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2017/18 NBA Salary Guarantee Dates

September 11th, 2017 at 12:34pm CST by Luke Adams

While the majority of players on NBA rosters currently have fully guaranteed salaries for the 2017/18 season, there are many whose contracts are still non-guaranteed or only have a partial guarantee. We published a post last week dedicated to keeping tabs on those non-guaranteed players, sorting them by team.

By default, NBA contracts all become fully guaranteed on January 10 every year, meaning that a team must waive a non-guaranteed player by the end of the business day on January 7 to ensure he clears waivers before January 10. That way, his full-season salary won’t count against that team’s cap.

However, many players with non-guaranteed salaries have language in their contracts that ensures their guarantee deadline arrives early. We saw that over the summer, as many players with guarantee dates in June, July, or August were either waived in advance of those deadlines or had their 2017/18 salaries become guaranteed.

There are many more players with guarantee dates due in the coming weeks or months, so we’ll use the space below to track those deadlines and decisions. When a deadline date passes, we’ll note below if that player was waived. If he remained on the roster, receiving his guarantee, that’s noted with a ✔️ symbol.

We’re relying on salary information from Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders and Bobby Marks of ESPN, who each do an outstanding job of providing detailed contract info. However, there are a handful of discrepancies between the details they’ve provided, so we’ve noted those cases below — we’ll consider those details tentative for now.

Here’s the full upcoming salary guarantee calendar:

September 15

  • Eric Moreland (Pistons): Guarantee increases from $500,000 to $750,000. (✔️)

September 26

October 15

October 16

  • Troy Williams (Rockets): Guarantee increases from $1,312,611 to $1,471,382 (fully guaranteed). (✔️)

October 17

October 18

  • Khem Birch (Magic): Guarantee increases from $25,000 to $407,808. (✔️)
  • Mario Chalmers (Grizzlies): Guarantee increases from $25,000 to $2,106,470 (fully guaranteed). (✔️)
    • Note: Chalmers’ fully guaranteed salary will count for $1,471,382 against cap.
  • Marcus Georges-Hunt (Timberwolves): Guarantee increases from $0 to $275,000. (✔️)
  • Rodney McGruder (Heat): Guarantee increases from $452,625 to $1,312,611 (fully guaranteed). (✔️)
  • Eric Moreland (Pistons): Guarantee increases from $750,000 to $1,000,000. (✔️)
  • Okaro White (Heat): Guarantee increases from $452,624 to $1,312,611 (fully guaranteed). (✔️)

October 19

October 31

November 10

  • Jordan Crawford (Pelicans): Guarantee increases from $250,000 to $750,000. (Waived)
    • Note: Based on Marks’ data. Pincus had Crawford’s guarantee increasing from $250,000 to $500,000.

December 5

  • Dorian Finney-Smith (Mavericks): Guarantee increases from $150,000 to $200,000. (✔️)

December 15

  • Luke Babbitt (Hawks): Guarantee increases from $987,080 to $1,974,159 (fully guaranteed). (✔️)
    • Note: Babbitt’s fully guaranteed salary will count for $1,471,382 against cap.

January 7

Contract information from Basketball Insiders and ESPN was used in the creation of this post.

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2017 Hoops Rumors Retro Series

September 10th, 2017 at 10:54pm CST by Austin Kent

Ever get tired of the year 2017 and wish that you could travel back to a simpler time when athletes only made nine-digits and the NBA MVP didn’t dress like Mayim Bialik in Blossom?

With our Hoops Rumors Retro series you can.

Earlier this year we started experimenting with the idea of bringing back a transaction retrospective that shed a light on significant roster moves that helped shape the NBA landscape. In January, for example, I wrote about the mid-season trade that brought Dikembe Mutombo to a scary Sixers team in 2001 and another that sent Gary Payton to Milwaukee, inspiring half a season’s worth of unnatural photo ops in Bucks purple.

