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Hoops Rumors’ 2019 NBA Award Picks: Rookie Of The Year

April 19th, 2019 at 2:31pm CST by Hoops Rumors

While the NBA won’t announce this year’s award winners until June, we’re making our picks for 2019’s major awards this week and next week.

The Hoops Rumors writing team has weighed in with our choices below, but we also want to know which players, coaches, and executives you think are most deserving of the hardware this season, so jump into the comment section below to share your thoughts.

We’re keeping things going today with the award for Rookie of the Year. Here are our selections:

Arthur Hill: Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
Trae Young rallied to make the race interesting, but Doncic stands atop a very talented rookie class. He arrived from the EuroLeague with more experience and poise than most first-year players and quickly proved to be as good as his reputation. He was the top rookie scorer at 21.2 points per game to go with 7.8 rebounds and 6.0 assists, making him the first rookie to reach that combination since Oscar Robertson. Triple-doubles should become common for Doncic in the future as the Mavericks improve.

JD Shaw: Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
Just like the MVP award, this is widely viewed as a race between two select players: Doncic and Young. While Young made a strong late-season push, Doncic’s impressive production lasted all year long for the Mavericks, with the 20-year-old proving he can play multiple positions and lead a young team for the future. His wizardry with the basketball, impressive court vision, willingness to rebound, and mature scoring abilities help him stand out at such a young age, giving him the edge to be my pick for this year’s award.

Chris Crouse: Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
Doncic wasn’t held back by the learning curve that typically accompanies rookies. Showcasing command of the Mavs offense early in the season, he built a Rookie of the Year award candidacy that would be hard for any player to overcome.

Young, Deandre Ayton, and Jaren Jackson Jr. are among those who deserve recognition for their respective rookie seasons and each should have a bright future in the league. However, Doncic’s debut was more deserving of the award.

Dana Gauruder: Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
Young made a spirited run after the All-Star break, but Doncic’s numbers also rose as the year went along. Even after posting 21.2 PPG, 7.8 RPG, and 6.0 APG in his first NBA season, he’s still younger than many college juniors — the Mavericks’ future is bright with Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis as their franchise cornerstones. Doncic also racked up eight triple-doubles, tying for fourth in the league, and he’ll likely rank second to only Russell Westbrook in that category over the next few seasons.

Luke Adams: Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
Young’s second-half stats (22.8 PPG and 8.9 APG in 40 games) made this race more interesting than it had any right to be, given that at least one sportsbook paid out Rookie of the Year bets on Doncic in mid-February. Still, the gap between the two rookies’ early-season performances make this an easy choice.

Before they slumped during the holiday season and then traded away half their team early in 2019, the Mavericks got off to a 15-11 start – capped by a win in Atlanta – with Doncic looking like their MVP. Meanwhile, during the Hawks’ first 26 games, Young was putting up a shooting line of .373/.243/.781 with a league-worst turnover rate. Young’s second-half run wasn’t enough to overcome that slow start.

While a number of players from the 2018/19 rookie class should go on to have long, productive NBA careers, Doncic has been the best of the bunch so far.

Who is your pick for Rookie of the Year? Share your choices and your thoughts in the comment section below!

Previously:

Still to come:

  • Defensive Player of the Year
  • Most Valuable Player

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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2018/19 Hoops Rumors Contract MVPs: Part II

April 19th, 2019 at 11:11am CST by ChrisCrouse

Hoops Rumors is breaking down each type of contract in the NBA to find out which players were the most valuable under each type of deal.

If you missed Part 1 of the “Contract MVPs,” we covered two-way deals, 10-day contracts, and various mid-level and bi-annual exceptions. The rules in Part 2 remain the same: To qualify, a player must have played under that contract during the 2018/19 campaign. Players who see their status change (such as Enes Kanter, who began the season on a max deal but then signed with Portland for the minimum) maintain the same status they began with.

