Hoops Rumors Originals

Community Shootaround: Heat’s Offseason Outlook

The Heat‘s season came to an end on Tuesday night, with a 104-91 loss in Philadelphia resulting in a 4-1 series win for the Sixers. Now that the 2017/18 campaign is officially in the books, Miami faces an important offseason ahead as the front office looks to find a way to turn the Heat from a solid playoff team into a legit contender.

The big summer decisions figure to start with Hassan Whiteside, Miami’s highest-paid player, who is owed a guaranteed $25MM+ salary in 2018/19 and has a $27MM+ player option for 2019/20. After averaging a career-high 32.6 minutes per game for the Heat in 2016/17, Whiteside saw just 25.3 MPG this season, and that number dipped further in the playoffs — he played only 15.4 MPG against the Sixers. As we relayed earlier today, Whiteside wasn’t thrilled with his declining playing time in the postseason.

“At least give me a chance to fight,” Whiteside said. “I can understand if I was playing 30 minutes and I played bad. At least give me a chance. … We played a style of play Coach (Erik Spoelstra) wanted. He wanted to utilize more spacing I guess in the playoffs, so that’s why he did it.”

Whiteside’s discontent with his role and the Heat’s success with Kelly Olynyk and Bam Adebayo at center will create an interesting offseason predicament. Can Miami find a worthwhile trade involving Whiteside, or will the team have to find a way to keep him happy next season? For what it’s worth, at least one report suggests the Heat are expected to explore trade scenarios.

With Whiteside’s contract on the books, the Heat are currently carrying more than $116MM in guaranteed salary for 2018/19, making it virtually impossible to land an impact free agent. Considering Pat Riley has repeatedly made an effort to pursue star players in the past, the team’s inflexibility in terms of cap room presents another fascinating hurdle. To truly transform the roster or land an All-Star caliber player, Miami would almost certainly need to do so via trades, likely moving more than just Whiteside.

Tyler Johnson, whose salary jumps to $19MM+ in 2018/19, and Dion Waiters, who is coming off a season-ending ankle injury, would be trade candidates, though neither player will have significant value. In order to maximize their potential return, the Heat will have to be willing to discuss one or more their more valuable pieces, such as Goran Dragic, Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson, Olynyk, and Adebayo.

It also doesn’t help matters that Miami’s best shooter, Wayne Ellington, is an unrestricted free agent. He’s one of a small handful of Heat players eligible for free agency — another is Dwyane Wade, who would probably have to accept another minimum salary deal if he decides he wants to return for another season.

In a piece calling for major offseason roster changes, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald suggests that no Heat player should be untouchable this summer, and notes that Riley is “less likely than ever” to embark on an all-out rebuild. But we want to know what you think.

What’s the best path to contention for the Heat? Is there a realistic trade out there that could raise the club’s ceiling? What should Miami do with Whiteside? Which players on the roster are keepers?

Jump into the comment section below to share your thoughts on the offseason outlook for the Heat!

2018 NBA Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Memphis Grizzlies

After heading into the fall with playoff aspirations, the Grizzlies had a disastrous 2017/18 season. Standout point guard Mike Conley only played in 12 games, while fellow max-salary veteran Chandler Parsons appeared in 36. The team’s other highest-paid player, Marc Gasol, remained healthy, but clashed with head coach David Fizdale, ultimately resulting in Fizdale’s ouster. All three of Memphis’ max players are still under contract next season, so there’s some optimism that the club could return to playoff contention with better health, but it will be an uphill climb following a 22-win season.

