The invitational takes place Sunday in Chicago and over a dozen of last year’s prospects received training camp invites afterward.
The Warriors’ over-under odds for wins next season is 62.5, according to Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook. The Celtics ranked second overall with a 57.5 over-under win total with the Rockets third at 54.5. The Hawks have the lowest projected win total at 23.5. The odds for each NBA team were passed along by ESPN’s Ben Fawkes.

Nuggets, Thunder Hold Largest Trade Exceptions

August 5th, 2018 at 4:37pm CST by Luke Adams

Within the last month and a half, several of the most sizable traded player exceptions from around the NBA have expired. The Clippers‘ $7MM+ exception from last year’s Chris Paul deal expired in June, a pair of big Raptors TPEs went unused a couple weeks later, and the Trail Blazers saw their $13MM exception from last summer’s Allen Crabbe trade expire late in July.

None of these developments were particularly surprising. Traded player exceptions, even bigger ones, often go unused. That’s especially true for teams like Toronto and Portland, whose team salaries are over the tax line. For those clubs, taking on a salary using a traded player exception would cost exponentially more due to tax penalties.

Still, those bigger trade exceptions can occasionally come in handy and are worth keeping an eye on. For instance, the Cavaliers have a $5.8MM trade exception created in last August’s Kyrie Irving deal that would have expired if it hadn’t been used within the next few weeks. The Cavs are taking advantage of it by using it to finalize the acquisition of Sam Dekker without sending out any salary in return.

That Cleveland traded player exception had been the seventh-most valuable TPE around the NBA. Here are the top five, all of which could be used to acquire a player earning at least $7MM in 2018/19:

Denver Nuggets: $13,764,045 (Expires 7/15/2019)
Denver Nuggets: $12,800,562 (Expires 7/8/2019)
Oklahoma City Thunder: $10,883,189 (Expires 7/25/2019)
Charlotte Hornets: $7,819,725 (Expires 7/6/2019)
Detroit Pistons: $7,000,000 (Expires 1/29/2019)

Check out our tracker for the full list of available traded player exceptions. For more information on exactly how trade exceptions work, be sure to check out our glossary entry on the subject.

Thomas Ready To Overcome Tough Year

August 3rd, 2018 at 5:53pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Trail Blazers GM Neil Olshey doesn’t seem inclined to break up his smallish backcourt duo of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, Dan Feldman of NBC Sports notes. Olshey recently said he plans to keep his core group together, despite the team’s first-round flameout in the Western Conference playoffs last season. It might be wise to deal one of them for an impact forward but either Olshey has great faith in his guards or he’s tested the market and couldn’t find a worthwhile deal, Feldman adds.

We have more from the Northwest Division:

Hamidou Diallo feels a sense of relief after signing a contract with the Thunder but isn’t sure what kind of role he can carve out, Brett Dawson of The Oklahoman reports. The second-round rookie shooting guard was acquired in a draft-night deal. “We haven’t even spoken about a role yet,” Diallo told Dawson. “We’re still playing pickup ball and stuff like that, still training. Guys are just coming in, veteran players, and trying to teach us as much as possible as early as possible.” Diallo, who received a three-year, $4MM contract, will compete with newcomers Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Abdel Nader for backup minutes.
The Jazz brought back big man Ekpe Udoh because of his defense and positive attitude, according to Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune. Udoh was signed by Utah last season because of his reputation as a strong defender and he lived up to that billing, posting an average of 1.2 blocks per game. He also showed a superior ability to guard on the perimeter during switches and pick-and-rolls, Jones continues. Udoh, who will serve as the team’s third center, never complained last season when his role diminished, Jones adds. Udoh had his $3.36MM salary guaranteed last month.
Nuggets guard Isaiah Thomas had to settle for a one-year, $2MM contract in free agency but he’s determined to be a major bargain for his new team, as he told Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports. “This has been tough, but it was only a tough year because I wasn’t healthy. My job is to get as healthy as I possibly can and then show the world what I’m capable of doing,” he said.

How Non-Bird Rights Impact Promotions For Two-Way Players

August 2nd, 2018 at 9:08pm CST by Luke Adams

When NBA teams sign undrafted free agents or second-round picks to contracts, those clubs need to have cap space or a mid-level exception available to lock up those players for longer than two years or to pay them more than the minimum salary.

While most teams make sure to earmark some cap room or a portion of their mid-level exception to use on those players – particularly second-rounders – that’s not always the case. The Grizzlies, for instance, used their entire mid-level exception on Kyle Anderson‘s offer sheet, meaning they could only sign 32nd overall pick Jevon Carter to a two-year, minimum-salary deal.

This offseason though, a new tool has come in handy in allowing teams to sign players to longer-term or more lucrative contracts than the minimum salary exception would allow, without having to use cap room or the mid-level exception to do it. The catch? Those players had to have finished the 2017/18 season on a two-way contract with the club.

