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2021 NBA Offseason In Review: Phoenix Suns

November 3rd, 2021 at 2:50pm CST by Luke Adams

Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2021 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s offseason moves and look ahead to what the 2021/22 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Phoenix Suns.

Free agent signings:

Note: Exhibit 9 and 10 deals aren’t included here.

  • Chris Paul: Four years, $120MM. Third year partially guaranteed. Fourth year non-guaranteed. Re-signed using Bird rights.
  • Cameron Payne: Three years, $19MM. Third year partially guaranteed. Re-signed using Early Bird rights.
  • JaVale McGee: One year, $5MM. Signed using non-taxpayer mid-level exception.
  • Abdel Nader: Two years, $4.16MM. Second-year team option. Re-signed using Bird rights.
  • Frank Kaminsky: One year, minimum salary. Re-signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Elfrid Payton: One year, minimum salary. Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Chandler Hutchison: Two-way contract.

Trades:

Draft picks:

  • None

Contract extensions:

  • Mikal Bridges: Four years, $90,000,000. Starts in 2022/23.
  • Landry Shamet: Four years, $42,500,000. Includes non-guaranteed third year and fourth-year team option. Starts in 2022/23.

Departing players:

Other offseason news:

  • Hired Bryan Gates, Michael Ruffin, and Jarrett Jack as assistant coaches; lost assistant coach Willie Green.
  • Parted ways with senior vice president of basketball operations Jeff Bower.
  • Dario Saric continues to recover from a torn ACL and is expected to miss most or all of the season.
  • Were unable to reach a contract extension agreement with Deandre Ayton.

Salary cap situation:

  • Remained over the cap and below the tax line.
  • Carrying approximately $128.4MM in salary.
  • $4,536,000 of non-taxpayer mid-level exception still available ($5MM used on JaVale McGee).
  • Full bi-annual exception ($3,732,000) still available.

The Suns’ offseason:

Phoenix’s 8-0 run during the 2020 summer restart at Walt Disney World portended the team’s jump in the standings in 2020/21, but even the most optimistic of Suns fans must have been pleasantly surprised by just how successful a season it was.

After finishing below .500 for six consecutive years and missing the playoffs for an entire decade, the Suns put up the second-best regular season record in the NBA (51-21) and knocked off the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs, then just kept winning. Phoenix ultimately got within two games of the title before being stopped by the Bucks.

The Suns benefited from a little injury luck during their 2021 playoff run, but their success wasn’t a mirage — this is a deep, talented roster, and the club’s offseason moves reflected a desire to keep the group intact.

That meant re-signing Chris Paul, even if the idea of committing four years and $120MM to a 36-year-old may have been hard to swallow for team owner Robert Sarver. Fortunately for the Suns, only the first two years of that contract are fully guaranteed, which means that even if Paul’s performance drops off a cliff in the next year or two, it should never become a major albatross.

For comparison’s sake, CP3’s new deal includes less total guaranteed money ($75MM) than John Wall was still owed ($91.7MM) at the time the Rockets shut him down indefinitely earlier this year, and about the same amount ($74MM) that Kemba Walker was owed when he reached a buyout agreement with the Thunder.

The Suns locked up three more of their own free agents, re-signing Cameron Payne, Abdel Nader, and Frank Kaminsky. Nader and Kaminsky will play modest roles, but bringing back Payne as Paul’s backup following his career resurgence was crucial. Securing him to a new deal helped allow Phoenix to package its third-string point guard – Jevon Carter – with a first-round pick in a deal for another floor-spacing wing, Landry Shamet.

Carter is a solid defender, but reliable outside shooters like Shamet are harder to come by in today’s NBA, and the win-now Suns were unlikely to draft an immediate contributor with the No. 29 pick, so the deal made sense — especially since Phoenix was able to replace Carter on the depth chart by signing another defensive specialist, Elfrid Payton, to a minimum-salary contract.

The Suns’ other notable outside free agent addition was JaVale McGee, a solid veteran center who can help Deandre Ayton match up with star big men like Nikola Jokic, Anthony Davis, and Rudy Gobert in the playoffs.

Phoenix’s offseason signings didn’t push team salary for 2021/22 into tax territory, but the club projects to be a taxpayer starting in ’22/23. That knowledge informed many of the team’s remaining roster moves.

For instance, the Suns were unwilling to exercise Jalen Smith‘s 2022/23 team option after having drafted him with the 10th overall pick less than a year ago. There has simply been no room in the rotation for Smith since he arrived in Phoenix, and the club clearly didn’t expect that to change much going forward. Rather than paying Smith a $4.67MM salary in ’22/23, the team will likely sign a minimum-salary player next year to be that emergency big man off the bench.

The Suns also didn’t complete a rookie scale extension for Ayton, a former No. 1 overall pick, despite the fact that so many other members of his draft class (a record-setting 11) got new deals. Ayton’s camp reportedly refused to entertain anything less than a five-year, maximum-salary contract, which Phoenix was unwilling to offer.

Waiting until restricted free agency to work something out with Ayton is a risky move for the Suns, since it opens the door to some less desirable outcomes. Phoenix may have to match an offer sheet that features a trade kicker and an early opt-out. There’s even a chance Ayton could accept his one-year qualifying offer, putting him on track for unrestricted free agency in 2023.

