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Community Shootaround: 2024 Buyout Market Impact

March 12th, 2024 at 1:01pm CST by Luke Adams

As our tracker shows, eight notable veteran players were waived at some point after last month’s trade deadline and subsequently landed with teams that have playoff or championship aspirations. Those players are as follows:

Unlike last year, when Russell Westbrook joined the Clippers after being let go by Utah, there are no former MVPs in this year’s group of buyout-market additions. But Lowry is a six-time All-Star; he and Mills have won titles; Gallinari, Dinwiddie, and Young have strong career résumés; and guys like Wright and Muscala have been consistent, reliable contributors for years.

Of course, it’s rare for any buyout market acquisitions to play important roles for championship-caliber clubs, and several of these players likely won’t be part of their respective teams’ playoff rotations. Still, Lowry is starting for the Sixers, while Gallinari is playing semi-regular minutes for a Bucks team that appears capable of making a deep postseason run. Others could emerge as key contributors, especially in the event of injuries.

This was also the first season that a new rule was in place prohibiting players who were earning more than the non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($12.4MM) before they were waived from joining teams whose salaries are above either tax apron.

That rule applied to Lowry and Dinwiddie, who weren’t eligible to sign with the Celtics, Nuggets, Warriors, Clippers, Heat, Bucks, or Suns. Those seven teams are also prohibited from signing a couple of veterans still available in free agency: Marcus Morris and Joe Harris.

Those tax-apron teams were still able to be players on the buyout market, but they were only able to target free agents whose pre-waiver salaries had been below $12.4MM, such as Gallinari, Wright, Mills, and Young.

Now that the NBA’s buyout season is just about over, we want to know what you think about this year’s moves. Which buyout market addition has the potential to make the biggest postseason impact? Will any of the players still on the free agent market play rotation roles for playoff teams? Did you appreciate the new restrictions placed on apron teams in the buyout market or find that rule unnecessary?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your two cents!

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Hoops Rumors Glossary: Early Bird Rights

March 10th, 2024 at 11:00am CST by Luke Adams

Bird rights offer teams the chance to sign their own free agents without regard to the salary cap, but they don’t apply to every player. Other salary cap exceptions are available for teams to keep players who don’t qualify for Bird rights. One such exception is the Early Bird, which applies to players formally known as Early Qualifying Veteran Free Agents.

While the Bird exception is for players who have spent three seasons with one club without changing teams as a free agent, Early Bird rights are earned after just two such seasons. Virtually all of the same rules that apply to Bird rights apply to Early Bird rights, with the requirements condensed to two years rather than three.

Players still see their Bird clocks restart by changing teams via free agency, being claimed in an expansion draft, or having their rights renounced. A player who is traded can also have his Bird clock reset if he approves a move after having re-signed with his previous team on a one-year contract (or a one-year contract with a second-year option) earlier in the league year.

As is the case with Bird rights, a player’s clock stops when he’s released by a team and clears waivers, but it would pick up where it left off if he re-signs with that same team down the road without joining another club in the interim. For instance, James Johnson will have Early Bird rights this offseason because – even though he was waived in January – he’s on track to finish a second consecutive season with the Pacers and didn’t join another team between his stints in Indiana.

The crucial difference between Bird rights and Early Bird rights involves the limitations on contract offers. Bird players can receive maximum-salary deals for up to five years, while the most a team can offer an Early Bird free agent without using cap space is 175% of his previous salary (up to the max) or 105% of the league-average salary in the previous season, whichever is greater.

These offers are also capped at four years rather than five, and the new contracts must run for at least two years — the second season can be non-guaranteed, but can’t be a team or player option. Raises are maxed out at 8% per season.

Besides Johnson, some of the more notable free agents who will have Early Bird rights during the 2024 offseason include Malik Monk (Kings), Isaiah Hartenstein (Knicks), Kyle Anderson (Timberwolves), and Andre Drummond (Bulls).

In some instances, teams can benefit from having Early Bird rights instead of full Bird rights if they’re trying to preserve cap space. The cap hold for an Early Bird player is 130% of his previous salary, significantly less than most Bird players, whose cap holds range from 150-300% of their previous salaries.

