Hoops Rumors Originals

Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, and Kyrie Irving have chosen their new teams. Big-name trade candidates like Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook have been moved. Virtually every NBA team has used up all its cap room. In other words, there aren’t many major storylines from the 2019 offseason that still need to be resolved.

Still, as we prepare to enter the second month of the 2019/20 league year, there are a handful of subplots around the league that remain ongoing. Although August typically isn’t jam-packed with signings and trades, there still could be plenty of teams looking to tweak their rosters before training camps get underway in September.

Here are five offseason storylines that are still worth watching now that much of the summer fun is over:

1. Will the Thunder find a taker for Chris Paul?

After facing skepticism that they’d be able to get anything of value in return for Westbrook’s four-year, $171MM contract, the Thunder managed to score a pair of first-round picks (and two pick swaps) from Houston for the former MVP. The only problem? They had to take on Paul’s contract, which is even less team-friendly than Westbrook’s.

Despite some rumors and speculation that the Thunder might flip Paul to a team like the Heat, Pistons, or Timberwolves, it seems no trade talks gained traction. The last we heard, Oklahoma City is preparing to start the season with Paul on its roster. Still, CP3 almost certainly doesn’t have a long-term future in OKC, so it’s probably just a matter of time until trade rumors begin swirling around him again.

2. Will Andre Iguodala be traded or bought out by the Grizzlies?

Paul isn’t the only notable veteran on the trade block. The Grizzlies are said to be shopping Iguodala, hoping to flip him for positive value after acquiring him – along with a future first-round pick – in a salary-dump deal.

The Mavericks, Rockets, Clippers, and Nuggets are among the teams that have been linked to Iguodala, but all four clubs face roadblocks. Memphis wants to get rid of Iguodala’s $17MM+ salary without taking back a ton of money, which is problematic for teams like the Rockets and Clippers, who are right up against the tax line. The Mavs and Nuggets have a slightly easier path, but neither appears willing to part with a first-round pick for the former Finals MVP.

We’ll see which side blinks first as the Grizzlies look to maximize one of their veteran assets. Presumably, at some point, they’ll be willing to accept the best offer they can get rather than simply buying out Iguodala. But if a buyout happens, other teams – such as the Lakers – could enter the mix as potential suitors.

3. Will Team USA win the 2019 World Cup with a depleted roster?

Unsurprisingly, Team USA’s original 20-man training camp roster for the 2019 FIBA World Cup didn’t feature names like LeBron James and Stephen Curry, but there still appeared to be plenty of star power in the group, with James Harden, Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, and Bradley Beal among the invitees.

Since that announcement though, all four of those stars have removed their names from World Cup consideration. So have Kevin Love, Eric Gordon, Tobias Harris, CJ McCollum, Paul Millsap, Zion Williamson, and DeMar DeRozan.

There’s still plenty of talent on USA Basketball’s tentative roster, led by 2019 All-Stars Kemba Walker, Kyle Lowry, Khris Middleton. And Team USA will still be the odds-on favorite entering the event, which runs from August 31 to September 15. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen which players will make up the 12-man roster that represents America in China. Here are the candidates for now:

1. Kyle Lowry, G
2. Donovan Mitchell, G
3. Marcus Smart, G
4. Kemba Walker, G
5. Jaylen Brown, G/F
6. Khris Middleton, G/F
7. Harrison Barnes, F
8. Kyle Kuzma, F
9. Jayson Tatum, F
10. P.J. Tucker, F
11. Thaddeus Young, F
12. Julius Randle, F/C
13. Bam Adebayo, C
14. Andre Drummond, C
15. Brook Lopez, C
16. Mason Plumlee, C
17. Myles Turner, C

It’s also possible that a player from the 13-man Select Team (listed here) could be elevated to the World Cup roster.