We were pleased with the reception that the pieces got at the time and have decided to bring them back into our rotation. I can’t be the only one, after all, who spent late August tweeting out pictures of Patrick Ewing in a Magic jersey while NBA Twitter and the blogosphere at large channeled their attention on the Isaiah Thomas–Kyrie Irving swap.

The truth is, the NBA is awesome. But it’s not just awesome now — it’s always been awesome. The only difference is the influx of content on the internet and how readily available everything is 24/7. How would the hoops world of 20, even 15 years ago, look through the lens of modern media? Imagine David Robinson‘s Instagram feed (trust me, it’s just colorized images of historic sea vessels) or Rik Smits‘ undoubtedly risqué Snapchat stories.

Back in the nineties, we didn’t have social media news or, sadly, even Hoops Rumors to whet our appetite for basketball news but that didn’t stop kids around the world from absorbing the game in any way that they could, even if that meant inferring the Stephon Marbury–Sam Cassell trade from a pack of basketball cards months after the fact because the last thing that they would ever broadcast on basic Canadian cable was a New Jersey Nets game circa 1999. What? No. Who’s bitter? You’re bitter.

Consider Hoops Rumors Retro, then, a series that pays homage to the landmark moments of yesteryear that never got the full internet treatment. It may have been a simpler time with less endless noise and narcissistic hot takes, sure, but think of the hours-long Basketball Reference deep dives we’d be losing. Or the unexpected Woj Bombs. Heck, if Alonzo Mourning ever got up on stage and started dancing at a Digital Underground concert, would anybody outside of the venue even know about it?

It’s almost enough to give these crazy kids a pass for fraternizing with their supposed division rivals on the red carpet of a fashion show.

Almost.

Below is a list of the Hoops Rumors Retro pieces we’ve run this year. Including the latest from just last week. If you have any suggestions for particularly memorable moments that you’d like to see brought to life in a feature, let us know in the comments below or by harassing me on Twitter.

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Extension Candidate: Clint Capela

September 10th, 2017 at 9:14pm CST by Austin Kent

The Rockets can be forgiven for not coming to terms on a contract extension with 23-year-old Clint Capela so far this offseason, but despite the fact that the franchise is undergoing a change in ownership, the deadline for locking in fourth year players looms.Clint Capela vertical

While Capela has been regarded as a low-key game-changer for Houston ever since a strong showing in the 2015 postseason, the steady strides that he’s made ever since have put him firmly on the fringe of the mainstream hoops community’s radar.

In 65 games for the Rockets last season, including 59 starts, Capela averaged 12.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. Those are per-minute production rates on par with some of the best versatile big men in the game. That the 6’10” center did so while shooting a staggering 64.3% from the floor puts him in a class of his own.

Houston will welcome Chris Paul this fall, and it’s hard to imagine Capela’s offense will do anything but continue to expand, considering the legendary playmaker’s ability to work with athletic big men like Tyson Chandler and DeAndre Jordan.

Of course whether or not Capela has made a case for an extension is only half the battle. The team will need to justify spending the money, something that’s not necessarily a given considering that the Rockets can so easily obliterate the luxury tax line in the coming years if they’re not careful.

Per Kevin Pelton of ESPN (via ABC), Houston will presumably sign Paul to a max contract next summer. That, paired with James Harden‘s monster extension, will give the Rockets over $80MM in committed salary for their backcourt alone.

Throw in the fact that Houston will commit over $40MM to the trio of Ryan Anderson, Eric Gordon and P.J. Tucker through 2019/20 and it’s not hard to forecast major luxury tax bills in new owner Tilman Fertitta‘s future.

Pelton projects that Capela and fellow free agent-to-be Trevor Ariza could seek a combined $20MM in salary (a figure that Capela alone could draw, if you ask me) and suddenly Houston runs the risk of annihilating the luxury tax line by nearly $20MM come 2019/20.