However, having a player’s Early Bird rights instead of his full Bird rights puts a team at a disadvantage in other cases. For example, when Christian Wood reached free agency in 2020, his Early Bird rights only allowed the Pistons to offer a starting salary of up to about $10.05MM, a figure the Rockets topped in their three-year, $41MM offer.

In order to match or exceed that number, Detroit would have had to use cap room — having Wood’s full Bird rights would’ve allowed the Pistons to make a far more substantial offer without requiring cap space.

Meanwhile, some players with limited NBA experience are subject to a special wrinkle involving Early Bird rights, called the Gilbert Arenas Provision, which applies to players who have only been in the league for one or two years. We cover the Arenas Provision in a separate glossary entry, so you can read up on the details there.

Essentially, the Arenas Provision protects teams from a situation like the ones the Pistons found themselves in with Wood, allowing them to match offer sheets on their restricted free agents without necessarily using Bird rights or cap room to do so. Last offseason, Lakers guard Austin Reaves and Pelicans forward Herbert Jones were both Arenas free agents. The provision would apply this coming offseason to a player like Pistons wing Simone Fontecchio.

Finally, one more distinction between Bird rights and Early Bird rights applies to waivers. Players who are claimed off waivers retain their Early Bird rights, just as they would if they were traded. Those who had Bird rights instead see those reduced to Early Bird rights if they’re claimed off waivers.

This rule stems from a 2012 settlement between the league and the union in which J.J. Hickson was given a special exception and retained his full Bird rights for the summer of 2012 even though he had been claimed off waivers that March.

Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.

Earlier versions of this post were published in previous years by Luke Adams and Chuck Myron.

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Disabled Player Exceptions For 2023/24 Expire On Monday

March 10th, 2024 at 9:47am CST by Luke Adams

A series of disabled player exceptions granted to teams earlier in the 2023/24 season will expire on Monday if they go unused.

The deadline to use a disabled player exception is typically March 10, but when that deadline falls on a weekend, it gets pushed to the next business day, which means teams have until March 11 this season to take advantage of their DPEs.

We go into more detail on who qualifies for disabled player exceptions and how exactly they work in our glossary entry on the subject. But essentially, if a team has a player suffer a season-ending injury prior to January 15, the exception gives that team the opportunity to add an injury replacement by either signing a player to a one-year contract, trading for a player in the final year of his contract, or placing a waiver claim on a player in the final year of his contract.

Here are the teams whose DPEs will expire if they aren’t used on Sunday or Monday:

The trade deadline has passed and no players are currently on waivers, so there’s essentially just one way left for those teams with disabled player exceptions to use them: signing a free agent. However, that appears unlikely, given that the Bulls, Trail Blazers, and Spurs (as well as the Nuggets) have full rosters and haven’t shown any signs that they intend to make changes within the next 36 hours or so.

In other words, those exceptions will – in all likelihood – expire without being used.

The Grizzlies are the only team to use a disabled player exception so far this season. In a trade with Houston last month, Memphis took Victor Oladipo‘s $9.45MM expiring contract into the $12,405,000 disabled player exception that was granted as a result of Ja Morant‘s season-ending shoulder injury.

The Grizzlies traded Steven Adams to the Rockets in that deal, forfeiting a second disabled player exception (worth $6.3MM) that they received as a result of Adams’ season-ending knee injury — a DPE can’t be used after the team trades away its injured player. However, using the Morant exception to absorb Oladipo’s salary rather than matching it using Adams’ outgoing salary allowed the club to generate a new traded player exception worth Adams’ cap charge ($12.6MM).

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Hoops Rumors Glossary: Bird Rights

March 9th, 2024 at 1:20pm CST by Luke Adams

The Bird exception, named after Larry Bird, is a rule included in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement that allows teams to go over the salary cap to re-sign their own players. A player who qualifies for the Bird exception, formally referred to as a Qualifying Veteran Free Agent, is said to have “Bird rights.”

The most basic way for a player to earn Bird rights is to play for the same team for at least three seasons, either on a long-term deal or on separate one- or two-year contracts. Still, there are other criteria. A player retains his Bird rights in the following scenarios:

1. He changes teams via trade.

For instance, the Thunder will hold Gordon Hayward‘s Bird rights when he reaches free agency this offseason, despite just acquiring him in February. His Bird clock didn’t reset when he was traded from Charlotte to Oklahoma City.