When a player is on a two-way contract, a new kind of deal introduced in the NBA’s latest Collective Bargaining Agreement, he’s not technically on a club’s 15-man roster, but he accrues Bird rights just as a player on the roster would. That means that any player who finished last season on a two-way deal had Non-Bird rights this summer.

Non-Bird rights don’t allow teams to give players major raises — Non-Bird deals can only start at up to 120% of the player’s previous salary or 120% of his minimum salary, whichever is greater. However, they do allow for contracts of up to four years, which has paid off for some teams and players this summer.

Consider the case of Georges Niang, who was on a two-way contract with the Jazz last season. Buoyed by an impressive Summer League showing with Utah last month, Niang earned a three-year contract with the club. Typically, to go up to three years, the over-the-cap Jazz would have had to dip into their mid-level exception, but that wasn’t the case for Niang — his Non-Bird rights allowed for a three-year deal.

While Niang’s contract is only worth the minimum, Non-Bird rights do allow for slightly larger salaries, as noted above. For example, the Knicks re-signed former two-way player Luke Kornet to the maximum allowable salary using his Non-Bird rights. Instead of earning his minimum salary ($1,349,383), Kornet will make 120% of that amount ($1,619,260). Without his Non-Bird rights, New York would have had to use its mid-level or bi-annual exception to give Kornet that kind of raise.

Non-Bird rights haven’t paid off for every team with a two-way player who’s getting a promotion. For instance, the Nuggets moved Torrey Craig to their standard roster by giving him a new two-year, $4MM contract. Denver had to use part of its mid-level exception to complete that signing, since it exceeded the salary Craig could’ve earned with Non-Bird rights. The Nuggets did take advantage of the Non-Bird rules with their other two-way player though, giving Monte Morris a new three-year contract.

Two-way contracts remain in their relative infancy, so it’s interesting to see how teams are taking advantage of the rules surrounding them. Players like Niang, Kornet, and Morris are among the first group of two-way players to be promoted to standard contracts via Non-Bird rights, but they certainly won’t be the last.

Here’s the full list of two-way players whose teams have promoted them to standard contracts this offseason:

Ryan Arcidiacono (Bulls)
Jabari Bird (Celtics)
Antonio Blakeney (Bulls)
Torrey Craig (Nuggets)
Derrick Jones (Heat)
Luke Kornet (Knicks)
Monte Morris (Nuggets)
Georges Niang (Jazz)

Note: Jamel Artis, Danuel House, Daniel Hamilton, and Kadeem Allen have signed or agreed to standard NBA contracts with new teams after finishing last season on two-way deals.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Dempsey Examines Nuggets' Offseason

August 2nd, 2018 at 6:43pm CST by Luke Adams

After a busy offseason, the Nuggets have their most talented top-to-bottom roster since the one that advanced to the Western Conference Finals in 2009, opines Chris Dempsey of Nuggets.com. Dempsey runs through a checklist of Denver’s summer accomplishments, which included solidifying the reserve point guard spot with Isaiah Thomas and carving out a larger role for Trey Lyles.

Contract Details: Bolden, Carter, Harrell, Smart

July 29th, 2018 at 10:21am CST by Arthur Hill

Sixers forward Jonah Bolden has received the largest contract of any rookie second-round pick this summer, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. The 36th player taken in the 2017 draft, Bolden spent a season with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel before coming to the NBA. Philadelphia gave him a four-year, $7MM deal with a starting salary of $1.69MM, although the third and fourth seasons are non-guaranteed.

The Nets signed Rodions Kurucs to a similar arrangement, Pincus adds (Twitter link). The 40th pick in this year’s draft, Kurucs will make $1.62MM in his first year and has incentives that could bring the value of his four-year contract up to $6.96MM. The first three seasons are fully guaranteed.

Pincus passes on a few more details about deals signed this summer:

Although Jevon Carter was taken 32nd overall, he signed for just the minimum salary over two seasons, less than others in his draft range (Twitter link). However, he received a full guarantee from the Grizzlies on both years. Jalen Brunson, taken at No. 33 by the Mavericks, makes more per season but is locked into a four-year deal (Twitter link). He will receive $1.23MM in his rookie year, with minimum salaries for the next three seasons. The first three years are fully guaranteed. Elie Okobo, the 31st pick, signed a four-year agreement with the Suns that will pay him $1.24MM in his first year, with three seasons at the minimum to follow. Only his first two years are guaranteed, and Phoenix has a team option on the final season (Twitter link).
Among the two-way contracts handed out this summer, only four players signed multi-year deals. Kostas Antetokounmpo of the Mavericks, Billy Preston of the Cavaliers, Yuta Watanabe of the Grizzlies and Thomas Welsh of the Nuggets all have two-year agreements (Twitter link).
The Clippers will pay Montrezl Harrell $6MM in each season of his two-year, $12MM deal (Twitter link).
Celtics guard Marcus Smart has a base salary of $11.16MM in the first year of his new deal, but $500K of likely incentives place the cap hit at $11.66MM. The incentives remain in effect for each season of his four-year contract.