Here’s where things currently stand for the Grizzlies financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2018:

Guaranteed Salary

Player Options

  • None

Team Options

  • None

Non-Guaranteed Salary

  • Andrew Harrison ($1,544,951)
  • Omari Johnson ($1,378,242)2
  • Wayne Selden ($772,475) — Partial guarantee. Guaranteed portion noted above.1
  • Total: $3,695,668

Restricted Free Agents

  • None

Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds

Projected Salary Cap: $101,000,000

Projected Cap Room: None

  • Even before taking into account a cap hold for their lottery pick, the Grizzlies are over the projected cap with nearly $103MM in guaranteed contracts. Any path to cap room would involve major trades and/or cuts, so we can expect Memphis to be an over-the-cap club this summer, with the full mid-level exception available. The Grizzlies won’t have their bi-annual exception available this offseason after using it in 2017/18 to sign Evans.

Footnotes:

  1. Selden’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after July 10.
  2. Johnson’s exact contract details, including guarantee info, aren’t yet known.
  3. The Grizzlies are second in the draft lottery standings. They could end up picking anywhere from No. 1 ($8,095,595) to No. 5 ($5,310,672).

Note: 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.

Community Shootaround: Philadelphia 76ers

The Sixers won their first playoff series since 2012, beating the Heat in five games and Dwyane Wade, who might have just played his last games in the league, called Philadelphia the future of the NBA.

The future may be now with the rest of the Eastern Conference contenders looking particularly vulnerable.

Boston, a team that’s one win away from meeting Philly in the second-round, is without Kyrie Irving. Toronto is locked in a duel with the Wizards in round-one and Cleveland looks as beatable as any LeBron James team in recent memory.

GM Bryan Colangelo deserves credit for making putting the right ancillary parts around the team’s major building blocks. He signed J.J. Redick last summer and brought in Ersan Ilyasova and Marco Belinelli late in the season to add lethal shooting and veteran presence to a young nucleus.

However, credit for the young nucleus belongs to Sam Hinkie. The architect of The Process put the franchise in position to have a championship-level ceiling by deciding mediocrity wasn’t enough. He also didn’t want a team that capped out at 50 wins. He wanted one that could compete yearly for a championship and the organization appears to be closing in on that goal.

With Ben Simmons in the fold, something that happened in part because of Hinkie’s final tanking campaign, the team has a perennial All-Star on board. If Joel Embiid can stay healthy, the team should have two of those. Add in great finds like Robert Covington and patient drafting, like the selection of Dario Saric, and you have a team with a nucleus that appears ready for a decade of dominance. Not to mention that the Sixers will likely add another top-10 pick over the next couple seasons as a result of Hinkie dealing away Michael Carter-Williams back in 2015 and fleecing the Kings later that year.

With the city of Philadelphia celebrating yet again after a first-round series win, tonight’s community shootaround is all about the Sixers.

How far do you see the Sixers going this postseason? Can this team win the Eastern Conference? Does Sam Hinkie deserve more credit than he’s currently getting? Should the organization invite him to ring the pre-game bell like they did with rapper Meek Mill in Game 5 of their first-round series? Will anyone notice that No.1 overall pick Markelle Fultz has only played nine minutes over the last four games?

Let us know your thoughts on everything Sixers-related in the comment section below. We look forward to what you have to say!

2018 NBA Draft Dates, Deadlines To Watch

The deadline for early entrants to declare for the 2018 NBA draft has now passed, but news of those decisions continues to trickle in. Earlier today, Rob Dauster of NBC Sports reported that Wichita State forward Markis McDuffie is testing the draft waters, giving himself the option of withdrawing his name later in the process and returning to school for his senior year.

Until an official early entrant list is released, we may continue to hear about last-minute decisions like McDuffie’s. Still, for the most part, 2018’s initial early entrant list appears set. Now it’s time to look ahead to see which 2018 NBA draft dates and deadlines are up next. For instance, just how long will McDuffie have to decide whether or not to pull his name from this year’s draft pool?

Let’s run through the timeline…

April 27: Invites issued for draft combine

This one isn’t listed on the NBA’s official calendar of key offseason dates, but Jon Rothstein of FanRag Sports reported last week (via Twitter) that combine invitations are expected to be sent out to prospects this Friday. That means we shouldn’t have to wait much longer to find out which players will be in attendance at next month’s event.