2. He finishes a third season with a team after having only signed for a partial season with the club in the first year.

The Heat signed Haywood Highsmith during the second half of the 2021/22 season, adding him to their roster in March 2022. When his contract expires this offseason, Highsmith will have Bird rights despite not spending three full seasons with Miami, because that partial season in ’21/22 started his Bird clock.

3. He signed a full-season contract (ie. not a 10-day deal) in year one or two but the team waived him; he cleared waivers and didn’t sign with another team before re-signing with the club and ultimately remaining under contract through a third season.

This one’s a little confusing, but let’s use former Raptors big man Christian Koloko as an example. After spending the 2022/23 season with Toronto and opening the ’23/24 season on the roster, Koloko was waived by the team in January. If the Raptors were to re-sign him in July without him joining a new team in the interim, his Bird clock would pick up where it left off. He’d have full Bird rights in the summer of 2025, since he would’ve spent part or all of each of the previous three seasons with Toronto, without changing teams in between.

It’s worth noting that while the Raptors could restart Koloko’s Bird clock by re-signing him, they wouldn’t be able to use any form of Bird rights to add him to their roster this offseason — they would have to use cap room or another exception to do so. His Bird clock would only resume once he’s back under contract.

This rule also applies to players who are waived after they already have Bird rights. For example, let’s say the Warriors were to waive Chris Paul this offseason before his $30MM salary for 2024/25 becomes guaranteed.

Golden State, which doesn’t project to have cap room this summer, would have no means to re-sign Paul except via the minimum salary exception or perhaps the mid-level exception, since waiving him would mean losing his Bird rights. But if they did find a way to re-add him on a one-year contract after waiving him, the Warriors would regain Paul’s full Bird rights in 2025.

A player sees the clock on his Bird rights reset to zero in the following scenarios:

  1. He changes teams via free agency.
  2. He is waived and is not claimed on waivers (except as in scenario No. 3 above).
  3. His rights are renounced by his team. However, as in scenario No. 3 above, a player’s Bird clock picks up where it left off if he re-signs with that team renounced without having signed with another NBA team. For example, Boban Marjanovic had Bird rights last offseason, then had those rights renounced by the Rockets as they freed up extra cap room. Since Marjanovic eventually signed a new deal with Houston, he’ll retain his full Bird rights this summer — that wouldn’t have been the case if he had signed with a new team.
  4. He is selected in an expansion draft.

Players on two-way contracts accumulate Bird rights in the same way that players on standard contracts do. Magic forward Admiral Schofield has been under contract with Orlando on various two-way and standard deals in each of the past three seasons, so if he remains on his current two-way deal through the end of 2023/24, he’ll have full Bird rights this summer.

If a player who would have been in line for Bird rights at the end of the season is waived and claimed off waivers, he would retain only Early Bird rights.

It’s also worth noting that there’s one specific scenario in which a player with Bird rights can lose them in a trade. A player who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year contract (or a one-year deal with a second-year option) would have his Bird clock reset if he’s traded later that season. As such, he receives the ability to veto trades so he can avoid that scenario.

[RELATED: Players who had the ability to veto trades in 2023/24]

The Bird exception was designed to allow teams to keep their best players, even when those teams don’t have the cap room necessary to do so.

When a player earns Bird rights, he’s eligible to re-sign with his team for up to five years and for any price up to his maximum salary (with 8% annual raises) when he becomes a free agent, no matter how much cap space the team has — or doesn’t have.

The maximum salary varies from player to player depending on how long he has been in the league, but regardless of the precise amount, a team can exceed the salary cap to re-sign a player with Bird rights.

A team with a Bird free agent is assigned a “free agent amount” – also called a cap hold – worth either 190% of his previous salary (for a player with a below-average salary) or 150% of his previous salary (for an above-average salary), up to the maximum salary amount. For players coming off rookie scale contracts, the amounts of those cap holds are 300% and 250%, respectively.