Second Unit Will Include Plumlee, Thomas

July 27th, 2018 at 10:50pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Nuggets’ second unit will likely be led by Mason Plumlee, Isaiah Thomas, Trey Lyles and Torrey Craig, Chris Dempsey of the team’s website predicts. Dempsey dispenses his views on recent developments involving the club in his latest mailbag.

Nuggets Discussed Salary-Dump Trade With Bulls Before Making Deal With Nets

July 26th, 2018 at 2:22pm CST by Luke Adams

Before the Bulls signed Jabari Parker to a two-year, $40MM contract, they discussed using their salary cap room to accommodate a possible salary-dump deal with the Nuggets, sources tell ESPN’s Zach Lowe. Denver ultimately made that trade – which involved Kenneth Faried and Darrell Arthur – with the Nets instead of Chicago.

Nuggets Sign Monte Morris To Three-Year Deal

July 25th, 2018 at 1:10pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 25: The Nuggets have officially signed Morris, the team announced today in a press release.

JULY 19: The Nuggets have reached an agreement with Monte Morris on a three-year contract worth $4.8MM, with the first two seasons guaranteed, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Morris had been on a two-way contract with Denver, but his new deal will be a standard contract that moves him to the team’s 15-man roster.

Morris, the 51st overall pick in the 2017 draft, only appeared in three NBA games during his rookie season. However, he had a strong season for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the G League, averaging 17.8 PPG, 6.5 APG, 4.5 RPG, and 1.8 SPG in 37 contests.

The 6’2″ guard also played well for the Nuggets in Summer League action this month, posting a team-high 17.5 PPG on 50% shooting in four games in Las Vegas. He also chipped in 6.3 APG and 3.3 RPG.

Morris will fill out the roster for the Nuggets, who now have 15 players on NBA contracts. He figures to slot in as the team’s third point guard behind Jamal Murray and Isaiah Thomas. As long as both Murray and Thomas are healthy, Morris may not have much of a role in Denver’s rotation, so more G League stints are possible.

A three-year, minimum-salary contract would have been worth about $4.66MM for Morris. Based on Charania’s report, he’ll receive slightly more than that, so Denver will likely use Morris’ Non-Bird rights to complete the signing.

Isaiah Thomas Reached Out To Celtics Before Signing With Nuggets

July 23rd, 2018 at 11:55am CST by Luke Adams

Before he officially signed a one-year, minimum-salary contract with the Nuggets, Isaiah Thomas reached out to Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge to see if a return to Boston might be possible, writes ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. According to Thomas, he and Ainge talked for about 15 or 20 minutes, with the point guard saying, “If the opportunity is there, I would just like to let you know that I’d love to come back.”

Ainge didn’t rule out the possibility of re-signing Thomas less than a year after trading him to Cleveland, but he and the Celtics needed to address Marcus Smart‘s contract situation before deciding whether a reunion with Thomas was in the cards. While Ainge was willing to continue the conversation, Thomas elected to sign with Denver before the C’s locked up Smart, closing the door on the possibility for now. Still, it sounds like Thomas would be open to heading back to Boston in the future if the opportunity arises.

“S–t, I’d have gone back,” Thomas says. “I don’t hold grudges.”

Here’s more on Thomas from Wojnarowski’s feature:

The Nuggets‘ offer was the only real one Thomas received in free agency, which he calls “disrespectful.” However, he believes that his health was a major deterrent for interested teams. “People are scared of my hip now,” Thomas said, per Wojnarowski. “I just had to be real with myself. I had to understand that it’s not going to be about the money this summer. I’ve got to show people that I can play — and play at a high level again. And I will.”
Thomas views his decision to play through his hip injury in the 2017 postseason as one that cost him in the long term. “If I didn’t play in the playoffs, I’d be OK,” Thomas said. “I’d be getting paid. I’d be who I am — who I was. But you couldn’t tell me in that moment in time — with everything I was going through — that, OK, I should just sit out. … I played until I literally couldn’t play anymore. And that was not a good business decision if I was looking in the long term, but I was looking in the ‘right now.’ That’s just what it was.”
Thomas also believes it was a mistake to get back on the court in January for the Cavaliers, suggesting he should have waited until after the All-Star break rather than rushing back early.
Nuggets head coach Mike Malone said he’ll welcome Thomas’ “voice and personality” into what has been a “quiet” locker room. “I want Isaiah to be Isaiah,” Malone said.
Thomas isn’t concerned about his specific role in Denver as long as he gets the opportunity to show that he’s healthy. “I’m not worried about starting or coming off the bench now,” Thomas said. “I’m worried about playing well and showing the world who I am again. Once the people see that I can play — and play at a high level still — they won’t be able to deny me next summer. They won’t be able to deny me what I bring on the court and off the court for an organization.”