May 15: NBA draft lottery

The 2018 draft lottery will be conducted in Chicago on May 15, with the NBA moving up the event to ensure it takes place before the combine. That should give teams with lottery picks a better idea of which players they want to talk to and get a closer look at later in the week.

Pistons and Celtics fans will want to keep an eye on this year’s lottery just in case those clubs beat the odds and secure a top-three pick. Detroit will send its first-rounder to the Clippers unless it lands in the top three (2.5% chance), while the Sixers will get the Lakers‘ first-rounder unless it moves up to No. 2 or No. 3 in the lottery, in which case it’ll be sent to Boston (2.9% chance).

Otherwise, teams at the bottom of the NBA’s standings – like the Suns, Grizzlies, Mavericks, Hawks, and Magic – will have the most at stake on May 15.

The full pre-lottery draft order for 2018 can be found right here.

May 16-20: NBA draft combine

This five-day event, which also takes place in Chicago, allows NBA teams to get a first-hand look at many of this year’s top draft-eligible players (though perhaps not a handful of 2018’s very best prospects, since potential top-five picks don’t have much to gain by participating in the combine).

The combine will be particularly important for early entrants who have yet to hire an agent. The feedback they get at the combine could go a long way toward dictating whether they decide to keep their names in the draft or return to school for another year.

May 30: NCAA early entrant withdrawal deadline

College underclassmen who want to retain their NCAA eligibility will have to withdraw their names from the draft pool by May 30. NBA rules call for a later withdrawal deadline, but the NCAA has its own set of rules that say the deadline is 10 days after the combine.

As such, a college underclassmen could technically wait until after May 30 to withdraw from the draft and he would retain his NBA draft eligibility for a future year. However, he would forfeit his amateur status in that scenario, making him ineligible to return to his NCAA squad.

June 11: NBA early entrant withdrawal deadline

This is the NBA’s final deadline for early entrants to withdraw their names from the draft pool and retain their draft eligibility for a future year. By this point, we generally know whether an NCAA underclassman kept his name in the draft or not, but this is an important deadline for international players, who aren’t subject to the same restrictions as college players. We’ll likely hear about several international early entrants withdrawing from the draft during the days leading up to June 11.

June 21: NBA draft day

The most exciting few weeks of the NBA offseason unofficially get underway on draft day, which is often when the first major trades of the summer are completed and we get a sense of which direction certain teams are heading.

It’s also worth noting that the hours and days after the draft ends will be hugely important for many of this year’s draft-eligible prospects — a ton of players who aren’t selected with one of the 60 picks in the draft will reach agreements shortly thereafter to play for an NBA team’s Summer League squad, or even to attend training camp with a club.

Follow ProFootballRumors.com For The Latest NFL Draft News

It’s NFL Draft week! The 2018 draft is full of intrigue and you’ll want to stay tuned to Pro Football Rumors for every update, whether you’re a casual or hardcore NFL fan.

The draft is hours away and we still don’t know who the No. 1 overall pick will be. Many believe the Browns will take either USC quarterback Sam Darnold or Wyoming QB Josh Allen with the top choice, but the latest word indicates that Oklahoma signal caller Baker Mayfield is in consideration. Cleveland could throw everyone an even bigger curve by taking Penn State running back Saquon Barkley at No. 1, which would truly throw the rest of the draft board in flux. The Browns have also made it known that they are willing to trade the first pick, so we could see a blockbuster deal involving a team desperate to find its future solution under center.

The uncertainty doesn’t stop there. The Giants, at No. 2, are reportedly enamored with Barkley and are divided on this year’s top QB prospects, so it’s unclear if they’ll follow through on their expected plan to draft Eli Manning’s successor. The Jets, meanwhile, are grappling with whether to select Mayfield or UCLA QB Josh Rosen, assuming both players fall to them. With so many questions regarding the top three picks, the possibilities are endless for how the remainder of the first round will shake out.