The Sixers, for instance, will have a cap hold worth $13,031,760 for Tyrese Maxey on their books this offseason — 300% of his $4,343,920 salary for 2023/24. Philadelphia could renounce Maxey and generate an extra $13MM+ in cap flexibility, but doing so would cost the Sixers the ability to re-sign him using Bird rights, which would force them to use either cap room or a different cap exception to re-sign him. As such, we can count on Philadelphia keeping Maxey’s cap hold on the books until his free agency is resolved.

Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.

Earlier versions of this post were published in previous years by Luke Adams and Chuck Myron.

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Checking In On Traded 2024 First-Round Picks

March 8th, 2024 at 2:56pm CST by Luke Adams

A year ago, entering the 2023 NBA draft, just one of the 14 picks in the lottery had changed hands — the Magic owned Chicago’s first-rounder.

In 2024, there’s a viable scenario in which half of of the 14 picks in the lottery will be controlled by new teams.

With just over a month left to go in the 2023/24 season, let’s check in to see where things stand with the traded picks for the 2024 draft and the protections that apply to them…

Picks that won’t change hands (or swaps that won’t be exercised):

  • Wizards‘ pick (top-12 protected) to Knicks
  • Pistons‘ pick (top-18 protected) to Knicks
  • Hornets‘ pick (top-14 protected) to Spurs
  • Trail Blazers‘ pick (top-14 protected) to Bulls
  • Wizards‘ right to swap picks with Suns
  • Grizzlies right to swap picks with Suns or Wizards (least favorable)

The Wizards, Pistons, Hornets, and Trail Blazers are currently four of the five worst teams in the NBA (the fifth, San Antonio, unconditionally controls its own first-rounder). While it’s not ideal that they’ve each traded away a first-round pick, the good news is that all four clubs are locks to hang onto those first-rounders in 2024. Even with extremely bad lottery luck, none of them are falling out of the top 10.

Unfortunately, all four of those teams’ draft obligations will simply be pushed back a year, so they’ll be in danger of losing their 2025 first-round picks if they don’t once again fall in their respective protected ranges.

The Wizards obviously won’t be using their ability to swap first-round picks with the Suns, who are currently 27.5 games ahead of them in the standings. That leaves Memphis the option to swap first-rounders with Phoenix, but the Grizzlies have the league’s sixth-worst record, so they won’t be taking advantage of that ability either.

Picks that might change hands (or swaps that might be used):

  • Raptors‘ pick (top-six protected) to Spurs
  • Rockets‘ pick (top-four protected) to Thunder
  • Jazz‘s pick (top-10 protected) to Thunder
  • Kings‘ pick (top-14 protected) to Hawks
  • Lakers‘ pick (unprotected) to Pelicans
  • Pelicans‘ right to swap picks with Bucks

The Spurs could add a second top-10 pick if the Raptors‘ first-rounder lands outside the top six. Toronto currently has the NBA’s seventh-worst record and even “passing” Memphis in the reverse standings for the sixth-worst record wouldn’t offer the Raptors any assurances. In that scenario, they’d still be more likely to fall out of the top six and lose their pick (54.2%) than to remain in the top six and keep it (45.8%).

The Thunder, meanwhile, won’t be in the lottery themselves for the first time in several years, but they’re still well positioned to control a top-10 selection. If the season ended today, the Rockets would be No. 9 in the lottery standings, giving them just a 20.2% chance of moving into the top four and hanging onto their first-rounder.

Getting lucky in the lottery wouldn’t just allow Houston to keep its own pick — it would allow the team to extinguish that obligation to Oklahoma City by sending its 2025 second-rounder instead. However, the Rockets do still owe the Thunder a separate 2026 first-rounder.

The Jazz‘s 2024 first-round pick could go either way. They currently have the 10th-worst record in the NBA at 28-35, but they’re neck-and-neck with Houston (27-35) and Atlanta (28-34), so it’s not out of the question that the Thunder end up getting Utah’s pick too. For what it’s worth, finishing with the league’s 10th-worst record would put the Jazz in a strong position to keep their first-rounder, but wouldn’t guarantee it, since a team 11th or lower in the lottery standings could push them out of the top 10 by winning a top-four pick on lottery night.

If the season ended today and the Kings won one of two play-in games, their pick would likely be either 19th or 20th overall and would be sent to the Hawks. But finishing in play-in territory doesn’t lock in a playoff spot, especially given the potential play-in opponents currently bunched up with Sacramento in the standings. Even if they finish with the Western Conference’s seventh-best record, the Kings would move into the lottery if they’re eliminated in the play-in tournament, which would allow them to hang onto their selection.