4. Will noteworthy free agents like Shaun Livingston, Carmelo Anthony, and J.R. Smith find new homes?

Free agents flew off the board in a hurry on June 30 once teams and players were permitted to agree to deals. No big names are left on the board, but the list of remaining free agents includes a number of intriguing veterans.

Livingston and Smith have championships under their belt and could potentially play rotation roles for an NBA team if they decide to continue their careers. Anthony is a future Hall-of-Famer who may still have a little left in the tank.

Jeremy Lin, Iman Shumpert, Jonathon Simmons, Vince Carter, Thabo Sefolosha, Lance Stephenson, Kenneth Faried, Ryan Anderson, Nene, and Joakim Noah are among the other interesting veteran names still on the market.

5. Which players eligible for rookie scale extensions will sign them?

Former first-round picks who are entering the fourth and final year of their rookies contracts are eligible for rookie scale extensions this offseason. Ben Simmons of the Sixers and Jamal Murray of the Nuggets have already signed max deals, but they won’t be the only players to get rookie scale extensions before opening night.

As our list of eligible players shows, there are several other worthy candidates. Will the Raptors be willing to cut into their massive amount of projected 2020 cap room by extending Pascal Siakam early? Are the Pacers ready to commit big money to Domantas Sabonis after extending Myles Turner a year ago? Will Buddy Hield sign a lucrative new long-term contract after leading the Kings in scoring in 2018/19?

Jaylen Brown (Celtics), Brandon Ingram (Pelicans), Caris LeVert (Nets), Dejounte Murray (Spurs), and Dario Saric (Suns) are a few of the other potential extension candidates worth watching.

Honorable mention: Will anything happen on the Bradley Beal front?

As we explained on Friday, there’s no reason – from a financial perspective – for Beal to accept the Wizards’ three-year, $112MM contract extension offer anytime soon, even if he wants to remain in D.C. long-term. He could secure more dollars and years by waiting until next summer — or even by waiting until free agency in 2021.

As such, the Wizards won’t panic over the fact that Beal isn’t signing an extension right now. And there’s no reason to believe that his role as the Wizards’ leader and go-to scorer will change anytime before opening night in October.

Still, Beal’s situation is one worth keeping an eye on. With two years left on his contract for a team that seems to be headed for a rebuild, Beal is widely viewed as the NBA star most likely to launch “pre-agency” by requesting a trade.

Until that happens, there’s no story here — but if Beal were to ask for a deal, his situation would immediately shoot to the top of this list of offseason storylines to monitor.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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NBA teams have spent record-setting amounts of money on free agents this summer, but many of the most lucrative contracts that have been signed within the last week weren’t free agent deals at all — they were contract extensions.

Extensions, of course, don’t involve adding a new player to the roster. By extending a contract, a team ensures that a current player will remain locked up for multiple years to come. Although a contract extension may not change the club’s outlook on the court, it can have a major impact on that team’s salary cap situation for the next several summers.

Rookie scale extensions are the most common form of contract extension, and Ben Simmons and Jamal Murray became the first two members of the 2016 draft class to sign those. However, they won’t be the last. There are many other players eligible for new deals up until the mid-October deadline, and it’s common for about four to eight players entering the final year of their respective rookie contracts to sign extensions.

[RELATED: Players eligible for rookie-scale extensions]

While they’ve historically been less common than rookie-scale extensions, veteran extensions are happening more frequently these days, with the league’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement expanding the rules for eligibility and creating some additional incentives for star players to sign new deals before they reach free agency. Seven players signed veteran extensions during the 2017/18 league year, and three more signed them in 2018/19.

Listed below are the players who have finalized contract extensions so far in the 2019/20 league year. This list, which can be found on the right-hand sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features” on our desktop site (or on the “Features” page in our mobile menu) will be kept up to date throughout the offseason — and throughout the ’19/20 regular season if any veteran players ink an extension at that point.