Here are our remaining “Contract MVPs”:

Minimum Salary

The Nets signed Dinwiddie to a minimum-salary deal back in 2016 and while injuries delayed his breakout, he showcased his offensive ability over the past two seasons. He scored a career-high 16.8 points per game in 2018/19, sporting a 16.8 player efficiency rating in the process.

The combo guard was able to parlay his success into an extension worth $34MM over three years starting in the 2019/20 campaign. It’s a massive raise on this year’s salary, which came in just under $1.66MM.

Honorable mentions: Dwyane Wade, Derrick Rose

Rookie-Scale Contract

  • Karl-Anthony Towns (Timberwolves): Four-years, $25,720,035 rookie-scale contract (signed in 2015).

Towns signed a long-term, maximum-salary extension back in September, but he earned just slightly under $7.9MM this season during the fourth and final year of his rookie deal. You could argue that no player has provided more value on a per-dollar basis than Towns (though Ben Simmons also has a case) and that’s a product of the NBA’s ever-valuable rookie-scale contracts.

Jimmy Butler‘s departure allowed Towns to truly take the lead role in Minnesota. The center finished the season fifth in both VORP and NBA Math’s TPA. He was fourth in player efficiency rating and top-10 in win shares.

The former Kentucky Wildcat put himself in position to make an additional $30MM+ on his $158MM extension by inserting himself into the All-NBA Team conversation. He’ll have more competition for a “contract award” in a new tier next season.

Honorable mention: Ben Simmons

Rookie-Scale Extension (Including Max)

Antetokounmpo was willing to take less than the max during extension negotiations in 2016, since he wanted Milwaukee to have the flexibility to make sound additions around him. The 2018/19 season was a culmination of those efforts, with the Bucks securing the top record in the NBA.

With a deep team that complements him, Antetokounmpo took yet another leap forward. The 2017/18 Most Improved Player led the league in player efficiency rating and in win shares per 48 minutes. The only real stain in his MVP candidacy is his minutes played total (2,358), which ranked 47th in the league (between CJ McCollum and Nicolas Batum). Still, he’s favored to win the league’s award and he gets our MVP for this tier.

Honorable mentions: Joel Embiid, Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis

Max Contract (25% Starting Salary, Non-Rookie-Scale Extension)

These contracts generally exist as a result of a player on a rookie contract hitting restricted free agency. Sometimes it’s a player who was not selected in the first round severely overachieving leading up to the end of his contract. Outside of the rookie-scale extensions, there aren’t many desirable max deals that start at 25% of the cap (reserved for players with 0-6 years of experience).

The 2016 offseason shopping spree littered the market with max contracts of this criteria. Chandler Parsons, Hassan Whiteside, and Harrison Barnes can thank the biggest salary cap spike ever for their status. Different circumstances led Andre Drummond and Otto Porter Jr. to receive their deals, though both contracts are considered player-friendly.

Jokic, Bradley Beal and Kawhi Leonard are the only real contenders for the MVP of this max contract tier. There are arguments for Beal and Leonard, but Jokic’s dominant campaign, in which he finished third in the league in NBA Math’s TPA Metric, gives him the nod.

Honorable mentions: Bradley Beal, Kawhi Leonard

Max Contract (30%)

  • James Harden, (Rockets): Four-year, $117,964,846 extension (signed in 2016 and renegotiated a year later).

Harden signed an extension in 2016 before the current CBA went into effect, then inked a new, super-max extension a year later after the players’ union and the league came together to add a provision to the new CBA. The passage grandfathered Harden and Russell Westbrook into the pool of players that were eligible for the Designated Veteran Extension.

Harden’s super-max extension doesn’t kick in until next season where he’ll make $37.8MM. His original extension, which began at 30% of salary cap and will ultimately run for three seasons from 2016/17 through 2018/19, has produced an MVP season sandwiched by two (likely) runner-up campaigns. The Rockets arguably received the most production from any one player regardless of contract type over this three-year stretch.

Honorable mention: Paul George

Max Contact (35%)

Had Curry not missed a stretch of 11 games early in the season, perhaps he’s in the NBA’s MVP discussion. Although sharing the court with several other Warriors stars does not help his narrative.