As for the Pelicans, they may face a difficult decision on the Lakers‘ first-rounder, which they have the option to defer to 2025. Los Angeles is currently at No. 9 in the West, so that pick could land in the lottery. And even in a best-case scenario for the Lakers, it’s likely to be no lower than the mid-to-late teens. That might be hard to pass up, but this year’s draft class is viewed as weak and there are no assurances the Lakers will be any better in 2024/25, so New Orleans will be tempted to defer.

Finally, the Pelicans also have the ability to swap their own first-round pick for the Bucks‘ selection. New Orleans trails Milwaukee by 3.5 games in the standings, so if the season ended today, the Pels would stay at No. 23 and pass on the Bucks’ No. 25 pick. But if they can make up ground on Milwaukee in the standings, that swap option remains a possibility.

That picks that will (or are at least highly likely to) change hands:

  • Nets‘ pick (unprotected) to Rockets
  • Warriors‘ pick (top-4 protected) to Trail Blazers
  • Pacers‘ pick (top-3 protected) to Raptors
  • Mavericks‘ pick (top-10 protected) to Knicks
  • Clippers‘ pick (unprotected/conditional) to Wizards or Jazz
  • Thunder‘s pick (unprotected/conditional) to Wizards or Jazz

The Rockets may not end up with their own first-round pick, but they should still have a top-10 selection. The Nets‘ first-rounder projects to be No. 8 overall, and it’s going to Houston unconditionally.

The Warriors‘ and Pacers‘ picks currently project to be No. 14 and 15 overall, but if those teams miss the playoffs, there’s a long-shot scenario in which they get lucky on lottery night and move into the top four (or top three, in Indiana’s case). It’s extremely unlikely though, so the Trail Blazers and Raptors can probably plan on controlling those picks.

The Mavericks are eighth in the West and are in some danger of missing the playoffs for a second straight year, but even in that scenario, they would almost certainly place no higher than 11th or 12th in the lottery standings, creating extremely long odds for a move into the top four. It’s very likely the Knicks will get Dallas’ pick this year.

The Wizards will get whichever of the Clippers‘ or Thunder‘s first-round picks is more favorable, while the Jazz will get the least favorable of the two. Right now, that means L.A.’s pick (No. 26) would go to Washington and Oklahoma City’s (No. 28) would go to Utah, but the two teams are separated by just 2.5 games in the standings, so nothing’s locked in yet.

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NBA Teams That Still Have Open Roster Spots

March 6th, 2024 at 12:55pm CST by Luke Adams

As we detailed on Tuesday, 17 players that had been on two-way contracts received promotions to standard deals between last month’s trade deadline and Monday’s two-way signing deadline.

However, even though those 17 players filled standard roster spots around the NBA and no team currently has an open two-way slot, there are still several openings on 15-man rosters across the league.

[RELATED: 2023/24 NBA Roster Counts]

Here’s a rundown of the teams that still have at least one standard roster spot available, along with some brief observations on how they might fill those openings:

Teams with two open roster spots

  • Minnesota Timberwolves
  • New York Knicks
  • Philadelphia 76ers

Teams are permitted to dip below 14 players on standard contracts for up to 14 days at a time. Currently, there are three teams taking advantage of that rule: the Timberwolves, Knicks, and Sixers.

There’s no real urgency for any of these clubs to sign a player in the short term — Philadelphia doesn’t have to re-add a 14th man until March 15, while New York’s and Minnesota’s deadlines are March 16 and 17, respectively.

Still, I’m not sure any of the three will wait that long to make a move. The Sixers and Knicks have a crowded injury list and could use some additional depth, while the Timberwolves have already reportedly reached an agreement on a 10-day deal with T.J. Warren — it just hasn’t been officially finalized yet.

[Note: Warren officially signed with the Wolves shortly after the publication of this story.]

Philadelphia could still use another frontcourt body with Joel Embiid on the shelf. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Taj Gibson eventually makes his way back to the Knicks, though he’s under contract with Detroit for the next 10 days. Marcus Morris was linked to Minnesota last month, though it remains unclear whether a union for the two sides remains in play.