Over the next 48 hours, there will be a myriad of rumors regarding the NFL Draft, and Pro Football Rumors will help you separate the wheat from the chaff. To stay plugged in with up-to-the-minute updates, follow Pro Football Rumors on Twitter: @pfrumors.

Poll: Will Eastern Favorites Survive Round One?

On Monday night, the Rockets and Jazz took commanding leads in their respective first-round series, joining the Warriors among the Western teams holding a 3-1 edge. In the fourth Western Conference series, the Pelicans have already advanced, so barring an unlikely comeback by the Timberwolves, Thunder, or Spurs, it looks like we may not get much more drama out west in round one.

The same can’t be said for the Eastern Conference though. Heading into Tuesday night, three of four series are tied at two games apiece, and the Sixers/Heat matchup – where Philadelphia holds a 3-1 lead – has also been entertaining and competitive.

While the Raptors, Cavaliers, and Celtics are still the favorites to advance to the second round, there are areas of concern for all three clubs heading into Game 5. The Raps fell back on same old playoff habits in Game 4 when they failed to move the ball as effectively as they have for much of the season; the Cavs’ supporting cast around LeBron James has been inconsistent; and the C’s have just been hit hard by injuries, though Marcus Smart‘s return appears imminent.

Meanwhile, the opponents in those three series are flawed, but dangerous. The Wizards are led by a pair of All-Stars in John Wall and Bradley Beal, and that backcourt can be hard to stop when it gets going; the Bucks have one of the NBA’s best players in Giannis Antetokounmpo; and the Pacers are a deep and well-coached squad headed by a potential All-NBA guard in Victor Oladipo.

We’ve essentially got a trio of best-of-three series on our hands in the East, and while it’s still possible that we won’t get any upsets, the underdogs have proven that they’ll make things difficult for the conference’s top seeds.

What do you think? Will the Raptors, Celtics, and Cavaliers all survive their first-round scares or will one or more of those teams get bounced in the first round? Vote below in our poll, then jump into the comment section to share your thoughts!

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

Hoops Rumors Glossary: Qualifying Offers

Players eligible for restricted free agency don’t become restricted free agents by default. In order to make a player a restricted free agent, a team must extend a qualifying offer to him — a player who doesn’t receive one becomes an unrestricted free agent instead.

The qualifying offer, which is essentially just a one-year contract offer, varies in amount depending on a player’s service time and previous contract status.

If a player reaches free agency with three or fewer years of NBA service time under his belt, his qualifying offer is worth 125% of his prior salary, or his minimum salary plus $200K, whichever is greater. For instance, after earning $1,312,611 this season, Fred VanVleet will be eligible for a qualifying offer worth $1,699,698 this offseason — that’s calculated by adding $200,000 to his minimum salary for 2018/19 ($1,499,698). Malcolm Delaney‘s 2017/18 salary, meanwhile, was $2,500,000, so his qualifying offer will be worth 125% of that figure: $3,125,000.

The qualifying offer for a former first-round pick coming off his rookie scale contract is determined by his draft position. The qualifying offer for a first overall pick is 130% of his fourth-year salary, while for a 30th overall pick it’s 150% of his previous salary — QOs for the rest of the first-rounders fall somewhere in between. The full first-round scale for the draft class of 2014, whose first-rounders will be hitting free agency this summer, can be found here, courtesy of RealGM.

Here are a pair of examples for this offseason, based on RealGM’s chart: 2014’s fourth overall pick Aaron Gordon, coming off a fourth-year salary of $5,504,420, must be extended a qualifying offer of $7,260,330 (a 31.9% increase) to become a restricted free agent. 23rd overall pick Rodney Hood will be eligible for a qualifying offer of $3,472,887, a 45.5% increase on this season’s $2,386,864 salary.