Curry further shifted his offensive load beyond the 3-point line in 2018/19, attempting a career-high 11.7 shots per game from behind the arc. He made 5.1 of those tries (the same amount as his 2015/16 MVP season) and it resulted in the second-highest scoring season of his career (27.3 points per game).

Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, and LeBron James are the only other players who played on this tier of max contract this past season. Each star had a season deserving of accolades, but Curry was a notch above them this year.

Honorable mentions: Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, LeBron James

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.

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2019 NBA Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Atlanta Hawks

April 18th, 2019 at 3:59pm CST by Luke Adams

The Hawks were viewed by prognosticators as perhaps the NBA’s worst team entering the 2018/19 season, and while they still didn’t crack the 30-win mark, they exceeded their modest expectations and flashed some intriguing long-term potential. With a handful of core pieces already in place, Atlanta has the draft assets and the cap flexibility to keep adding more this offseason.

Here’s where things currently stand for the Hawks financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2019:

Guaranteed Salary

Player Options

  • None

Team Options

  • None

Non-Guaranteed Salary

  • Deyonta Davis ($1,645,357)
  • Jaylen Adams ($1,316,852) 1
  • Total: $2,962,209

Restricted Free Agents

Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds

Projected Salary Cap: $109,000,000
Projected Tax Line: $132,000,000

Offseason Cap Outlook

  • Realistic cap room projection: $43.4MM
  • The Hawks have nine players on fully guaranteed contracts for 2019/20. If they simply keep those players plus both of their first-round picks, then renounce or waive the rest of their players, this would be their cap room projection. That’s not an unrealistic scenario, since none of Atlanta’s free agents are players the team must re-sign.

Cap Exceptions Available

  • Trade exception: $1,378,242 (expires 2/7/20) 3
  • Room exception: $4,760,000 4

Footnotes

  1. Adams’ salary becomes fully guaranteed after July 19.
  2. The salaries for two-way players don’t count against a team’s cap, but their cap holds do during the offseason.
  3. The Hawks will lose this exception if they go under the cap to use room.
  4. This is a projected value. In the unlikely event that the Hawks remain over the cap, they’d instead gain access to the mid-level exception ($9,246,000) and bi-annual exception ($3,619,000).

Note: Minimum-salary and rookie-scale cap holds are estimates based on salary cap projections and could increase or decrease depending on where the cap lands.

Salary information from Basketball Insiders and RealGM was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Hoops Rumors’ 2019 NBA Award Picks: Most Improved Player

April 18th, 2019 at 2:13pm CST by Hoops Rumors

While the NBA won’t announce this year’s award winners until June, we’re making our picks for 2019’s major awards this week and next week.

The Hoops Rumors writing team has weighed in with our choices below, but we also want to know which players, coaches, and executives you think are most deserving of the hardware this season, so jump into the comment section below to share your thoughts.

We’re keeping things going today with the award for Most Improved Player. Here are our selections:

Luke Adams: Pascal Siakam (Raptors)
In a season littered with breakout performances, nearly half of the NBA’s rosters feature at least one legit candidate for this award. None has a stronger case than Siakam.

Grouped together with young Raptors role players like Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby a year ago, Siakam has raised his ceiling significantly since then, improving every aspect of his game, from his ball-handling to his outside shooting to his defensive versatility. The Raptors leaned on Siakam as one of their primary play-makers on offense and asked him to defend point guards, centers, and everything in between on the other end of the floor. He responded admirably to every challenge, emerging as an indispensable part of a 58-win team and as a future All-Star.

Dana Gauruder: Pascal Siakam (Raptors)
Siakam only started five games last season before blossoming into the second-best player on a prime playoff contender in 2018/19, his third NBA campaign. The 25-year-old averaged nearly 10 points more than last season, was one of the Raptors’ top rebounders (6.9 RPG), and improved his assist totals as the season went along (4.1 in the month of March). Even if Kawhi Leonard leaves in free agency, Siakam may be primed to step into a starring role.