But the franchise appeared more comfortable taking those risks than making such a significant financial commitment to its starting center. The best-case scenario for the Suns is that a lack of suitors with cap room results in no offer sheet for Ayton, who in turn accepts a little less than the max to remain in Phoenix, like John Collins did with Atlanta this past offseason.

The Suns did complete rookie scale extensions for Shamet and Mikal Bridges, viewing them as core players who could be locked up at a reasonable price (about $10.6MM per year for Shamet and $22.5MM annually for Bridges).

The Suns’ season:

Paul won’t play at an All-NBA level forever, but further improvements from young players such as Devin Booker, Ayton, and Bridges could offset some regression from the future Hall-of-Fame point guard. And while there are plenty of talented teams in the West, there’s not one that stands out as the clear-cut favorite to win the conference, like the Warriors were from 2016-19. Another deep playoff run is a reasonable goal for Phoenix.

One more trade to address the hole left by Dario Saric‘s ACL injury would help solidify the Suns’ place as a legit title contender, but assuming Paul doesn’t take a major step back and the team isn’t plagued by more bad injury luck, the biggest question marks in Phoenix this season may be about off-the-court issues, rather than on-court talent.

Will Ayton be distracted at all by his contract situation? Will the rumored report accusing Sarver of a series of misdeeds see the light of day? If so, will those allegations be deemed credible enough to cause an ownership shake-up?

The Suns won’t sneak up on anyone in 2021/22, so it will be fascinating to see how capable they are of defending their Western Conference crown with a target on their backs and potential off-court distractions looming.

Salary information from Basketball Insiders and Spotrac was used in the creation of this post.

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2021/22 NBA Two-Way Contract Conversions

November 3rd, 2021 at 9:44am CST by Luke Adams

At Hoops Rumors, we track virtually every kind of transaction, including free agent signings, trades, contract extensions, waiver claims, and many more. One form of roster move that has become increasingly common in recent years is the two-way conversion, involving a player either being converted from an Exhibit 10 contract to a two-way deal, or from a two-way deal to the standard roster.

In the past, we haven’t created trackers to keep tabs on each year’s two-way conversions in one place, but we’re going to do so for the 2021/22 season, since there have already been quite a few of them.

Let’s dive in…

Exhibit 10 contracts to two-way contracts:

When a player signs a contract during the offseason that includes Exhibit 10 language, he gives his new team the ability to unilaterally convert his deal into a two-way contract. The deadline to convert such a deal is the day before the season begins — this year that was Monday, October 18.

A player who signs a training camp contract that doesn’t include Exhibit 10 language could still sign a two-way deal with his club as long as his camp contract doesn’t include a guarantee exceeding $50K. However, he’d have to clear waivers before inking that new two-way contract.

Here are the players who had their Exhibit 10 contracts converted into two-way deals in 2021/22:

A number of these players were invited to training camp on Exhibit 10 contracts and ultimately earned two-way slots based on their performances in camp and the preseason. Cook, Duke, Fall, Fitts, Nembhard, Nix, Pickett, and Pons fall into this group.

Others were waived by different teams before the regular season roster deadline, then were claimed off waivers on October 18 and immediately converted to two-way deals. This group is made up of Cacok, Dowtin and Mathews, who were cut by Brooklyn, Orlando, and Boston, respectively.

The one player who doesn’t fall into either category is Brooks, whose conversion from an Exhibit 10 to a two-way was completed entirely for procedural reasons. Doing so allowed the Rockets to negotiate a new standard contract with Brooks (as detailed below) without having to waive him.

Two-way contracts to standard contracts:

A player who is on a two-way contract can have his deal unilaterally converted a one-year, minimum-salary contract by his team (or a two-year, minimum-salary contract if the player’s two-way deal covers two years, but this is rare).

However, a team generally prefers to negotiate a longer-term contract with the player in order to avoid having him reach free agency at season’s end.

When converting a player from a two-way contract to the standard roster, the team can use cap room or the non-taxpayer mid-level exception to negotiate a deal of up to four years; the taxpayer mid-level exception for a deal up to three years; or the room exception, bi-annual exception, or minimum salary exception for a two-year deal.

The player must agree to any deal that is worth more than the minimum or exceeds the number of years left on his two-way pact.

Here are the players who have been converted from two-way deals to standard contracts this year, along with the terms of their new contracts, in chronological order:

