Hoops Rumors Originals

As is the case in the NBA’s head coaching ranks, a number of long-tenured heads of basketball operations have been replaced in 2021, a result of some offseason front office shakeups.

Since we put together last offseason’s list of the league’s longest-tenured heads of basketball operations, Danny Ainge and Donnie Nelson, who had been with their respective teams for over 15 years, have left those franchises. As such, it’s time to update our list.

Although only one person holds a team’s head coaching job, that same team could carry a variety of front office executives with titles like general manager, president of basketball operations, or executive VP of basketball operations. In some cases, it’s not always which clear which executive should be considered the club’s head of basketball operations, or which one has the ultimate final say on roster decisions. That distinction becomes even more nebulous when taking into account team ownership.

For our list of the longest-tenured GMs/presidents in the NBA, we’ve done our best to identify the top exec in each front office, but if a situation isn’t entirely clear-cut, we’ve made a note below.

Here’s the list of the NBA’s longest-tenured heads of basketball operations, along with their respective titles and the dates they were hired or promoted:

1. Gregg Popovich, Spurs (president): May 31, 1994
   • Brian Wright holds the general manager title, but Popovich ultimately has final say.
2. Pat Riley, Heat (president): September 2, 1995
3. Sam Presti, Thunder (GM/executive VP): June 7, 2007
4. Bob Myers, Warriors (GM/president): April 24, 2012
5. Neil Olshey, Trail Blazers (president): June 4, 2012
6. Masai Ujiri, Raptors (president): May 31, 2013
7. Tim Connelly, Nuggets (president): June 17, 2013
8. Sean Marks, Nets (GM): February 18, 2016
9. Kevin Pritchard, Pacers (president): May 1, 2017
10. Jeff Weltman, Magic (president): May 22, 2017
11. Travis Schlenk, Hawks (president): May 25, 2017
12. Jon Horst, Bucks (GM): June 16, 2017
13. Koby Altman, Cavaliers (GM): June 19, 2017
14. Lawrence Frank, Clippers (president): August 4, 2017
15. Mitch Kupchak, Hornets (GM/president): April 8, 2018
16. Tommy Sheppard, Wizards (GM): April 2, 2019
    • Sheppard assumed the job on an interim basis on April 2, 2019. He was named the permanent GM on July 22, 2019.
17. Rob Pelinka, Lakers (GM/VP): April 9, 2019
    • Pelinka has been the Lakers’ GM since February 2017, but was below Magic Johnson in the front office hierarchy until Johnson resigned on April 9, 2019.
18. James Jones, Suns (GM): April 11, 2019
    • Jones began serving as the Suns’ co-interim GM alongside Trevor Bukstein in October 2018, but was named the lone, permanent head of basketball operations on April 11, 2019.
19. Zach Kleiman, Grizzlies (executive VP): April 11, 2019
20. David Griffin, Pelicans (executive VP): April 17, 2019
21. Gersson Rosas, Timberwolves (president): May 3, 2019
22. Leon Rose, Knicks (president): March 2, 2020
23. Arturas Karnisovas, Bulls (executive VP): April 13, 2020
24. Troy Weaver, Pistons (GM): June 18, 2020
25. Monte McNair, Kings (GM): September 17, 2020
26. Rafael Stone, Rockets (GM): October 15, 2020
27. Daryl Morey, Sixers (president): November 2, 2020
28. Brad Stevens, Celtics (president): June 2, 2021
29. Justin Zanik, Jazz (GM): June 27, 2021
    • Zanik has been in the Jazz’s front office since September 2017 and has been the team’s GM since May 2019, but was below Dennis Lindsey in the front office hierarchy until Lindsey was reassigned to an advisory role on June 27, 2021.
30. Nico Harrison (GM/president): June 28, 2021
    • Owner Mark Cuban is also heavily involved in basketball decisions and ultimately has final say.

Information from Basketball-Reference was used in the creation of this post.

With the NBA’s 2021 free agent period into its second month and nearly all of this year’s most interesting names off the board, Hoops Rumors is here to help you keep track of which players are heading to which teams this fall.

To this end, we present our Free Agent Tracker, a tool we’ve maintained each year since our inception in 2012. Using our tracker, you can quickly look up deals, sorting by team, position, free agent type, and a handful of other variables.

A few notes on the tracker:

• Some of the information you’ll find in the tracker will reflect tentative agreements, rather than finalized deals. As signings become official, we’ll continue to update and modify the data as needed.
• Similarly, contract years and dollars will be based on what’s been reported to date, so in many cases those amounts will be approximations rather than official figures. Salaries aren’t necessarily fully guaranteed either.
• Players reported to be joining teams on training camp/Exhibit 10 contracts won’t be added to the tracker until those signings are official, since those deals are more likely to fall through and some will end up being procedural moves that aren’t completed until the preseason.
• A restricted free agent who signs an offer sheet won’t be included in the tracker right away. We’ll wait to hear whether the player’s original team will match or pass on that offer sheet before we update our tracker in order to avoid any confusion.
• If you’re viewing the tracker on our mobile site, be sure to turn your phone sideways to see more details.