JD Shaw: Pascal Siakam (Raptors)
This is the easiest award for me to vote on, mostly because Siakam’s improvement on both ends was so clear this season that you really don’t have to look at the stat sheets. He was tasked with a much larger role under head coach Nick Nurse and accepted the challenge, cementing his role as starting power forward and helping lead the Raptors to the second-best record in the Eastern Conference at 58-24.

If you do check the numbers, you’ll see Siakam raised his shooting marks drastically. He shot 55% from the floor, up from 51% last season, and 37% from 3-point range, up from 22%, to go along with an average of 16.9 points per game, good for the second-most on his team.

Arthur Hill: D’Angelo Russell (Nets)
Injury-free for the first time since his rookie season, Russell developed into the leader the Lakers were hoping for when they drafted him second overall in 2015. His stats didn’t improve as much as those of other candidates (21.1 PPG, 3.9 RPG and 7.0 APG this season, compared to 15.5/3.9/5.2 last year), but he became the top crunch-time option for a Nets team that reached the playoffs for the first time in four years. Russell was Brooklyn’s leader in scoring, 3-pointers, assists, steals, deflections, games played, minutes played and PER, and appears ready to be one of the top point guards in the East for years to come.

Chris Crouse: Pascal Siakam (Raptors)
Russell took a huge step forward this year, while Siakam took a Giannis-from-the-free-throw-line style leap.

Siakam’s improvement came in ever-changing circumstances. The Raptors only saw Leonard and Kyle Lowry suit up together in 43 games. Siakam played in 80 contests and was part of 19 different starting lineups for Toronto. His role routinely fluctuated from top defensive stopper to floor-spacing third option to isolation play-maker to in-transition tempo-setter.

Due to injuries, Russell also had to deal with a rotating cast beside him, but he consistently was the No. 1 option. He led the Nets to the playoffs first the first time since Paul Pierce was in Brooklyn, scoring 4.6 more points and dishing out nearly two more assists per game than he did last season without increasing his turnovers. His player efficiency rating skyrocketed from barely above league average to 19.4.

Russell’s year-to-year usage in Brooklyn remained steady and he deserves credit for becoming more efficient with his opportunities. Siakam expanded his game and earned additional opportunities, upping his scoring by nearly 10 points per contest with a completely new offensive game. Brooklyn’s first-time All-Star appears to want the award more than Siakam, but the Raptors’ utility knife has the better case for 2018/19’s Most Improved Player.

Who is your pick for Most Improved Player? Share your choices and your thoughts in the comment section below!

Previously:

Still to come:

  • Rookie of the Year
  • Defensive Player of the Year
  • Most Valuable Player

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Poll: 2019 All-NBA First Team

April 18th, 2019 at 12:03pm CST by Luke Adams

NBA teams in 2018/19 played at the fastest league-wide pace in three decades, and scoring totals increased in turn. According to Basketball-Reference, clubs scored an averaged of 111.2 points per game this season, the highest mark the league has seen since the NBA-ABA merger.

As a result, some historic individual numbers were recorded in 2018/19, making the All-NBA races particularly compelling. For a handful of players, the All-NBA selections will also have major financial consequences, impacting their potential maximum salaries this offseason.

The league isn’t expected to announce its All-NBA teams for about another month, but we want to give you an opportunity to make your own picks before then. We’re starting today with the First Team, before moving onto the Second Team on Monday, and the Third Team later next week.

Polls for the guards, forwards, and center are below — you’ll have the opportunity to pick two players apiece in the guard and forward polls. We’ll leave today’s polls open through the weekend before naming the players with the most votes to our All-NBA First Team and moving on to voting for the Second Team.

Vote for your All-NBA picks below, and then take to the comment section to explain your reasoning. And if there’s a player not listed below that you believe deserves All-NBA consideration, be sure to mention him in the comment section too — if I agree, I’ll make sure he’s included in our Second and Third Team polls.