Veteran extensions:

• Damian Lillard (Trail Blazers): Four years, 35% maximum salary (story). Projected value of $196,000,000. Designated veteran extension. Starts in 2021/22.
• C.J. McCollum (Trail Blazers): Three years, $100,000,000 (story). Starts in 2021/22.
• Draymond Green (Warriors): Four years, $99,666,363 (story). Includes 15% trade kicker. Starts in 2020/21.
• Eric Gordon (Rockets): Four years, $75,574,356 (story). Fourth year is non-guaranteed. Starts in 2020/21.
• Bradley Beal (Wizards): Two years, $71,764,428 (story). Includes 15% trade kicker, second-year player option. Starts in 2021/22.
• Royce O’Neale (Jazz): Four years, $36,000,000 (story). Fourth year is partially guaranteed. Starts in 2020/21.
• Dillon Brooks (Grizzlies): Three years, $35,000,000 (story). Starts in 2020/21.
• Dwight Powell (Mavericks): Three years, $33,240,375 (story). Starts in 2020/21.
• Cedi Osman (Cavaliers): Four years, $30,800,000 (story). Fourth year is non-guaranteed. Starts in 2020/21.
• Kyle Lowry (Raptors): One year, $30,000,000 (story). Includes $500K All-Star bonus. Starts in 2020/21.
• Andre Iguodala (Heat): Two years, $30,000,000 (story). Includes 7.5% trade kicker, second-year team option. Starts in 2020/21.
• Joe Ingles (Jazz): One year, $12,436,364 (story). Includes $1.2MM in incentives. Starts in 2021/22.

Rookie scale extensions:

• Ben Simmons (Sixers): Five years, 25% maximum salary (story). Projected value of $168,200,000. Starting salary can be worth up to 30% of the cap if Simmons earns All-NBA honors in 2020 (full details). Includes 15% trade kicker. Starts in 2020/21.
• Jamal Murray (Nuggets): Five years, 25% maximum salary (story). Projected value of $168,200,000. Starting salary can be worth up to 30% of the cap if Murray earns All-NBA honors in 2020 (full details). Starts in 2020/21.
• Pascal Siakam (Raptors): Four years, 25% maximum salary (story). Projected value of $129,920,000. Starting salary can be worth between 28-30% of the cap if Siakam earns All-NBA or MVP honors in 2020 (full details). Starts in 2020/21.
• Jaylen Brown (Celtics): Four years, $103,000,000 (story). Includes $12MM in incentives. Starts in 2020/21.
• Buddy Hield (Kings): Four years, $86,000,000 (story). Includes $20MM in incentives (full details). Starts in 2020/21.
• Domantas Sabonis (Pacers): Four years, $74,900,000 (story). Includes $10.4MM in incentives. Starts in 2020/21.
• Dejounte Murray (Spurs): Four years, $64,000,000 (story). Includes $6MM in incentives (full details). Starts in 2020/21.
• Caris LeVert (Nets): Three years, $52,500,000 (story). Starts in 2020/21.
• Taurean Prince (Nets): Two years, $25,250,000 (story). Includes $3.7MM in incentives. Starts in 2020/21.

Every week, the Hoops Rumors writing team creates original content to complement our news feed. Here are our original segments and features from the past seven days:

• In our Community Shootaround posts, we asked which team should be considered the Western Conference favorite and what the future holds for ex-Cavaliers shooting guard J.R. Smith.
• Luke Adams took a closer look at how teams used their mid-level and bi-annual exceptions this summer. He also detailed which free agents signed long-term contracts this month.

The bi-annual exception is one of the tools available to NBA teams who are over the cap, giving those clubs the flexibility to offer free agents more than the minimum salary. In 2019/20, the bi-annual exception is worth $3,623,000, and can be used to offer a deal worth up to about $7,427,150 over two years.

However, the bi-annual exception isn’t available to every team. Clubs that go below the cap in order to use cap room lose access to the exception. Additionally, using the BAE imposes a hard cap of $138,928,000 (the tax apron) on a club. So if a team has surpassed the tax apron – or wants to retain the flexibility to do so – that team can’t use the bi-annual exception.