The Rockets, of course, could choose to let Ariza walk in the hopes of the recently acquired Tucker filling the role of scrappy perimeter defender, but even that scenario is complicated by the fact that Ariza and Paul have a close enough friendship to have supposedly influenced the trade that brought Paul over from the Clippers in the first place.

As Pelton suggests, the Rockets could make life considerably easier for themselves by finding a taker for the $60MM owed to Anderson through 2019/20. Doing so won’t be easy though.

If Houston has a plan in place, it’s not one that’s been broadcast at this point in the offseason. In May, we discussed a rather innocuous quote from general manager Daryl Morey suggesting that it would be “normal business” to discuss an extension, but all has been silent since.

If the Rockets choose to hold off on extending Capela, the big man would become a restricted free agent next summer. While the 2018 offseason is projected to be slightly tamer than the ones we’ve seen over the past two years, it’s hard to imagine Capela’s value going anywhere but up, relative to where it is currently.

Relative, however, is the operative term. Should the parties decide to go that route, Capela will look to compete with potential free agent centers like Joel Embiid, Jusuf Nurkic and Nerlens Noel, all promising anchors for teams looking to build youthful cores at a time when available cap room, a bountiful resource in 2016 and 2017, normalizes.

So sure, at the end of the day, the Rockets may be able to sit tight on Capela in hopes of retaining him at a lower rate via restricted free agency next summer but doing so would run the risk of letting a team like the Nets extend to him a poison pill offer sheet that Houston would be pressured to match, lest they let a significant part of their core walk just in time for the last few great years Paul will have left in the tank.

Perhaps the best bet for the Rockets when the dust settles from the ownership transition, then, is to square things away with Capela at a generous rate prior to the contract extension deadline on October 16 and then challenge Morey with the task of making the numbers work before Paul’s and Harden’s annual salaries start escalating dramatically after next season.

Regardless, just how the team handles the Capela contract could really shed light on Fertitta’s mentality with his new franchise. While it’s only my speculation, it seems logical enough to infer that an individual who just spent $2.2B on a sports franchise (well over the projected value) wouldn’t be opposed to shelling out extra luxury tax money to preserve one of the most talented cores of NBA players outside of the Bay Area.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Weekly Mailbag: 9/4/17 – 9/10/17

September 10th, 2017 at 12:31pm CST by Arthur Hill

We have an opportunity for you to hit us up with your questions in this, our weekly mailbag feature. Have a question regarding player movement, the salary cap or the NBA draft? Drop us a line at HoopsRumorsMailbag@Gmail.com.

Why did Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander lure Chris Paul to create a super team with James Harden only to sell the team two months later? — Greg Dizon

When Alexander announced that the team was for sale in July, the decision seemed to come out of nowhere. Team president Tad Brown said the 73-year-old didn’t have any health problems, but the day-to-day responsibilities of owning a franchise “can wear on you after so many decades.” Alexander owned the team for 24 years and said he has other passions he wants to pursue. Profit was undoubtedly another motivating factor as Alexander bought the team for $85MM in 1993 and sold it for a record $2.2B. The presence of an All-Star backcourt in Harden and Paul no doubt boosted that price a little bit.

What will the Bucks do with Jabari Parker? — Dan Vachalek, via Twitter

There was a report this week that Milwaukee has started extension talks with the 22-year-old forward, but circumstances make it seem doubtful anything will get done before the October 16 deadline. Parker is believed to be asking for a five-year maximum-salary extension, but the situation is complicated by his injury status. He is recovering from the second ACL tear of his career and won’t play again until sometime in 2018. Parker has been productive when healthy, averaging 20.1 points and 6.2 rebounds in 51 games last season, but the injuries are a concern. The Bucks will probably let him become a restricted free agent and try to work out a long-term deal next summer.