Guards:

(Choose two)

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote on the All-NBA First Team guards.

Forwards:

(Choose two)

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote on the All-NBA First Team forwards.

Center:

(Choose one)

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote on the All-NBA First Team center.

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Recent History Of NBA Taxpaying Teams

April 18th, 2019 at 11:01am CST by Luke Adams

As we detailed last week, five NBA teams finished the 2018/19 season in luxury tax territory, with the Thunder, Warriors, Raptors, Trail Blazers, and Celtics on the hook for an estimated total of $153.5MM in tax payments.

It was the first time since 2016’s salary cap spike that as many as five teams were taxpayers, and the projected league-wide tax payments of $153.5MM appears to be a new high. While two teams – Oklahoma City and Golden State – contributed significantly to that figure, the rising number of clubs in the tax reflects that teams are once again going well over the salary cap, as annual cap increases have slowed in recent years.

Listed below are the NBA’s taxpayers for the last five seasons, based on data from ESPN, Larry Coon’s CBA FAQ, and our own records.

As this list shows, the Thunder, Warriors, and Cavaliers were each taxpayers in three of the last four seasons, making those teams eligible for repeater-tax penalties if they finish in tax territory again in 2019/20. Repeater penalties are more punitive — the tax for every dollar spent above the tax line starts at $2.50 rather than $1.50. As such, those teams figure to do their best to avoid excessive spending next season.

The 2019/20 tax line is expected to be around $132MM, based on the NBA’s latest cap projections, and the Thunder already have nearly $138MM in guaranteed salaries on their books, per Basketball Insiders. The Cavaliers are at about $123MM, but may increase that figure substantially if they trade J.R. Smith‘s non-guaranteed contract for guaranteed salary. As for the Warriors, they’re only at $82MM in guaranteed money, but would be at risk of going well into the tax if they re-sign Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson.

As we prepare to keep an eye on those teams’ spending this offseason, here are the reported luxury tax figures from the last five NBA seasons:

2018/19

  1. Oklahoma City Thunder: $61.6MM
  2. Golden State Warriors: $51.5MM
  3. Toronto Raptors: $21.4MM
  4. Portland Trail Blazers: $15.1MM
  5. Boston Celtics: $3.9MM
    Total: $153.5MM
    Note: This season’s figures are still subject to change, based on postseason-related contract incentives.

2017/18

  1. Cleveland Cavaliers ($50.7MM)
  2. Golden State Warriors ($32.3MM)
  3. Oklahoma City Thunder ($25.4MM)
  4. Washington Wizards ($7MM)
    Total: $115.4MM

2016/17

  1. Cleveland Cavaliers ($24.8MM)
  2. Los Angeles Clippers ($3.6MM)
    Total: $28.4MM

2015/16

  1. Cleveland Cavaliers ($54MM)
  2. Los Angeles Clippers ($19.9MM)
  3. Golden State Warriors ($14.8MM)
  4. Oklahoma City Thunder ($14.5MM)
  5. Houston Rockets ($4.9MM)
  6. San Antonio Spurs ($4.9MM)
  7. Chicago Bulls ($4.2MM)
    Total: $117.2MM

2014/15

  1. Brooklyn Nets ($20MM)
  2. Cleveland Cavaliers ($7MM)
  3. New York Knicks ($6.9MM)
  4. Los Angeles Clippers ($4.8MM)
  5. Oklahoma City Thunder ($2.8MM)
    Total: $41.5MM

Information from Basketball Insiders, Larry Coon’s CBA FAQ, and ESPN’s Bobby Marks was used in the creation of this post.

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2019 NBA Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Dallas Mavericks

April 17th, 2019 at 4:58pm CST by Luke Adams

Dirk Nowitzki‘s 21-year career with the Mavericks came to an end this season, signaling the end of an era in Dallas. But after a pair of trades – one on 2018’s draft night and one leading up to the 2019 deadline – the Mavs believe they’ve identified a pair of young building blocks capable of leading the franchise for years to come. In addition to Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis, the Mavs are also armed with some cap flexibility entering the 2019 offseason.