  • Luka Garza (Pistons): Two years, minimum salary. First year guaranteed. Second-year team option.
  • Austin Reaves (Lakers): Two years, minimum salary. First year partially guaranteed ($100K). Second-year team option.
  • Armoni Brooks (Rockets): Four years, minimum salary. First year guaranteed. Second and third years non-guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.
  • Garrison Mathews (Rockets): Four years, $8,230,253. First year guaranteed. Second and third years non-guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.
  • Killian Tillie (Grizzlies): Two years, $3,803,250. Fully guaranteed.
  • Sam Hauser (Celtics): Two years, minimum salary. First year guaranteed. Second-year team option.
  • Aaron Wiggins (Thunder): Four years, $6,388,212. First two years guaranteed. Third year non-guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.
  • Daishen Nix (Rockets): Four years, $6,000,212. First two years guaranteed. Third year non-guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.
  • Caleb Martin (Heat): One year, minimum salary. Fully guaranteed.
  • Trendon Watford (Trail Blazers): Four years, $5,824,694. First two years guaranteed. Third year non-guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.
  • Devontae Cacok (Spurs): One year, minimum salary. Fully guaranteed.
  • Joe Wieskamp (Spurs): One year, minimum salary. Fully guaranteed.
  • Amir Coffey (Clippers): One year, minimum salary. Fully guaranteed.
  • Jose Alvarado (Pelicans): Four years, $6,888,212. First year guaranteed. Second year partially guaranteed ($1.1MM). Third year non-guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.
  • RJ Nembhard (Cavaliers): One year, minimum salary. Fully guaranteed.
  • Terry Taylor (Pacers): Three years, $3,999,614. First year guaranteed. Second year partially guaranteed. Third year non-guaranteed.
  • Duane Washington (Pacers): Three years, $4,349,614. First year guaranteed. Second and third years non-guaranteed.
  • Skylar Mays (Hawks): One year, minimum salary. Fully guaranteed.
  • Wenyen Gabriel (Lakers): Two years, minimum salary. First year guaranteed. Second-year team option.
  • Moses Brown (Cavaliers): One year, minimum salary. Fully guaranteed.
  • Kessler Edwards (Nets): Two years, minimum salary. First year guaranteed. Second-year team option.
  • Trent Forrest (Jazz): One year, minimum salary. Fully guaranteed.
  • Ishmail Wainright (Suns): One year, minimum salary. Fully guaranteed.

All three of these players had to agree to the terms of their new contracts, since their teams didn’t exercise the unilateral conversion option. The Pistons and Lakers used the minimum salary exception to lock up Garza and Reaves to two-year deals, while the Rockets dipped into their non-taxpayer mid-level exception in order to go up to four years for Brooks.

Players on two-way contracts can be converted to standard deals until the last day of the regular season, so we expect to add more players to this list in the coming months.

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2021 NBA Offseason In Review: Philadelphia 76ers

November 2nd, 2021 at 11:50am CST by Dana Gauruder

Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2021 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s offseason moves and look ahead to what the 2021/22 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Philadelphia 76ers.

Free agent signings:

Note: Exhibit 9 and 10 deals aren’t included here.

Trades:

  • Acquired the No. 53 pick in the 2021 draft from the Pelicans in exchange for cash ($2MM).

Draft picks:

  • 1-28: Jaden Springer
    • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $10,393,483).
  • 2-50: Filip Petrusev
    • Stashed overseas.
  • 2-53: Charles Bassey
    • Signed to three-year, minimum-salary contract. Second year partially guaranteed. Third year non-guaranteed. Signed using mid-level exception.

Contract extensions:

  • Joel Embiid: Four years, maximum salary. Includes fourth-year player option. Starts in 2023/24.
    • Note: Embiid’s starting salary in 2023/24 will be 35% of the ’23/24 salary cap.

Departing players:

Other offseason news:

  • Ben Simmons asked to be traded and was a holdout for the first two weeks of training camp. He remains on the roster but has told the team he’s not mentally ready to play.
  • Hired Jamie Young as assistant coach; lost assistant coach Popeye Jones.
  • Hired Tad Brown as CEO to replace Scott O’Neil.

Salary cap situation:

  • Remained over the cap and above the tax line.
  • Carrying approximately $142.9MM in salary.
  • $1,664,742 of taxpayer mid-level exception still available ($4,225,258 used on Georges Niang and Charles Bassey).
  • Would need to shed salary to use more than taxpayer portion of mid-level exception or any part of bi-annual exception ($3,732,000), since doing either would create a $143MM hard cap.

The Sixers’ offseason:

Following some major changes prior to last season – most notably the hiring of Doc Rivers as head coach – Philadelphia wasn’t particularly active this summer. The Sixers didn’t make a noteworthy trade and their free agent moves were mainly window dressing. Under normal circumstances, they would have been under the radar, quietly preparing for another winning season and banking on their recent playoff experiences to prime them for a championship run.

Instead, the Sixers were all over the news, thanks to their disgruntled point guard in the early stages of his maximum-salary contract. Ben Simmons‘ subpar performances in last year’s playoffs, punctuated by a reluctance to shoot and woeful free-throw numbers that made it difficult to keep him in at crunch time, had a carryover effect. His offensive issues led to plenty of criticism and contributed mightily to the team’s conference semifinal loss to Atlanta. There were all kinds of detractors who wondered whether the Sixers could ever win a championship with Simmons running the show.

He could have used that as fuel to prove the critics wrong. Instead, he took the opposite approach. With four years left on his max deal, Simmons made it clear during the summer that he had no desire to suit up for the organization again. Team executives, coaches and players couldn’t make Simmons change his mind. The front office and his agent, Rich Paul, looked into potential deals but Philadelphia made it clear from the start it wanted a major haul for the three-time All-Star.

Simmons eventually ended his holdout, but the drama continued into the regular season. He has yet to play this season while top executive Daryl Morey publicly dug in his heels, saying he has four years to get a deal done.