How many games this year will Celtics get a combined 50 points from Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward? — bmitch, via Twitter

Any number would just be a guess and it could be affected by injuries or other factors, but it’s clear that Irving and Hayward will be the top two options in Boston’s offense. The Celtics traded away their three leading scorers from last season in Isaiah Thomas (28.9 points per game), Avery Bradley (16.3) and Jae Crowder (13.9) and lost Kelly Olynyk (9.0) and Amir Johnson (6.5) to free agency. That’s a lot of points to replace. It’s hard to say how many times they’ll reach 50 together, but Irving and Hayward will be the leaders of the offense for as long as they’re both in Boston.

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Hoops Rumors Originals: 9/2/17 – 9/9/17

September 9th, 2017 at 12:35pm CST by Arthur Hill

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

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Community Shootaround: Lottery Reform

September 8th, 2017 at 6:32pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The NBA Competition Committee is considering a change to the current lottery system, as we passed along on Thursday, and the proposed terms of the new system include:

  • Teams would be able to drop four spots in the lottery. Currently teams can drop no more than three spots.
  • The three worst teams would have equal probabilities of landing the first pick.
  • The odds for those three worst teams would be flattened, closing the gap between their odds of landing the top pick and the subsequent teams’ odds of landing the top pick.

The reform would help to discourage tanking, something that commissioner Adam Silver would like to accomplish. The committee may vote on the proposal prior to the upcoming season and if it gains support, there could be a new system in place as soon as the 2018 draft, though it’s more likely that any changes are phased in over time.

That leads us to tonight’s topic: Should the NBA make these changes to the lottery or does the current system work for the league? Are there other alternatives to the latest proposal that would be better for the NBA?

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

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2017/18 NBA Non-Guaranteed Contracts By Team

September 8th, 2017 at 1:30pm CST by Luke Adams

As the NBA regular season approaches and teams reduce their rosters from the 20-player offseason limit to the 15-man regular season max, the best way to determine which players will survive preseason cuts is to assess their contracts. Players with guaranteed salaries for 2017/18 are far more likely to earn spots on 15-man rosters than players whose contracts aren’t fully guaranteed.

Keeping that in mind, we’re using the space below to keep tabs on the players on each NBA team who don’t have fully guaranteed contracts, using information from Basketball Insiders and ESPN. The players listed here have non-guaranteed salaries, partially guaranteed salaries, or Exhibit 9 or Exhibit 10 contracts, which essentially function like non-guaranteed deals. Unless otherwise noted, these players are on minimum salary contracts.

Not all of these players will be waived before the regular season begins, so we’ll maintain this list for the next several months, up until January 10, 2018. That’s the day that all players under contract have their salaries fully guaranteed for the rest of the 2017/18 season.

Some players on this list currently have partial guarantees or will have their salaries become guaranteed prior to January 10. We’ve noted those partial guarantees in parentheses, and our list of early salary guarantee dates can be found right here.

Only players who have formally signed contracts are listed below, so if a player has reportedly reached an agreement with a team on a non-guaranteed deal, we’ll add him to our list when that deal becomes official. For now, you can use our roster counts page to find those players whose deals have been reported but not finalized.

Our roster counts page also notes how many guaranteed salaries each team has on its books, which will provide an idea of which players listed below might have a better chance to earn a roster spot — a non-guaranteed player on a roster with 12 guaranteed salaries has better odds to make his team’s 15-man squad than a non-guaranteed player on a roster with 15 guaranteed salaries.

Without further ado, here’s the full list of players without fully guaranteed salaries for 2017/18, broken down by team:

Updated 1-10-17 (11:03am CT)

Atlanta Hawks

  • None

Boston Celtics

  • None

Brooklyn Nets

  • None

Charlotte Hornets

  • None

Chicago Bulls

  • None

Cleveland Cavaliers

  • None

Read more

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Trade Restrictions On Future Draft Picks By Team

September 6th, 2017 at 11:40am CST by Luke Adams

When trade scenarios are proposed and discussed throughout the season by NBA fans and observers, it’s easy enough to suggest that a team ought to throw in an extra first-round pick or two to sweeten the pot. However, sometimes it’s not quite that simple.