Finally, as its name suggests, the bi-annual exception can’t be used by a team in consecutive years. In 2018/19, four teams used the BAE — the Bucks (Brook Lopez), Pelicans (Elfrid Payton), Knicks (Allonzo Trier), and Spurs (Dante Cunningham). As such, the exception isn’t available to those clubs during the 2019/20 league year. They’ll be able to use it again next summer.

With all those factors in mind, here’s a breakdown of how teams are using – or not using – their respective bi-annual exceptions in 2019/20:

BAE Still Available:

• Charlotte Hornets
• Minnesota Timberwolves
• Orlando Magic
• Washington Wizards

The five clubs listed above are the ones who could most realistically still use their bi-annual exception at some point during the 2019/20 season.

All four of these teams have already hard-capped themselves by using more than the taxpayer portion of the mid-level exception or by acquiring a player via sign-and-trade, so they could theoretically use their BAEs without worrying about further restrictions.

BAE Unavailable:

Used:

• Dallas Mavericks
  • Used: $3,500,000 (Boban Marjanovic)
  • Available: $123,000
• Detroit Pistons
  • Used: $3,200,000 (Markieff Morris)
  • Available: $423,000
• Memphis Grizzlies
  • Used: $2,625,000 (Marko Guduric)
  • Available: $998,000
• Toronto Raptors
  • Used: $3,623,000 (Stanley Johnson)
  • Available: $0

So far, the Mavericks, Pistons, Grizzlies, and Raptors are the only teams that won’t have the bi-annual exception available to them during the 2020/21 league year after using it this season.

Went under cap:

• Atlanta Hawks
• Boston Celtics
• Brooklyn Nets
• Chicago Bulls
• Indiana Pacers
• Los Angeles Clippers
• Los Angeles Lakers
• Philadelphia 76ers
• Phoenix Suns
• Sacramento Kings
• Utah Jazz

These 11 teams forfeited their right to the bi-annual exception when they went under the cap and used space this offseason.

Over or near tax apron:

• Cleveland Cavaliers
• Denver Nuggets
• Golden State Warriors
• Houston Rockets
• Miami Heat
• Oklahoma City Thunder
• Portland Trail Blazers

Not all of these seven teams are over the tax apron, and some are still theoretically in position to use the bi-annual exception. However, teams like the Cavaliers and Nuggets still have their full mid-level exceptions available, so they’d be more likely to dip into those rather than using their BAEs. The Warriors and Heat are right up against hard caps, the Thunder are looking to sneak below the tax line, and the Blazers are above the tax apron.

Used last year:

• Milwaukee Bucks
• New Orleans Pelicans
• New York Knicks
• San Antonio Spurs

As noted in the intro, these are the four teams that used their bi-annual exceptions in 2018/19 and won’t have them again until 2020/21 as a result.

Salary information from Bobby Marks of ESPN, Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights, and Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.

In addition to receiving approximately $109MM in cap room and being allowed to surpass that threshold in order to sign players using Bird Rights or the minimum salary exception, each NBA team also receives a mid-level exception. The value of this exception varies depending on a club’s total team salary.

A team that goes under the cap to use its available cap room, for instance, receives only a modest form of the MLE known as the room exception. An over-the-cap team receives the full mid-level exception, unless that team is also over the tax line, in which case it gets a taxpayer version of the MLE that falls in between the full MLE and the room exception. We detailed the exact values of each form of mid-level exception earlier this offseason, but here’s a quick breakdown:

• Room exception: Can be used for contracts up to two years, with a starting salary worth up to $4,767,000.
• Taxpayer mid-level exception: Can be used for contracts up to three years, with a starting salary worth up to $5,718,000.
• Full mid-level exception: Can be used for contracts up to four years, with a starting salary worth up to $9,258,000.