Here’s where things currently stand for the Mavericks financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2019:

Guaranteed Salary

Player Options

Team Options

  • None

Non-Guaranteed Salary

Restricted Free Agents

Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds

Projected Salary Cap: $109,000,000
Projected Tax Line: $132,000,000

Offseason Cap Outlook

  • Realistic cap room projection: $29.33MM. This scenario would see the Mavericks retain all their players on guaranteed contracts, including Powell (if he opts in), along with the cap holds for Porzingis, Finney-Smith, and Kleber. Once they use up their space, they could go over the cap to re-sign their three RFAs.
  • The Mavs could potentially clear a little more cap room if they agree to a longer-term deal with Powell that lowers his cap hit for 2019/20. Stretching Lee would also be an option to create about $7.6MM in extra space, but in order to seriously consider such a move, the team would need to have a clear, pressing need for that space.
  • Max cap room scenario: $48.26MM. This would be achieved by Powell opting out, followed by the Mavs renouncing all of their non-Porzingis free agents, waiving all their non-guaranteed salaries, and stretching Lee. It’s probably not a realistic outcome.

Cap Exceptions Available

  • Trade exception: $1,233,152 (expires 1/31/20) 4
  • Trade exception: $21,299,378 (expires 2/7/20) 4
  • Room exception: $4,760,000 5

Footnotes

  1. The salaries for two-way players don’t count against a team’s cap.
  2. Broekhoff’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after June 29.
  3. The Mavericks have a 26.2% chance of moving up into the top four in the draft lottery and keeping their first-round pick. In that scenario, a cap hold for the pick would be added to this list.
  4. The Mavericks will lose these exceptions if they go under the cap to use room.
  5. This is a projected value. In the event that the Mavericks remain over the cap, they’d instead gain access to the mid-level exception ($9,246,000) and bi-annual exception ($3,619,000).

Note: Minimum-salary and rookie-scale cap holds are estimates based on salary cap projections and could increase or decrease depending on where the cap lands.

Salary information from Basketball Insiders and RealGM was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Hoops Rumors’ 2019 NBA Award Picks: Sixth Man Of The Year

April 17th, 2019 at 3:39pm CST by Hoops Rumors

While the NBA won’t announce this year’s award winners until June, we’re making our picks for 2019’s major awards over the next two weeks.

The Hoops Rumors writing team has weighed in with our choices below, but we also want to know which players, coaches, and executives you think are most deserving of the hardware this season, so jump into the comment section below to share your thoughts.

We’re keeping things going today with the award for Sixth Man of the Year. Here are our selections:

Clark Crum: Lou Williams (Clippers)
Williams has (once again) put together one of the greatest regular season performances of any reserve in NBA history.

If you limit the definition of “reserve” to only those players who started 5 games or less during a season (i.e. true reserves) while playing 20+ MPG, Williams’ 2018/19 numbers rank third all-time in PPG (behind Ricky Pierce in 1989-90 and 1990-91) and APG (behind Hall-of-Famer John Stockton in 1986-87 and Jarrett Jack in 2012-13) and ninth all-time in PER. And while his numbers last season were even better, Williams was able to help lead his team to the playoffs this year.

There are certainly other candidates who had fantastic seasons, including – but not limited to – Williams’ teammate, Montrezl Harrell, and Pacers’ big man Domantas Sabonis, but Williams’ impact on the game is still unmatched in today’s NBA.

Arthur Hill: Lou Williams (Clippers)
The reigning Sixth Man of the Year is an easy choice to win the award again. He averaged better than 27 points per 36 minutes and provided the Clippers with enough scoring punch to  reach the playoffs after trading away Tobias Harris. Williams fits the instant offense role as well as anyone ever has and may contend for this award every year until he retires.