The NBA’s Ted Stepien Rule, named after a former Cavaliers owner who was fond of trading draft picks, prevents teams from trading away future first-round selections in back-to-back years. In other words, a club can’t be without at least one first-round pick (its own or another team’s) in consecutive future seasons. A team can still trade its first-round pick every year if it wants to, but if that club has already dealt away its 2018 first-rounder, it will have to wait until after the ’18 draft to trade its 2019 pick.

In some instances, this rule can be applied fairly easily. For example, the Lakers have traded away their unprotected 2018 pick. That prevents the club from trading its 2019 first-round pick unless it acquires a separate 2018 first-rounder. After the 2018 draft though, those restrictions disappear.

In other cases though, the Stepien Rule creates trickier challenges. For example, like the Lakers, the Rockets have traded away their 2018 pick, but Houston put top-three protection on its selection. That top-three protection extends through 2023 before the pick becomes unprotected in 2024.

It’s almost a certainty that Houston’s first-rounder will simply change hands in 2018, since the club is expected to be one of the NBA’s best and the pick figures to fall in the 20s. But because it’s not a sure thing, the Rockets are only allowed to conditionally trade their 2020 pick — there’s a chance that the 2018 pick could be protected and the 2019 pick would then be the one to change hands, so if Houston sent out its unprotected ’20 first-rounder, the team would be without future first-rounders in back-to-back years. So if the Rockets trade their 2020 pick this season, it must include language that calls for it to be pushed back one year for every year that the 2018 pick is (hypothetically) retained.

Confused? We’re here to help. Below, we’ve detailed whether each of the NBA’s 30 teams have any restrictions facing them during the 2017/18 season if they want to trade a first-round pick. Some teams’ restrictions are more complicated than others, so if you have any questions, jump into the comment section to ask.

Here’s the full breakdown:

Atlantic

  • Boston Celtics: No trade restrictions
    • Owed extra picks in 2018 and 2019.
  • Brooklyn Nets: Can’t trade 2019 pick (2018 pick traded).
    • Owed Raptors’ 2018 pick, but not guaranteed to receive it, since it’s top-14 protected.
  • New York Knicks: No trade restrictions.
  • Philadelphia 76ers: No trade restrictions
    • Owed an extra pick in 2018 or 2019, making them eligible to trade their own picks in both years.
  • Toronto Raptors: Can’t trade 2019 pick (2018 pick traded). Can only trade future picks conditionally (traded 2018 pick is protected through 2023).

Central

  • Chicago Bulls: No trade restrictions.
  • Cleveland Cavaliers: Can’t trade 2018 or 2020 pick (2019 pick traded). Can only trade 2021 pick conditionally (traded 2019 pick is protected through 2020).
    • Have traded away their own 2018 pick, but still hold Nets’ pick.
  • Detroit Pistons: Can’t trade 2019 pick (2018 pick traded). Can only trade 2020, 2021, and 2022 picks conditionally (traded 2018 pick protected until 2021).
  • Indiana Pacers: No trade restrictions.
  • Milwaukee Bucks: Can’t trade 2019 pick (2018 pick traded). Can only trade 2020, 2021, and 2022 picks conditionally (traded 2018 pick protected until 2021).

Southeast

  • Atlanta Hawks: No trade restrictions
    • Owed extra picks in 2018 and 2019.
  • Charlotte Hornets: No trade restrictions.
  • Miami Heat: Can’t trade 2019, 2020, or 2022 picks (2018 and 2021 picks traded).
  • Orlando Magic: No trade restrictions.
  • Washington Wizards: No trade restrictions.