While Simmons pushed to leave Philadelphia, the team’s other big star was happy to commit long-term with a new max extension. Despite some concerns about Joel Embiid‘s health issues, the Sixers made it clear that they’re determined to win a title with their All-Star center leading the way.

Philadelphia also brought back two key perimeter players in free agency, re-signing Danny Green and Furkan Korkmaz. Green has started on the wing since he joined the 76ers prior to last season and brings plenty of championship experience to the table. Korkmaz has been a valuable reserve the last two seasons, providing some size on the wing along with 3-point shooting.

The Sixers did go shopping for upgrades at forward and center on their second unit. They opted for former Jazz backup Georges Niang and former All-Star Andre Drummond. Niang is another player who does most of his offensive damage from beyond the 3-point line.

Drummond’s value has dropped dramatically since his first few seasons with Detroit. He had a chance to reestablish his worth when he signed with the Lakers last season after he was  bought out by Cleveland following the trade deadline. Drummond was so ineffective that he wound up getting benched in Game 6 of the conference quarterfinals against Phoenix. He’s capable of putting up big numbers at times, but he’s not used to coming off the bench.

The Sixers’ season:

Rivers admitted that the Simmons drama took some of the fun and excitement out of the start of Philadelphia’s season. The franchise is in a win-now mode and that doesn’t figure to change with Embiid locked up long-term.

It’s difficult to gauge how this season will unfold until there’s more clarity regarding Simmons’ status. It’s hard to imagine him getting back in uniform and winning over Philadelphia’s demanding fans after what has transpired over the last few months. At this point, a trade would seem like the best option, but Morey will have to drop his asking price for that to happen.

The Sixers still have the league’s top big man, a rock-solid scorer and rebounder in Tobias Harris, and a promising young point man in Tyrese Maxey. They also have plenty of shooting, led by Seth Curry. But even if Embiid is healthy for the playoffs, the Sixers will need to add a quality starter via a Simmons trade to make a spirited run this season.

Salary information from Basketball Insiders and Spotrac was used in the creation of this post. Luke Adams contributed to this post.

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Recap Of 2022/23 Rookie Scale Option Decisions

November 1st, 2021 at 9:58pm CST by Luke Adams

Decisions on rookie scale options for the 2022/23 season were due on Monday — any team that wanted to exercise a third- or fourth-year option on a player for next season was required to do so by today.

As is typically the case, a huge majority of those options were picked up. Even for top picks, who are paid higher salaries due to the NBA’s rookie scale, those third- and fourth-year options are relatively team-friendly. So unless a player has fallen well short of his team’s expectations, it generally makes sense to lock in his salary for the following season at this point.

However, not every player with a 2022/23 team option had it exercised by Monday’s deadline. The players who had those options declined will now be on track to reach unrestricted free agency during the summer of 2022, assuming they’re not waived before then. At the end of the season, their teams won’t be able to offer them starting salaries that exceed the value of their declined options.

Listed below are the players who had their options turned down, followed by the players whose options were exercised. If a player had his option picked up, his ’22/23 salary is now guaranteed and he won’t be eligible for free agency until at least 2023.

Declined options:

Note: These players will become unrestricted free agents in 2022.

In addition to these two players who remain under contract for the 2021/22 season, two players who had rookie scale team options on their contracts for ’22/23 were waived during the offseason. Those players were Sekou Doumbouya (cut by the Rockets) and Luka Samanic (waived by the Spurs). Their options were automatically voided once they cleared waivers.

Exercised options:

Fourth year:

Note: These players will become eligible for rookie scale extensions in July of 2022. If they’re not extended, they’ll be on track for restricted free agency in 2023.

Third year:

Note: Teams will have to make fourth-year option decisions for 2023/24 on these players by October 31, 2022.

For a team-by-team breakdown of this year’s rookie scale option decisions for the 2022/23 season, along with full stories on each decision, you can check out our tracker.

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Community Shootaround: Strong Starts

October 31st, 2021 at 5:30pm CST by JD Shaw

The Bulls, Knicks, Warriors, Heat and Wizards are tied for the league’s best record (5-1) entering the final night of October, having opened the season on a strong note.

Chicago is sporting a new core that includes Lonzo Ball, DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic in the starting lineup — its only loss came against the Knicks on Thursday in a one-point game.

New York is looking to build on its success from last season after adding Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier to a battle-tested core. Golden State has seen strong performances from Stephen Curry (28.7 points per game), plus two backcourt pieces in Damion Lee and Jordan Poole (combined 28.2 points per game).

The two Southeast Division teams on the list, Miami and Washington, are enjoying win streaks of four and three games, respectively. The clubs have played well despite dealing with various absences, including Bam Adebayo (knee) and Daniel Gafford (quad) on Friday.

The million-dollar question is simple: which of these teams are most likely to sustain a high level of success? Chicago and Washington have relatively new cores, while Miami and Golden State have veterans and coaches with valuable championship experience. New York remains a hungry wild card.

From a long-term perspective, the Heat and Warriors are still waiting for Victor Oladipo and Klay Thompson to return from their injuries. Chicago has also lost second-year forward Patrick Williams, who’s expected to miss at least the rest of the regular season with a dislocated wrist.