Luke Adams: Lou Williams (Clippers)
Williams’ eligibility for this award, which I expect him to win unanimously, seems almost unfair. But the fact that the Clippers can bring their most talented scorer off the bench is a testament to their depth, which allows Doc Rivers to run out a solid starting five before plugging in Williams and Harrell to pound teams’ second units.

Of course, it’s not as if Williams was padding his stats against bench players all season — he was a key closer for the Clippers in crunch time, finishing third in the NBA in total fourth quarter points, behind only James Harden and Kemba Walker.

Dana Gauruder: Lou Williams (Clippers)
At the rate he’s going, Williams will be averaging 30 points per game when he turns 40. He’s getting better as he gets older. Not only did he average 20 PPG, but his assist total was a career best 5.4 APG. He also led the Clippers on some crazy second-half comebacks. His $8MM salary is one of the league’s biggest bargains.

JD Shaw: Lou Williams (Clippers)
Several people have privately questioned why the Clippers choose to bring him off the bench, but the one-two punch of Williams and Harrell (another deserving Sixth Man of the Year candidate) has taken teams by surprise all season long. Williams averaged 20 points per game, his second straight season of scoring 20 or more, shooting 42.5% from the floor and 36.1% from 3-point range. It would be the third Sixth Man of the Year award in his 14-year career (2015, 2018).

Who is your pick for Sixth Man of the Year? Share your choices and your thoughts in the comment section below!

Previously:

Still to come:

  • Most Improved Player
  • Rookie of the Year
  • Defensive Player of the Year
  • Most Valuable Player

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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NBA Teams That Can’t Trade/Acquire Cash Until July

April 17th, 2019 at 12:25pm CST by Luke Adams

During each NBA league year, teams face limits on the amount of cash they can send out and receive in trades. Once they reach those limits, they’re no longer permitted to include cash in a deal until the following league year.

For the 2018/19 NBA season, the limit is $5,243,000. The limits on sending and receiving cash are separate and aren’t dependent on one another, so if a team has sent out $5,243,000 in trades and also received $5,243,000 in separate deals, they don’t have a clean slate — they’ve reached both limits for the season.

Thanks to reporting by cap experts like Bobby Marks, Eric Pincus, and Albert Nahmad, we’ve been able to keep tabs on the cash sent and received in trades by teams during the 2018/19 NBA league year, so we have a pretty clear idea of each club’s flexibility heading into the draft.

Being able to send or receive cash on draft day is particularly useful, since it can provide a simple means of acquiring – or moving – a second-round pick. A year ago, five of the trades agreed upon in June that featured 2018 draft picks included cash.

Of course, three of those five trades weren’t actually completed until July, which highlights a simple way to work around these restrictions. A team that can’t send or receive cash at this year’s draft could still technically agree to a deal involving cash, then officially finalize it sometime after July 1, when the cash limits reset for the 2019/20 league year.

Still, the 2018/19 restrictions are worth noting, since in some cases a player’s changing cap figure or contract status can make it impossible to wait until July to make a trade official.

With that in mind, here are some of the limitations facing teams until July 1:

Ineligible to receive cash:

  • Charlotte Hornets
  • Chicago Bulls
  • Toronto Raptors

The Hornets reached their limit less than a week until the 2018/19 league year, having received $5MM from the Nets in their Dwight Howard trade and $243K from the Thunder in a deal involving Hamidou Diallo.

As for the Bulls, they reached their yearly limit in three separate transactions, acquiring approximately $2.63MM in a pair of swaps with the Rockets involving Michael Carter-Williams and Carmelo Anthony. Chicago then received another $2.61MM from the Thunder in a Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot salary dump.

Based on the reported figures for the Raptors ($5MM from the Spurs in the Kawhi Leonard blockbuster, plus $110K apiece from the Sixers and Nets in deadline deals), they could technically acquire another $23K. However, $110K is the minimum amount of cash a team can include in a trade this season, so Toronto can’t actually acquire any more.

Outside of these three teams, every NBA club is eligible to acquire at least $2MM before July. The Magic ($2,226,778), Sixers ($2,743,000), Mavericks ($3,148,049), and Hawks ($3,187,090) are most limited.