A wrinkle in the Collective Bargaining Agreement complicates matters for certain RFAs-to-be, since a player’s previous usage can impact the amount of his qualifying offer. The CBA identifies the “starter criteria” as starting 41 games or playing 2,000 minutes per season, and rewards players for meeting those criteria. A player meets the starter criteria if he compiles at least 41 starts or 2,000 minutes in the season prior to his free agency, or averages at least that many starts or minutes over the two seasons before he becomes a free agent. Here’s how the starter criteria affects qualifying offers:

  • A top-14 pick who does not meet the starter criteria will receive a same qualifying offer equal to 120% of the amount applicable to the 15th overall pick.
  • A player picked between 10th and 30th who meets the starter criteria will receive a qualifying offer equal to 120% of the amount applicable to the ninth overall pick.
  • A second-round pick or undrafted player who meets the criteria will receive a qualifying offer equal to 100% of the amount applicable to the 21st overall pick.

You can find examples of free-agents-to-be to whom these conditions apply right here.

A qualifying offer is designed to give a player’s team the right of first refusal. Because the qualifying offer acts as the first formal contract offer a free agent receives, his team then receives the option to match any offer sheet the player signs with another club.

A player can also accept his qualifying offer, if he so chooses. He then plays the following season on a one-year contract worth the amount of the QO, and becomes an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. A player can go this route if he wants to hit unrestricted free agency as early as possible, or if he feels like the QO is the best offer he’ll receive. Accepting the qualifying offer also gives a player the right to veto trades for the season.

During the 2017 offseason, for instance, Nerlens Noel and Alex Len signed their respective qualifying offers. Their teams likely would’ve been willing to negotiate longer-term deals (Noel reportedly turned down a lucrative four-year offer at the start of free agency), but neither player had a ton of leverage. Noel and Len ultimately felt it would be in their best interest to accept that one-year qualifying offer and reach unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2019.

Finally, while the details outlined above apply to players on standard NBA contracts who are eligible for restricted free agency, a different set of rules applies to players coming off two-way contracts. For most of those players, the qualifying offer would be equivalent to a one-year, two-way salary, with $50K guaranteed.

If a player coming off a two-way contract is ineligible to sign another one – either because he has already been on two-way deals with his current team for two seasons or because he has three years of NBA service – his qualifying offer would be a standard, minimum-salary NBA contract. The guarantee on that QO would have to match or exceed what a two-way player would earn in the G League. Timberwolves two-way player Anthony Brown is one example of a player who would be eligible for this form of qualifying offer this summer.

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 2012 and 2013.

2018 Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Phoenix Suns

The NBA’s worst team in 2017/18, the Suns won fewer than 25 games for a third straight season and posted their worst record since 1968/69, the franchise’s first year of existence. As dismal as that sounds, Devin Booker continues to look like a franchise cornerstone, and young players like Josh Jackson showed promise. With a pair of first-round picks in hand – including a top-four selection – and some salary cap flexibility, the Suns are optimistic they can make a splash this summer and finally take a step toward contention in 2018/19.

Here’s where things currently stand for the Suns financially, as we kick off our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2018:

Guaranteed Salary

Player Options

  • None

Team Options

  • None

Non-Guaranteed Salary

Restricted Free Agents

  • Elfrid Payton ($4,749,591 qualifying offer / $9,997,020 cap hold)
  • Total: $9,997,020

Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds

  • No. 1 overall pick ($8,095,595)4
  • Alex Len ($7,956,438): Bird rights
  • No. 16 overall pick ($2,589,510)
  • Total: $18,641,543

Projected Salary Cap: $101,000,000

Projected Cap Room: $18,958,539

  • While the Suns only have about $70MM in guaranteed money on their books, they may have to account for more than $10MM in cap holds for their two first-round picks, which significantly cuts into their potential cap room. Our projection assumes that Phoenix retains its nine guaranteed contracts, plus Reed and its two first-rounders, totaling $82,041,516. In that scenario, the Suns would renounce Payton and Len, and waive their non-guaranteed players. The team could create more room via trades or cuts, and would also open up a little more space with bad draft lottery luck — the cap hold for the No. 4 overall pick would only be $5,864,640.