We want to know what you think. Which of these teams are more likely to succeed than others? Is it still too early in the season to draw any serious conclusions? Take to the comments section below!

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Community Shootaround: Officiating Adjustments

October 29th, 2021 at 5:41pm CST by Rory Maher

A notable new change to officiating this season has been the emphasis on “non-basketball moves” from offensive players designed to draw contact from defenders. In the past, these plays were frequently called defensive fouls. This season, they’re supposed to be no-calls; in some instances, they’ve been called offensive fouls.

Hawks star Trae Young is on board with some of the new changes, but feels like the referees have swung too far in the opposite direction and haven’t been calling some legitimate fouls, per ESPN News Services.

“There’s a lot of missed calls,” Young said. “It’s basketball. It’s just, it feels that they’re learning, and they’re just — I don’t know. It’s frustrating.

“Veering back and jumping into guys — that’s different,” Young said. “There are certain things that, I agree with the rule changes, but then there’s things that are still fouls, and guys are going to get hurt. Especially a smaller guy like me who’s going up against bigger and stronger defenders, they’re using their body and they’re using their legs and their hands to stop me.”

Young made the comments following Atlanta’s 122-111 loss to the Wizards. He was subsequently fined $15K for making contact with a referee during the game.

Through five games this season, Young is averaging 4.4 free throw attempts per game. Last season, he averaged 8.7.

Another player known for drawing fouls is Nets star James Harden. Harden averaged 7.3 free throw attempts per game last season (8.7 career). Through five games this season, he’s averaging 3.0, a career low.

However, some players love the changes. Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma recently tweeted his support.

“The new rules changes to the sport are the best thing the league has done in recent history. Watching the game Is muuuuuch different,” Kuzma wrote.

Here’s some early foul call data that compares the start of this season to the start of last season, courtesy of Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link).

This season, through 10 days: 13 teams are averaging less than 20 free throw attempts per game, and none are averaging more than 25 attempts per game.

Last season, through 10 days: Six teams averaged less than 20 free throw attempts per game, and eight teams averaged more than 25 attempts per game.

We want to know what you think. Have the changes resulted in a better viewing experience? Will the referees continue swallowing the whistle on “non-basketball moves”? Will free throw attempts stay down? Or is it too early to draw conclusions from the small sample size?

Head to the comment section to let us know your thoughts.

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Highest-Paid NBA Players By Team

October 29th, 2021 at 11:22am CST by Luke Adams

On Thursday, we listed the top 50 highest-paid NBA players for the 2021/22 season. Although that list presented a clear picture of the highest earners for the current season, not every NBA team was represented. Four of the league’s 30 franchises – the Spurs, Pistons, Grizzlies, and Thunder – didn’t have a single player in the top 50.

Our list of highest-paid players for 2021/22 also only provided a snapshot for this year. For example, Gary Harris, who cracked the top 50, will be well compensated for the coming season but is on an expiring contract and will almost certainly fall off that list next year.

Today, we’re shifting our focus to the highest-paid players by team. This will allow us to check in on the clubs that weren’t represented on our initial list, as well as identifying some of the league’s most lucrative multiyear commitments — we’ve included each club’s highest-paid player for the 2021/22 season and its highest-paid player in total.

Let’s dive in…

Atlanta Hawks

  • 2021/22: John Collins ($23,000,000)
  • Total: Trae Young (six years, $180,826,471)
    • Note: The amount owed to Young would increase to $215,386,471 if he makes an All-NBA team in 2022. The value of his maximum-salary extension is based on a projected $119MM salary cap for 2022/23. Young’s final year is a player option.

Boston Celtics

  • 2021/22: Jayson Tatum ($28,103,500)
  • Total: Jayson Tatum (five years, $163,000,300)

Brooklyn Nets

  • 2021/22: James Harden ($44,310,840)
  • Total: Kevin Durant (five years, $239,675,808)
    • Note: Durant’s five-year earnings include $233,423,808 in base salaries and $6,252,000 in likely incentives.

Charlotte Hornets

  • 2021/22: Gordon Hayward ($29,925,000)
  • Total: Terry Rozier (five years, $114,163,957)
    • Note: A small amount ($1,718,905) of Rozier’s fifth-year salary is non-guaranteed.

Chicago Bulls

  • 2021/22: DeMar DeRozan ($26,000,000)
  • Total: DeMar DeRozan (three years, $81,900,000)

Cleveland Cavaliers

Dallas Mavericks

Denver Nuggets

  • 2021/22: Nikola Jokic ($31,579,390)
    • Note: Jokic’s cap hit includes a $30,510,423 base salary and $1,068,967 in likely incentives.
  • Total: Michael Porter Jr. (six years, $177,758,735)
    • Note: The amount owed to Porter could get as high as $212,318,735 if he makes an All-NBA team in 2022. The value of his maximum-salary extension is based on a projected $119MM salary cap for 2022/23. Porter’s final year is only partially guaranteed for $12MM.

Detroit Pistons

  • 2021/22: Jerami Grant ($20,002,500)
  • Total: Cade Cunningham (four years, $45,599,089)
    • Note: Cunningham’s third and fourth years are team options. Grant has the most total guaranteed money (two years, $40,957,500) of any Piston.