Teams with one open roster spot

  • Boston Celtics
  • Detroit Pistons
    • Note: The Pistons’ 14th man (Gibson) is on a 10-day contract.
  • Golden State Warriors
  • Phoenix Suns
  • Utah Jazz

There’s no timeline for any of these teams to fill their 15th open roster spot. I’d expect the Pistons and Jazz to be a little more proactive about making a move though, since they’re both well below the luxury tax line and could potentially benefit from taking a look at some young players on 10-day deals for developmental purposes down the stretch.

The Celtics, Warriors, and Suns are all well above the tax threshold and aren’t in desperate need for depth pieces at the moment, so they’ll probably be patient when it comes to adding a 15th man.

Neemias Queta (Celtics) and Saben Lee (Suns) are candidates to be promoted from two-way contracts near the end of the season. The Warriors already elevated their most obvious candidate for a promotion (Lester Quinones), so it’s unclear what they may have in mind for their final roster move. Given how deep they are, it’s unlikely anyone the Dubs add would play at all in the postseason.

Teams whose 15th man is on a 10-day contract

  • Cleveland Cavaliers
  • New Orleans Pelicans
  • Toronto Raptors
  • Washington Wizards

The Cavaliers will open up a roster spot on Thursday when Sharife Cooper‘s 10-day contract expires. The Wizards (R.J. Hampton) and Pelicans (Izaiah Brockington) will follow suit next Wednesday, with the Raptors (Jahmi’us Ramsey) opening up their 15th roster spot next Thursday.

Each of those four players would be eligible for a second 10-day deal with his respective team. However, all four clubs seem to be rotating players in and out of that slot, so it’s possible that the Cavs, Pelicans, Raptors, and Wizards all finish the season with a different 15th man.

Toronto and Washington won’t make the playoffs and will likely eventually settle on a prospect who can be signed to a team-friendly multiyear contract. The Cavs and Pelicans could ultimately go the same route, though they’ll want to fully scour the buyout market in case there’s a veteran who could help in the postseason.

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NBA’s Two-Way Signing Deadline Has Now Passed

March 5th, 2024 at 7:12am CST by Luke Adams

The deadline for NBA teams to sign players to two-way contracts was Monday, March 4. Since that deadline has now passed, no two-way deals can be signed between now and the end of the 2023/24 league year. Clubs will be permitted to begin signing two-way contracts for the ’24/25 season on July 1.

Under the NBA’s previous Collective Bargaining Agreement, two-way signings weren’t permitted after January 15. Teams took advantage of the extended window to complete two-way deals this season, completing 29 of them between the February 8 trade deadline and Monday’s deadline. During that same period, teams promoted 17 players from two-way contracts to standard deals.

There were only seven teams – the Celtics, Nuggets, Rockets, Clippers, Timberwolves, Magic, and Jazz – that didn’t make any moves involving their two-way players between last month’s trade deadline and the two-way signing deadline. An eighth team – the Knicks – made a pair of two-way transactions but ended up with the same three two-way players under contract.

As our tracker shows, all 90 two-way slots around the NBA are now filled.

Still, that doesn’t mean the 90 players that are currently on two-way contracts will all finish the season on those deals. There are still a handful of two-way players who could receive standard deals before the regular season ends. The Celtics and Suns, for instance, are two teams who have open spots on their 15-man rosters and legitimate candidates for promotions (Neemias Queta and Saben Lee, respectively).

A team can promote one of its two-way players to its standard roster at any time between now and the end of the season — that team simply wouldn’t be permitted to sign a new player to fill the empty two-way slot.

Here are all the transactions related to two-way players that have been finalized since the trade deadline, sorted by team and listed in the order they were completed:

Atlanta Hawks

Brooklyn Nets

Charlotte Hornets

Chicago Bulls

Cleveland Cavaliers

Dallas Mavericks

Detroit Pistons

Golden State Warriors

Indiana Pacers

Los Angeles Lakers

Memphis Grizzlies

Miami Heat

Milwaukee Bucks

New Orleans Pelicans

New York Knicks

Oklahoma City Thunder

Philadelphia 76ers

Phoenix Suns

Portland Trail Blazers

Sacramento Kings

San Antonio Spurs

Toronto Raptors

Washington Wizards

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Community Shootaround: Rookie Of The Year Race

March 1st, 2024 at 12:29pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s 2023/24 Rookie of the Year race has arguably been the best in recent memory, with Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama and Thunder center Chet Holmgren both enjoying incredible debut seasons.