Now that nearly all of the NBA’s teams have used up their cap space, it’s worth keeping an eye on which teams still have part or all of their mid-level exceptions available, which we’ll do in the space below. This list will be kept up to date throughout the 2019/20 league year.

Note: As of January 10, the value of the exceptions below began to prorate downward by 1/177th per day.

Here’s where things currently stand:

Mid-Level Exception:

Non-taxpayer: $9,258,000
Taxpayer: $5,718,000

Charlotte Hornets

• Used: $1,173,310 (Cody Martin); $898,310 (Caleb Martin); $898,310 (Jalen McDaniels)

Cleveland Cavaliers

• Used: $1,500,000 (Alfonzo McKinnie); $375,000 (Dean Wade); $250,000 (Jordan Bell)

Dallas Mavericks

• Used: $7,461,380 (Seth Curry); $1,500,000 (Isaiah Roby)

Denver Nuggets

• Used: $898,310 (Vlatko Cancar); $183,115 (PJ Dozier)

Detroit Pistons

• Used: $7,317,074 (Derrick Rose); $483,115 (Justin Patton)

Golden State Warriors

• Used: $2,177,483 (Willie Cauley-Stein); $898,310 (Eric Paschall); $898,310 (Alen Smailagic); $842,327 (Damion Lee); $350,189 (Ky Bowman); $350,189 (Juan Toscano-Anderson); $187,782 (Mychal Mulder)

Houston Rockets

• Used: $3,540,000 (Danuel House); $903,111 (David Nwaba); $563,347 (Chris Clemons)

Memphis Grizzlies

• Used: $9,258,000 (Tyus Jones)

Miami Heat

• Used: $898,310 (KZ Okpala); $466,918 (Chris Silva)

Minnesota Timberwolves

• Used: $2,000,000 (Noah Vonleh); $1,400,000 (Jaylen Nowell); $898,310 (Naz Reid)

Oklahoma City Thunder

• Used: $1,620,564 (Justin Patton); $155,647 (Luguentz Dort)
  

Orlando Magic

• Used: $9,258,000 (Al-Farouq Aminu)

Portland Trail Blazers

• Used: $5,718,000 (Rodney Hood)

San Antonio Spurs

• Used: $5,500,000 (Trey Lyles)
  

Toronto Raptors

• Used: $4,000,000 (Patrick McCaw); $2,500,000 (Rondae Hollis-Jefferson); $898,310 (Matt Thomas); $898,310 (Dewan Hernandez)

Washington Wizards

• Used: $6,000,000 (Ish Smith); $1,000,000 (Admiral Schofield); $898,310 (Justin Robinson); $482,144 (Anzejs Pasecniks)

Room Exception:

Available: $4,767,000

Atlanta Hawks

• Used: $0

Boston Celtics

• Used: $4,767,000 (Enes Kanter)

Brooklyn Nets

• Used: $4,767,000 (Garrett Temple)

Chicago Bulls

• Used: $2,250,000 (Luke Kornet)
  

Indiana Pacers

• Used: $4,767,000 (Justin Holiday)
  

Los Angeles Clippers

• Used: $4,767,000 (JaMychal Green)

Los Angeles Lakers

• Used: $4,767,000 (Avery Bradley)

Milwaukee Bucks

• Used: $4,767,000 (Robin Lopez)

New Orleans Pelicans

• Used: $4,102,564 (Nicolo Melli)

New York Knicks

• Used: $4,000,000 (Reggie Bullock)

Philadelphia 76ers

• Used: $4,767,000 (Mike Scott)
  

Phoenix Suns

• Used: $4,767,000 (Frank Kaminsky)

Sacramento Kings

• Used: $4,767,000 (Richaun Holmes)
  

Utah Jazz

• Used: $4,767,000 (Ed Davis)

Salary information from Basketball Insiders, Early Bird Rights, and ESPN was used in the creation of this post. Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.