Ineligible to send cash:

  • None

No NBA teams have reached their limits for sending out cash this season, though some are close.

The Nets ($243,000) and Spurs ($243,000) can barely trade any cash after sending out $5MM in deals last July. The Thunder ($411,294) and Rockets ($565,513) are also nearly tapped out, having made a handful of moves aimed at reducing – or in Houston’s case, eliminating – their luxury tax bills.

The Wizards ($2,365,456), Grizzlies ($2,660,069), and Celtics ($2,737,090) are also somewhat limited in their ability to trade cash, but no other teams have less than $3MM available.

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Poll: Most Appealing NBA Front Office Opening

April 17th, 2019 at 8:50am CST by Luke Adams

On Tuesday, we asked which NBA head coaching vacancy looks like the most appealing, and so far, the Lakers are the pick. Despite all the drama in Los Angeles, the Lakers’ basketball situation still appears to be more favorable than that of the Grizzlies or Cavaliers.

The Lakers are also one of four teams with an opening at the top of their front office. In the wake of Magic Johnson‘s resignation, general manager Rob Pelinka is running the show in L.A., but there’s an expectation that the team will eventually hire someone to join him at the top of that hierarchy. It remains to be seen whether that means hiring a new president of basketball operations or perhaps promoting Pelinka and hiring someone underneath him.

Either way, a high-ranking job in the Lakers’ front office would be an intriguing one. Despite the team’s struggles in 2018/19, L.A. still has one of the NBA’s all-time greatest players (LeBron James) under contract for at least two more seasons and has the cap flexibility to pursue another star this summer. Some of the Lakers’ young players, such as Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball, saw their value dip a little in recent months for health-related reasons, but there’s still a solid core of young players on the roster who could be dangled in trade talks or who could be contributors on the Lakers’ next playoff team.

The Grizzlies are another team in the market for a high-ranking basketball executive, though as in the case of the Lakers, it’s not clear exactly what that exec’s role would be. After demoting Chris Wallace, the Grizzlies announced that president of business operations Jason Wexler would oversee basketball operations too, with Zach Kleiman elevated to executive VP of basketball operations.

Neither Wexler nor Kleiman – who has a law background – is a true basketball executive, however. Presumably, the club will target a candidate with more of a background in player evaluation, scouting, and personnel decisions to join them in a key front office role. And that role could be an interesting one — Jaren Jackson looks like a keeper, and Mike Conley is a borderline All-Star who could be retained or traded. Owing a first-round pick to the Celtics is a nuisance, but once that pick is conveyed, Memphis would be in position to launch a full-fledged rebuild, allowing a new exec to help put his stamp on the team.

The Wizards‘ and Timberwolves‘ searches for new additions to their respective front offices appear more straightforward. Washington is seeking a replacement for Ernie Grunfeld, the team’s top decision-maker for years, and Minnesota publicly announced that it’s on the lookout for a new president of basketball operations.

In some ways, the Wizards’ and Timberwolves’ situations are similar. Each team has one overpriced long-term contract that may be a cap burden going forward – John Wall in Washington and Andrew Wiggins in Minnesota – but the presence of an All-Star (Karl-Anthony Towns and Bradley Beal) at least gives each franchise some hope.

Having players like Robert Covington, Dario Saric, and Josh Okogie locked up in Minnesota may appeal to front office candidates. Of course, in D.C., only Wall, Beal, and Troy Brown are under contract beyond the 2019/20 season, which might be intriguing to a candidate looking for a bit more of a clean slate. Plus, Wizards owner Ted Leonsis probably has a better league-wide reputation than Glen Taylor, who has been known to get involved in the Wolves’ basketball decisions.

What do you think? Assuming the roles are relatively similar, and taking into account rosters, assets, and ownership situations, which of these four front office positions looks the most appealing to you?

Vote below in our poll, then head to the comment section to weigh in!

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

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