It was Wembanyama who got the upper hand in the latest chapter of the budding rivalry between the two young bigs on Thursday night. The No. 1 overall pick, who led the Spurs to an upset win over the Thunder, became the first player in NBA history to record at least 25 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, five blocks, and five 3-pointers in a game, according to Andrew Lopez of ESPN.

Wembanyama helped seal San Antonio’s victory by making a highlight block on a Holmgren shot attempt in a late-game possession (Twitter video link).

Asked after Thursday’s game whether the performance locked up the Rookie of the Year race for his star teammate, Spurs wing Devin Vassell said he believed Wembanyama had already earned that award.

“I feel like it’s been over, but I mean, night in, night out, the stuff that he does, the impact that he has on both ends of the floor, big shot after big block, after whatever the case may be, I mean he doesn’t even look like a rookie,” Vassell said, per Lopez. “The shots that he shoots, the confidence that he has in his game is second to none, truthfully.”

In their recaps of Thursday’s game, Mike Monroe of The Athletic and Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News each also declared the Rookie of the Year race all but over, contending that Wembanyama has it in hand. The 20-year-old has increased his season-long averages to 20.7 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 3.3 blocks, and 1.3 steals in just 28.7 minutes per game across 54 appearances, with a shooting line of .467/.327/.814.

Still, Wembanyama, who has stated that winning Rookie of the Year is important to him, wasn’t as eager as Vassell or those local reporters to declare the race over, according to Lopez.

“No, because there’s still 22 games left,” Wembanyama said. “So no, it’s not over.”

While the Spurs’ young star has repeatedly showed signs this season that he’s on his way to becoming a generational talent, Holmgren has made a compelling case of his own for Rookie of the Year honors by anchoring the defense of one of the NBA’s best teams while scoring effectively and efficiently on the other end of the floor. In 59 games (30.2 MPG) for the Thunder, he has put up 17.2 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 2.7 APG, and 2.6 BPG on .544/.398/.784 shooting.

Even after Thursday’s loss to San Antonio, the Thunder are 29.5 games ahead of the Spurs in the standings, which may be a factor voters weigh when they make their Rookie of the Year choice. Holmgren’s .617 effective field goal percentage is also substantially stronger than Wembanyama’s .518 mark.

In the latest episode of The Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link), ESPN’s Tim MacMahon suggested that Holmgren might be having the best rookie season of any non-Wembanyama player of the past decade besides Luka Doncic in 2018/19. Tim Bontemps argued that Holmgren has been even better this season than Doncic was as a rookie.

However, both ESPN reporters, along with colleague Brian Windhorst, agreed that Wembanyama is the obvious frontrunner for this season’s award.

For what it’s worth, while an injury to either player would obviously impact the race, the NBA’s new 65-game minimum for end-of-season awards doesn’t apply to Rookie of the Year, so there’s no risk of either Wembanyama or Holmgren becoming ineligible.

We want to know what you think. Is Wembanyama your Rookie of the Year pick? If so, what would it take for Holmgren to overtake him in the season’s final six weeks? If not, why do you feel as if Holmgren’s case is stronger?

Head to the comment section to weigh in with your thoughts!

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Players Waived After Friday Won’t Be Playoff-Eligible

March 1st, 2024 at 7:16am CST by Luke Adams

In order to retain his postseason eligibility for a new NBA team, a player must be waived on or before March 1. That means that any player who remains on an NBA roster after Friday won’t be eligible to suit up in the playoffs for a new team, though there’s at least one key exception to that general rule.

A player who is currently on a 10-day contract – or who signs one after March 1 – will retain his playoff eligibility going forward. For instance, once Justin Jackson‘s 10-day deal with the Timberwolves expires on Saturday night, he’d still be able to re-sign with Minnesota or join a new team and be eligible to play in the postseason, since he’s not being placed on waivers after March 1.