Our 2021 Free Agent Tracker can be found anytime on the right sidebar of our desktop site under “Hoops Rumors Features,” and it’s also under the “Tools” menu atop the site. On our mobile site, it can be found in our menu under “Free Agent Lists.”

The tracker will be updated throughout the offseason, so be sure to check back for the latest info. If you have any corrections, please let us know right here.

Our lists of free agents by position/type and by team break down the players who have yet to reach contract agreements.

[UPDATE: The NBA has updated its salary cap projection for 2022/23. Our new MLE/BAE projections for ’22/23 can be found here.]

Under the NBA’s previous Collective Bargaining Agreement, the values of various salary cap exceptions like the mid-level and bi-annual were established years in advance, but the league’s current CBA tweaked how those exceptions are calculated.

Rather than being determined ahead of time, the mid-level and bi-annual exceptions – along with several other cap-related figures and exceptions – are dependent on the movement of the salary cap from year to year. If the cap increases by 5% from one league year to the next, the exceptions increase by the same rate.

As such, we don’t know yet exactly what those exceptions will be worth in 2022/23, but we can make an educated estimate. When the NBA updated its salary cap estimates in August, the league projected a $119MM cap for the ’22/23 season.

[RELATED: Maximum Salary Projections For 2022/23]

Based on a $119MM cap, here’s what the mid-level and bi-annual exceptions would look like in 2022/23:

Mid-Level Exception

The standard mid-level exception is available to over-the-cap teams that haven’t dipped below the cap to use room and don’t go over the tax apron. It can run for up to four years, with 5% annual raises. Once a team uses the standard/non-taxpayer MLE, that team is hard-capped at the tax apron for the rest of the league year.

[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Mid-Level Exception]

The taxpayer mid-level exception is for in-the-tax teams, or teams that want the flexibility to surpass the tax apron later. It can run for up to three years, with 5% annual raises.

The room exception is for teams that go under the cap and use their space. Once they’ve used all their cap room, they can use this version of the mid-level exception, which runs for up to two years with 5% annual raises.

Bi-Annual Exception

The bi-annual exception – which can be used for contracts up to two years, with a 5% raise after year one – is only available to teams that are over the cap and under the tax apron.

It can also only be used once every two years, which will disqualify the Mavericks from using it in 2022/23 — so far, Dallas is the only team to use its BAE in 2021/22.

No-trade clauses are rare in the NBA, and they’ve become even rarer in recent years. To be eligible to negotiate a no-trade clause, a player must have at least eight years of NBA experience and four years with his current team. Even if a player qualifies, his team is unlikely to restrict its flexibility by including a no-trade clause in his deal.

Still, even though there’s not a single NBA player with an explicit no-trade clause in his contract at the moment, there are several who will have the ability to veto trades in 2021/22.

A player who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year contract – or a two-year deal with an option year – is given no-trade protection. That group doesn’t include players on two-way contracts, but it does include those who accept standard (non two-way) one-year qualifying offers.

A player who signs an offer sheet and has that offer matched by his previous team also has the ability to veto a trade for the rest of the league year.

With those criteria in mind, here are the players who must give their consent if their teams want to trade them during the ’21/22 league year:

No-trade clauses:

• None

Players whose offer sheets were matched:

• None

Players re-signing for one year (or two years, with a second-year player/team option):

• LaMarcus Aldridge (Nets)
• Thanasis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
• Nicolas Batum (Clippers)
• Bruce Brown (Nets)
• Dewayne Dedmon (Heat)
• Hamidou Diallo (Pistons)
• JaMychal Green (Nuggets)
• Blake Griffin (Nets)
• Udonis Haslem (Heat)
• Solomon Hill (Knicks)
  • Note: Hill approved a trade from the Hawks to the Knicks.
• Frank Jackson (Pistons)
• Cory Joseph (Pistons)
• Frank Kaminsky (Suns)
• Rodney McGruder (Pistons)
• Mike Muscala (Thunder)
• Abdel Nader (Suns)
• Raul Neto (Wizards)
• Victor Oladipo (Heat)
• Bobby Portis (Bucks)
• Austin Rivers (Nuggets)
• Lou Williams (Hawks)

If any player who re-signed for one year approves a trade during the 2021/22 league year, he’ll have Non-Bird rights at season’s end instead of Early Bird or full Bird rights.

The only player with veto rights in 2020/21 who approved a trade was center Meyers Leonard — he signed off on a deal that sent him from the Heat to the Thunder. Leonard would’ve had full Bird rights if he’d finished the season with Miami, but would’ve only had Non-Bird rights at season’s end after the trade to Oklahoma City. Given the circumstances of his situation, Leonard was on track to be waived during the season whether or not he was traded, so he would’ve lost his Bird rights either way.

Any player who consents to a trade will retain his veto ability on his new team, and would have to approve a subsequent deal as well.

Information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.