Golden State Warriors

  • 2021/22: Stephen Curry ($45,780,966)
  • Total: Stephen Curry (five years, $261,134,628)

Read more

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2021 NBA Offseason In Review: Orlando Magic

October 28th, 2021 at 2:47pm CST by Luke Adams

Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2021 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s offseason moves and look ahead to what the 2021/22 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Orlando Magic.

Free agent signings:

Note: Exhibit 9 and 10 deals aren’t included here.

  • Robin Lopez: One year, $5MM. Signed using non-taxpayer mid-level exception.
  • Moritz Wagner: Two years, minimum salary. Second year non-guaranteed. Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • E’Twaun Moore: One year, minimum salary. Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Ignas Brazdeikis: Two-way contract.

Trades:

  • Acquired the Pistons’ 2026 second-round pick and cash from the Clippers in exchange for the draft rights to Jason Preston (No. 33 pick).

Draft picks:

  • 1-5: Jalen Suggs
    • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $29,955,705).
  • 1-8: Franz Wagner
    • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $22,781,932).

Contract extensions:

Departing players:

Other offseason news:

  • Hired Jamahl Mosley as head coach to replace Steve Clifford.
  • Hired Nate Tibbetts, Jesse Mermuys, Dale Osbourne, Bret Brielmaier, and Lionel Chalmers as assistant coaches; lost assistants Tyrone Corbin, Pat Delany, Steve Hetzel, and Michael Batiste.
  • Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz continue to recover from ACL tears and are sidelined to start the season.
  • Michael Carter-Williams is recovering from ankle surgery and is sidelined to start the season.
  • Chuma Okeke is dealing with a bone bruise in his hip and is sidelined to start the season.

Salary cap situation:

  • Remained over the cap and below the tax line.
  • Carrying approximately $113.7MM in salary.
  • $4,536,000 of non-taxpayer mid-level exception still available ($5MM used on Robin Lopez).
  • Full bi-annual exception ($3,732,000) still available.
  • Three traded player exception available, including one worth $17.2MM.

The Magic’s offseason:

A whirlwind 2021 trade deadline paved the way for the Magic to have a relatively quiet offseason. Back in March, Orlando decided to launch a full-scale rebuild and finalized three separate trades that sent Nikola Vucevic to Chicago, Aaron Gordon to Denver, and Evan Fournier to Boston.

That type of roster overhaul is more common during the summer than midway through the season, but the Magic had been hit hard by injuries and had lost 27 of 35 games leading up to the deadline after winning six of eight to open the year. They weren’t going to make the playoffs and they were in a position to be one of the league’s few major in-season sellers, so they struck early.

That decisiveness allowed the Magic to perhaps extract more for Vucevic than they would’ve if they’d taken a more patient approach. When the Bulls sent their top-four protected 2021 first-rounder to Orlando in the package for the standout center, they were presumably counting on grabbing one of the last couple playoff spots in the East and sacrificing a pick in the 15-16 range. Instead, Chicago struggled down the stretch and had to convey the No. 8 overall pick to the Magic.

The Magic’s draft luck continued when, despite having their own pick land at No. 5 in the lottery, they were able to land one of the consensus top-four prospects in the 2021 class. Toronto surprised observers by snagging Scottie Barnes at No. 4, allowing Jalen Suggs to slip to Orlando.

Whether Suggs will turn out to be a better pro than Barnes remains to be seen, but the former Gonzaga guard was the higher-ranked player on most experts’ – and, by all accounts, most teams’ – draft boards. The Magic likely could’ve extracted a significant price from a club interested in trading up for Suggs, so staying put and selecting him – even with point guards Markelle Fultz and Cole Anthony already locked up for the next three years – is a good indication they’re high on his potential.

Orlando used its second lottery pick (courtesy of the Bulls) to select Michigan’s Franz Wagner, a talented young forward who looks capable of becoming an impact player on both sides of the ball. The idea of pairing Wagner with Jonathan Isaac – once Isaac gets healthy – and letting the two young forwards loose on the defensive end is a tantalizing one.

While adding Suggs and Wagner were the Magic’s major moves of the summer, the team also decided to invest long-term in Wendell Carter after acquiring the former Bulls big man in the Vucevic trade. The price Orlando paid – $50MM over four years – suggests the team is confident the former Duke standout can continue to improve after putting up pretty similar numbers in each of his first three seasons.

Even if Carter plateaus, the contract will never be an albatross. Its descending structure means it will be worth just $10.85MM by its final year in 2025/26, making it a good trade chip if WCJ is no longer in Orlando’s plans by then.

The Magic were relatively quiet on the trade market and made just a couple free agent additions, bringing in steady veterans Robin Lopez and E’Twaun Moore on inexpensive one-year contracts. Lopez, in particular, is a heady player who will be able to impart plenty of knowledge on young big men Carter and Mohamed Bamba over the course of the season.

Orlando’s offseason was ultimately defined by the rookies it added, both on and off the court — besides drafting Suggs and Wagner, the team hired first-time head coach Jamahl Mosley to replace Steve Clifford. Mosley gained a strong reputation for player development during his time in Dallas under Rick Carlisle and will be tasked with guiding a young Magic team through the toughest stage of its rebuild. The losses will come early and often for Mosley, but if guys like Suggs, Wagner, Fultz, and Isaac are improving under his tutelage, he’ll be doing his job.