Here’s the list of players currently on 10-day contracts who will retain their playoff eligibility when their current deals expire:

It’s also worth clarifying that a player doesn’t have to sign with a new team by March 1 to be playoff-eligible — he simply has to be placed on waivers by 11:59 pm Eastern time on Friday. As long as a player who fits that bill signs with a new team by the final day of the regular season (April 14), he can play in the postseason (including the play-in games).

The buyout market in 2024 has been somewhat active, with veterans like Spencer Dinwiddie, Kyle Lowry, Danilo Gallinari, Delon Wright, and Thaddeus Young among those who have been waived since the trade deadline and found new teams.

All of those players – and those who have been waived but haven’t yet signed with new teams, such as Mike Muscala, Marcus Morris, and Patty Mills – will be playoff-eligible for their new clubs, but anyone on a standard contract who is waived after Friday won’t be. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the NBA’s transaction wire today to see if anyone else is placed on waivers before that deadline passes.

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Community Shootaround: Eastern Conference Playoff Race

February 27th, 2024 at 1:19pm CST by Luke Adams

When we checked in on the Western Conference playoff race on Sunday, the main takeaway was how wide open the conference looks, with several teams bunched together at the top of the West and a handful of playoff-tested clubs (and stars) lurking further down the standings.

Over in the East, the picture looks a little different. Whereas several teams have a legitimate case to be considered best in the West, it’s hard to argue that any team besides Boston deserves that honor in the East.

Entering play on Tuesday, the Celtics‘ 45-12 record gives them a 7.5-game cushion on their next-closest competitor in the Eastern standings. Their home record of 26-3 record is the best in the NBA, as is their 19-9 mark on the road. The Celtics haven’t lost in nearly four weeks and will put an eight-game winning streak on the line on Tuesday vs. Philadelphia.

Boston has been led by a dominant top six of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, and Al Horford. The team’s top eight most-used lineups feature some combinations of those players and/or Sam Hauser, and seven of those eight lineups have net ratings of +11.7 or higher. The Celtics’ overall net rating of +10.5 is more than five points per 100 possessions better than any other team in the East.

The question in the East then isn’t “Which team will emerge in a wide-open field?” but rather “Which team has the best chance to take down the Celtics?” Currently, betting site BetOnline.ag has Boston as the +100 favorite to come out of the East, essentially giving the C’s even odds against the field.

For now, the “field” is led by the Cavaliers (37-19), who have come on strong after a sluggish start and have won 19 of their past 23 games (despite losing two of their past five). Cleveland was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs last season, but has loftier aspirations this spring in Donovan Mitchell‘s second year as a Cav. They have the East’s second-best net rating at +5.4.

It has been a shaky season in Milwaukee, where the Bucks replaced their head coach midway through his first season with the team, but any club with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard on its roster – along with several more players who were part of a championship team in 2021 – has to be taken seriously. Despite their ups and downs, the Bucks hold the No. 3 seed with a strong 37-21 record and are considered by BetOnline.ag to be the second-best bet to come out of the East (+300).

The Knicks (35-23) have been hit hard lately by injuries, but they looked like one of the best teams in the conference when they were (nearly) fully healthy in January. If Julius Randle and OG Anunoby are back on the court to team up with Jalen Brunson and a solid cast of supporting players, New York has a chance to make some real noise in the postseason.

At Nos. 5 and 6 in the East, the Sixers (33-24) and Heat (32-25) are intriguing dark horses. Philadelphia needs Joel Embiid to get healthy before the playoffs begin, while Miami will need to recapture the magic that saw the team make an NBA Finals run last spring after initially needing a play-in win to claim the No. 8 seed.

It’s hard to imagine any team further down in the Eastern standings – including the Pacers (33-26), Magic (32-26), Bulls (27-30), and Hawks (25-32) – making a Heat-esque run in this year’s postseason due to their relative lack of talent and/or postseason experience compared to the top teams in the conference. But at least a couple of those teams could cause problems for first-round opponents.

We want to know what you think. Are the Celtics coming out of the East this season or is there a team you feel confident can take them down? If not Boston, which club is representing the conference in the NBA Finals in June?

Head to the comment section to weigh in with your thoughts and predictions on the Eastern Conference playoff race!

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