Northwest

  • Denver Nuggets: No trade restrictions.
  • Minnesota Timberwolves: Can’t trade 2019 pick (2018 pick traded). Can only trade 2020 and 2021 picks conditionally (traded 2018 pick is protected through 2020).
    • Owed Thunder’s 2018 pick, but not guaranteed to receive it, since it’s top-14 protected.
  • Oklahoma City Thunder: Can’t trade 2019 or 2021 picks (2018 and 2020 picks traded). Can only trade 2022 and 2023 picks conditionally (traded 2020 pick is protected through 2022).
  • Portland Trail Blazers: No trade restrictions.
  • Utah Jazz: No trade restrictions.

Pacific

  • Golden State Warriors: No trade restrictions.
  • Los Angeles Clippers: Can’t trade 2020 pick (2019 pick traded). Can only trade 2021 pick conditionally (traded 2019 pick is protected through 2020).
    • Owed an extra 2018 pick, making them eligible to trade one of the two.
  • Los Angeles Lakers: Can’t trade 2019 pick (2018 pick traded).
  • Phoenix Suns: No trade restrictions
    • Owed extra picks in 2018 and 2021.
  • Sacramento Kings: Can’t trade 2018 or 2020 pick (2019 pick traded).

Southwest

  • Dallas Mavericks: No trade restrictions.
  • Houston Rockets: Can’t trade 2019 pick (2018 pick traded). Can only trade future picks conditionally (traded 2018 pick is protected until 2024).
  • Memphis Grizzlies: Can’t trade 2018 or 2020 pick (2019 pick traded). Can only trade 2021 and 2022 picks conditionally (traded 2019 pick is protected until 2021).
  • New Orleans Pelicans: No trade restrictions.
  • San Antonio Spurs: No trade restrictions.

Information from RealGM was used in the creation of this post.

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Hoops Rumors Retro: Antonio McDyess To The Nuggets

September 5th, 2017 at 7:26pm CST by Austin Kent

Before the chair, before Grandpa Pierce, before DeAndre Jordan‘s infamous change of heart and the Emoji War that inspired it, there was Antonio McDyess. McDyess, obviously, but then of course French-Canadian ice hockey legend Patrick Roy, an impromptu charter flight across the southwest, dozens of unanswered pager calls and a good old-fashioned Rocky Mountain blizzard.Antonio McDyess vertical

In January 1999, a 24-year-old with jetpacks for calves and long sinewy arms found himself at an emotional fork in the road. Fresh off of his third season in the NBA and his first in the desert, Suns power forward Antonio McDyess had the choice between re-signing with the team he just won 56 games with or returning to the basement-dwelling franchise that shipped him out of town less than 18 months prior.

After playing his first two seasons with the Nuggets and establishing himself as one of the most satisfyingly athletic big men in the game, McDyess enjoyed his first taste of team success following his arrival in Phoenix. The trade that sent him from Denver to the Suns prior to that 1997/98 season was precipitated by the fact that McDyess and his representative, Arn Tellem, were seeking a six-year, $100MM contract extension back when the club’s front office refused to go any higher than $70MM.

“I guess they had no choice but to trade me,” he said at the time, adding shortly thereafter that he didn’t think there was any possible way he would return to the Nuggets when he hit free agency seven months later.

Of course it was seven months later when things got unprecedentedly interesting.

Read more

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2017 Extension Candidate Series

September 4th, 2017 at 8:09pm CST by Luke Adams

Multiple NBA players have signed contract extensions so far this offseason, as James Harden secured a new deal with the Rockets and John Wall committed to the Wizards for several more years. In each of those instances, the All-Star guard in question received a Designated Veteran Extension worth the maximum allowable 35% of the cap, meaning negotiations weren’t exactly required.

For most players eligible for contract extensions this year, however, that won’t be the case. So up until the regular season begins, we’ll be focusing on several of those extension-eligible players, examining their case for a new deal and the likelihood that they get something done with their team.

We’ll continue to update the list below each time we write about a new player, so be sure to check back for the latest links. Here are the extension-eligible players we’ve discussed so far:

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