The Magic’s season:

The Eastern Conference will be competitive this season, with 12 or 13 teams eyeing a playoff berth or at least a play-in spot. The odds of the Magic joining that group are slim — they and the Pistons are good bets to occupy the 14th and 15th spots in the conference, in some order.

Still, there are some intriguing building blocks here, especially once the team gets healthier. Suggs, Wagner, Carter, Fultz, Isaac, Bamba, Anthony, Chuma Okeke, and R.J. Hampton aren’t all future stars, but there’s plenty of untapped upside in that group, and the Magic have the ability to add a few more assets to their collection by trading Terrence Ross at some point in the coming months.

There’s a long way to go before the Magic will be talking about contending again, but the rebuild has taken a good first step or two this year.

Salary information from Basketball Insiders and Spotrac was used in the creation of this post.

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Community Shootaround: Slow Starters

October 28th, 2021 at 12:35pm CST by Luke Adams

Entering the 2021/22 season, the Lakers and Nets were widely viewed as the frontrunners to reach the NBA Finals. When ESPN polled 16 of its NBA experts on predictions for the coming season, 10 picked the Lakers to win the West and 10 chose the Nets to win the East.

So far though, Los Angeles and Brooklyn have been inconsistent and underwhelming, posting matching 2-3 records. The Lakers lost two home games to open the season, then blew a 26-point lead in Oklahoma City on Wednesday against the winless Thunder. The Nets, meanwhile, have lost three games by double-digits — one in Milwaukee and two at home, vs. the Hornets and Heat.

It’s far, far too early for either team to panic. LeBron James has missed two games for the Lakers and James Harden is still working his way back from a hamstring injury for the Nets. And with the exception of the Lakers’ disaster in OKC, both teams’ losses so far have come against pretty tough opponents.

Still, the early-season results can’t be written off entirely. James has been increasingly affected by injuries in recent years — if that trend continues this season, it’ll have a significant impact on a top-heavy Lakers team. The club acquired Russell Westbrook over the summer in part to have another star available when James or Anthony Davis miss time, but Westbrook has gotten off to a shaky start in L.A., averaging just 17.8 PPG (his lowest mark since 2009/10) and turning the ball over six times per game. His fit on this Lakers roster was an open question entering the season, and it doesn’t seem as if the team has fully figured it out.

As for the Nets, the impact of Kyrie Irving‘s absence shouldn’t be understated. Brooklyn is supposed to have one of the best offenses in league history, but through five games, the club’s offensive rating is an ugly 100.6 — only Detroit and New Orleans have been worse. Harden expects to be back to his old self soon, but he’s certainly not benefiting from the NBA’s reduction on foul calls when offensive players go out of their way to initiate contact.

Again, it’s too early for a sub-.500 record to be a major concern for either of these teams, whose rosters are heavy on star power and veteran experience. But the expectations in Los Angeles and Brooklyn are high. Anything less than an NBA Finals appearance will be a letdown, so there’s not much room for error.

Many of the NBA’s other sub-.500 teams aren’t surprising, but the Celtics (2-3), Pacers (1-4), Suns (1-3), and Clippers (1-3) certainly would’ve hoped for better starts.

We want to know what you think. Is it still too early to draw any conclusions about any of this season’s slow starters? Or has some of what you’ve seen from the Lakers, the Nets, or other sub-.500 clubs made you skeptical of their ability to meet preseason expectations?

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NBA’s Top 50 Highest-Paid Players For 2021/22

October 28th, 2021 at 9:34am CST by Luke Adams

Many of the NBA’s highest-paid players are on contracts considered maximum-salary deals, but the 2021/22 salaries for those players vary significantly depending on when the player signed his contract and how much NBA experience he has. That’s why a player like Stephen Curry will earn about $17.7MM more than Jayson Tatum in ’21/22 despite both stars technically being on max deals.

When a player signs a maximum-salary contract, he doesn’t necessarily earn the NBA max for each season of that contract — he earns the max in year one, then gets a series of identical annual raises. In Curry’s case, his 2021/22 salary actually exceeds this year’s maximum, since his deal started in the summer of 2017 and includes 8% annual raises. The annual cap increases haven’t kept up with those 8% raises.

Listed below, with the help of salary data from Basketball Insiders and Spotrac, are the top 50 highest-paid NBA players for the 2021/22 season. The players on this list don’t necessarily have the contracts with the largest overall value. The list below only considers salaries for ’21/22.

Additionally, we’ve noted players who could potentially increase their earnings via incentives or trade bonuses. We didn’t add those notes for players like Curry who have trade bonuses but are already earning the maximum — their salaries for this season can’t increase beyond their max.

The cutoff for a spot on this year’s top-50 list is north of $20MM, so Danilo Gallinari, Harrison Barnes, Jerami Grant, and Jarrett Allen didn’t make the cut despite the fact that all four players have cap hits of at least $20MM.