Footnotes:

  1. Reed’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after June 30.
  2. Williams can reportedly trigger a $1MM partial guarantee by meeting certain weight, body fat, and minute requirements. His salary becomes fully guaranteed after July 6.
  3. Harrison’s exact contract details aren’t yet known.
  4. The Suns are first in the draft lottery standings, giving them a 25% chance at the No. 1 overall pick. They also could end up at No. 2 ($7,243,344), No. 3 ($6,504,619), or No. 4 ($5,864,636).

Note: 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.

Community Shootaround: Can Budenholzer Return To Hawks?

Mike Budenholzer has interviewed for two of the NBA’s open head coaching positions so far this offseason, meeting with the Suns and Knicks about their vacancies. Budenholzer withdrew from consideration for the Phoenix job, but is reportedly interested in landing in New York.

The only problem? Budenholzer already has a coaching job, with two years and about $13-14MM remaining on his contract with the Hawks. While Atlanta has been willing to let Budenholzer interview for other jobs, the team has maintained that it’s open to bringing back its head coach for the 2018/19 season.

Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is skeptical, writing today that he finds it hard to believe that Budenholzer could remain the Hawks’ head coach going forward. As Cunningham outlines, Budenholzer wasn’t thrilled to lose personnel decision-making power to GM Travis Schlenk a year ago, and isn’t all that interested in working through a long rebuilding process in Atlanta.

A person familiar with Budenholzer’s plans tells Cunningham that the head coach would be ready to return to Atlanta if he doesn’t get another job, and the Hawks have maintained that they could be on board with that scenario too. But Cunningham views that scenario as untenable, since it’d be hard for Hawks players to commit to a lame-duck coach who may have his eye on other jobs.

The best-case scenario for both Budenholzer and the Hawks would for him to find another situation he likes, and for that team to offer Atlanta a fair compensation package to let him out of his current contract. That way, Budenholzer could move on to a more favorable situation and Atlanta’s new management group could hand-pick a new head coach after having gotten out from under Budenholzer’s contract.

If Budenholzer doesn’t get an offer though, or if a team that wants him isn’t willing to give the Hawks compensation to let him go, the situation could get messy. It wouldn’t be unprecedented if Budenholzer ultimately remains in Atlanta – Dave Joerger signed an extension with the Grizzlies in 2014 after they let him interview with the Timberwolves – but it wouldn’t be ideal either.

What do you think? Can the Hawks bring Budenholzer back? Will they have the opportunity to make that decision, or will he be offered a job by another team? Jump into the comment section below to share your thoughts!

Poll Results: 2018 All-NBA Teams

In an NBA season packed with incredible performances and remarkable statistical achievements, we wanted to let you make the call on which 15 players are most deserving of All-NBA recognition.

Last Monday, we opened voting for the All-NBA First Team. We moved on to the Second Team on Wednesday, and then opened the polls for the Third Team on Friday. The results of all those polls are in, so let’s check them out.

All-NBA First Team

All-NBA Second Team

All-NBA Third Team

Your top vote-getters in the final round of polling that didn’t quite earn spots on the Third Team: DeMar DeRozan (Raptors), Kyrie Irving (Celtics), Jimmy Butler (Timberwolves), Al Horford (Celtics), and Nikola Jokic (Nuggets).

My personal All-NBA choices would look pretty similar to yours, albeit with a few small changes. Booker was an out-of-left-field choice for the Third Team here, and I’d expect DeRozan or Irving to take his place in the actual voting. I’d want to make room for Oladipo on the Second Team, likely at Curry’s expense — Curry was phenomenal, but only appeared in 51 games, which hurts his case. Rudy Gobert also didn’t play a full season, appearing in just 56 games, but his defense was so game-changing for the Jazz that I’d be tempted to put him on the Third Team in place of Towns.

What do you think? Do you disagree strongly with any of these choices? Do you expect major discrepancies when the official All-NBA teams are announced? Let us know in the comments section!