Here are the NBA’s 50 highest-paid players for the 2021/22 season:

  1. Stephen Curry, Warriors: $45,780,966
  2. James Harden, Nets: $44,310,840
    John Wall, Rockets: $44,310,840
  3. Russell Westbrook, Lakers: $44,211,146
  4. Kevin Durant, Nets: $42,018,900
    • Note: Durant’s cap hit includes a $40,918,900 base salary and $1,100,000 in likely incentives.
  5. LeBron James, Lakers: $41,180,544
  6. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks: $39,344,900
    Paul George, Clippers: $39,344,900
    Kawhi Leonard, Clippers: $39,344,900
    Damian Lillard, Trail Blazers: $39,344,900
  7. Klay Thompson, Warriors: $37,980,720 (15% trade kicker)
  8. Jimmy Butler, Heat: $36,016,200 (15% trade kicker)
  9. Tobias Harris, Sixers: $35,995,950 (trade kicker of $5MM or 5%, whichever is lesser)
  10. Khris Middleton, Bucks: $35,500,000
    Anthony Davis, Lakers: $35,361,360
  11. Rudy Gobert, Jazz: $35,344,828
  12. Bradley Beal, Wizards: $33,724,200
  13. Pascal Siakam, Raptors: $33,003,936
    Ben Simmons, Sixers: $33,003,936

    • Note: Simmons may lose upwards of $2MM due to fines accumulated during his holdout.
  14. Jrue Holiday, Bucks: $32,431,333
    • Note: Holiday’s cap hit includes a $30,133,333 base salary and $2,298,000 in likely incentives. Holiday also has another $3MM+ in unlikely incentives.
  15. Devin Booker, Suns: $31,650,600
    Kristaps Porzingis, Mavericks: $31,650,600
    Karl-Anthony Towns, Timberwolves: $31,650,600
  16. Joel Embiid, Sixers: $31,579,390
    Andrew Wiggins, Warriors: $31,579,390
    Nikola Jokic, Nuggets: $31,579,390

    • Note: Jokic’s cap hit includes a $30,510,423 base salary and $1,068,967 in likely incentives.
  17. Kevin Love, Cavaliers: $31,258,256
  18. CJ McCollum, Trail Blazers: $30,864,198
  19. Chris Paul, Suns: $30,800,000
  20. D’Angelo Russell, Timberwolves: $30,013,500
  21. Gordon Hayward, Hornets: $29,925,000 (15% trade kicker)
  22. Brandon Ingram, Pelicans: $29,467,800
    Jamal Murray, Nuggets: $29,467,800
  23. Bam Adebayo, Heat: $28,103,500
    De’Aaron Fox, Kings: $28,103,500
    Donovan Mitchell, Jazz: $28,103,500
    Jayson Tatum, Celtics: $28,103,500
  24. Al Horford, Celtics: $27,000,000
  25. Kyle Lowry, Heat: $26,984,128
  26. Jaylen Brown, Celtics: $26,758,928
    • Note: Brown’s cap hit includes a $24,830,357 base salary and $1,928,571 in likely incentives. Brown also has another $964,286 in unlikely incentives.
  27. DeMar DeRozan, Bulls: $26,000,000
  28. Draymond Green, Warriors: $24,026,712 (15% trade kicker)
  29. Nikola Vucevic, Bulls: $24,000,000
  30. Buddy Hield, Kings: $23,073,234
    • Note: Hield’s cap hit includes a $22,477,272 base salary and $595,962 in likely incentives. Hield also has another $4,487,371 in unlikely incentives.
  31. John Collins, Hawks: $23,000,000
  32. Julius Randle, Knicks: $21,780,000
    • Note: Randle’s cap hit includes a $19,800,000 base salary and $1,980,000 in likely incentives. Randle also has another $990,000 in unlikely incentives.
  33. Malcolm Brogdon, Pacers: $21,700,000
  34. Tim Hardaway Jr., Mavericks: $21,306,816
  35. Mike Conley, Jazz: $21,000,000
    • Note: Conley has another $1,500,000 in unlikely incentives.
  36. Gary Harris, Magic: $20,482,143
    • Note: Harris has another $2,600,000 in unlikely incentives.

One name not included in this list is Nets star Kyrie Irving. Irving has a base salary of $34,916,200 and could theoretically earn another $1,100,000 in likely and unlikely incentives. However, as long as he continues to be fined for missing home games due to his vaccination status, he’ll lose such a significant portion of his salary that he’ll end up outside of the NBA’s top 50 highest-paid players this season.

If Irving gets vaccinated or New York City adjusts its vaccine mandate to allow him to suit up, he’ll likely end up back on this list.

Also not included among the 50 names above are players like Kemba Walker and Blake Griffin, who were bought out of lucrative contracts earlier in 2021. The cap hits the Thunder and Pistons are carrying this season for Walker and Griffin, respectively, are bigger than some salaries on our top-50 list. However, Walker and Griffin aren’t actually earning all that money this season — even if teams don’t apply the stretch provision to a player’s cap hit when he’s waived, the player’s payments still get “stretched” across multiple seasons.

For instance, the Thunder are carrying about $53.7MM in dead-money cap hits for Walker this season and next. But Kemba will be paid that $53.7MM across five seasons. As such, combining his earnings from his old contract with the Thunder and his new one with the Knicks wouldn’t make him one of the NBA’s top 50 highest-paid players for 2021/22.

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