Mobile Menu
HEADLINES

Hoops Rumors Originals

Hoops Rumors Originals: 7/31/16-8/6/16

August 6th, 2016 at 2:03pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Here’s a look back at the original content and analysis generated by the Hoops Rumors staff this past week.

Retweet 4 Share 1 Send via email0

Poll: 2005 NBA Draft Take Two (Pick No. 5)

August 6th, 2016 at 12:17pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Drafting players is far from an exact science, and many a GM has been second-guessed for his draft night decisions. While life, and the NBA, doesn’t often allow for second chances, we at Hoops Rumors believe it’s fun to give our readers a second take at picking players, complete with the benefit of hindsight.

We’ve previously tackled the 2003 and 2013 NBA Drafts and the next one we’re tackling is 2005’s, the year that the Bucks nabbed big man Andrew Bogut with the No. 1 overall pick. That year’s draft class is generally viewed as one of the weaker ones in recent memory, though, there were quite a few second-rounders that year (Ersan Ilyasova, Monta Ellis, Lou Williams, Amir Johnson and Marcin Gortat) who have gone on to have very solid NBA careers.

In the weeks ahead, we’ll be posting a series of reader polls that ask you to vote on the player whom you believe should have been selected with each pick. We’ll continue onward with the Bobcats/Hornets, who held the No. 5 pick that season. Readers, you are now on the clock! Cast your vote for Charlotte’s pick and check back Sunday night for the results, as well as for your chance to vote for whom the Trail Blazers should have taken at No. 6. But don’t limit yourself to a simple button click. Take to the comments section below and share your thoughts on the pick and why you voted the way that you did. Also, if I fail to list a player who you think should be selected, feel free to post that in the comments section and I’ll be certain to tally those votes as well.

Selections

  1. Bucks — Chris Paul [Actual Pick — Andrew Bogut]
  2. Hawks — Deron Williams [Actual Pick — Marvin Williams]
  3. Jazz — Monta Ellis [Actual Pick — Deron Williams]
  4. Hornets/Pelicans — Andrew Bogut [Actual Pick — Chris Paul]
  5. Bobcats/Hornets — ? [Actual Pick — Raymond Felton]

If you’re a Trade Rumors app user, click here.

Retweet 5 Share 1 Send via email0

Free Agent Spending By Division: Central

August 5th, 2016 at 11:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Over the course of the last week, we’ve been breaking down 2016 NBA free agent spending by division, examining which teams – and divisions – were the most active this summer.

These divisional breakdowns won’t present a full picture of teams’ offseason spending. Some notable free agents, including LeBron James, remain unsigned, so there’s still money out there to be spent. Our lists also don’t include money spent on this year’s first- and second-round picks or draft-and-stash signings. There are a few free agent names missing in some instances as well, since those deals aren’t yet official or terms haven’t been reported.

Still, these closer looks at divisional spending should generally reveal how teams invested their money in free agency this summer, identifying which clubs went all-out and which ones played it safe.

With the help of our Free Agent Tracker and contract info from Basketball Insiders, we’ll focus today on the Central division. Our breakdowns of all five other divisions can be found linked at the bottom of this post.

Let’s dive in…

1. Detroit Pistons

  • Total money committed: $207,171,313
  • Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $207,171,313
  • Largest expenditure: Andre Drummond (five years, $127,171,313)
  • Other notable signings:
  • Notes:
    • Ray McCallum’s deal is not included in these totals, since it’s a summer contract which won’t count toward the Pistons’ cap unless he makes the regular-season roster.

2. Milwaukee Bucks

  • Total money committed: $119,530,000
  • Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $119,530,000
  • Largest expenditure: Miles Plumlee (four years, $49,600,000)
  • Other notable signings:
  • Notes:
    • Dellavedova’s contract was technically the result of a sign-and-trade deal by the Cavaliers, but we’re considering it a Milwaukee signing.

3. Chicago Bulls

  • Total money committed: $78,532,117
  • Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $65,215,696
  • Largest expenditure: Dwyane Wade (two years, $47,000,000)
  • Other notable signings:
  • Notes:
    • Rondo’s second-year salary of $13.397MM is partially guaranteed for $3MM.

4. Indiana Pacers

  • Total money committed: $32,700,000
  • Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $26,700,000
  • Largest expenditure: Al Jefferson (three years, $30,000,000)
  • Other notable signings:
  • Notes:
    • Jefferson’s third-year salary of $10MM is partially guaranteed for $4MM.

5. Cleveland Cavaliers

  • Total money committed: $9,573,362
  • Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $6,960,862
  • Largest expenditure: Richard Jefferson (three years, $7,612,500)
  • Other notable signings:
  • Notes:
    • Andersen and Jones will earn $1,551,659 apiece on their minimum-salary deals, but will only be paid $980,431 each by the Cavaliers, with the NBA on the hook for the rest.
    • Jefferson’s third-year salary of $2,612,500 is fully non-guaranteed.
    • DeAndre Liggins‘ deal has been officially signed, but exact terms of that contract haven’t been reported, so we haven’t included it in the Cavs’ totals for now.
    • The Cavs have also yet to formally re-sign LeBron James, whose new contract will bump up the club’s free agent expenditures significantly. A new deal for J.R. Smith may also be on the horizon.

Previously:

WEST:

EAST:

Retweet 14 Share 3 Send via email0

Submit Your Questions For Hoops Rumors Mailbag

August 5th, 2016 at 10:16pm CST by Eddie Scarito

We at Hoops Rumors love interacting with our readers. This is why we provide an opportunity for you to hit us up with your questions in our weekly mailbag feature, which is posted every Sunday.

Have a question regarding player movement, free agent rumors, the salary cap, the NBA draft, or the top storylines of the week? You can e-mail them here: hoopsrumorsmailbag@gmail.com. Feel free to send emails throughout the week, but please be mindful that we may receive a sizable number of questions and might not get to all of them.

If you missed out on any past mailbags and would like to catch up, you can view the full archives here.

Retweet 4 Share 1 Send via email0

Salary Cap Snapshot: Denver Nuggets

August 5th, 2016 at 8:45pm CST by Eddie Scarito

With the free agent signing period winding down and teams looking ahead to the preseason, we at Hoops Rumors will be tracking the Salary Cap figures for each team around the league. These posts will be maintained throughout the season once financial data is reported. They will be located on the sidebar throughout the year, once all the teams’ cap figures have been relayed. You can always check RosterResource.com for up-to-date rosters for each franchise, with the Nuggets’ team page accessible here.

Here’s a breakdown of where the Nuggets currently stand financially:

Guaranteed Salary

Total Guaranteed Salary= $82,581,936

Cash Sent Out Via Trade: $0 [Amount Remaining $3.5MM]

Cash Received Via Trade: $3.5MM — Received $650K from Hawks in Mo Williams trade. Received $2.85MM from Trail Blazers in Mason Plumlee trade. [Amount Remaining $0]

Payroll Exceptions Available

  • Room Exception: $2,898,000

Total Projected Payroll: $82,581,936

Salary Cap: $94,143,000

Estimated Available Cap Space: $11,561,064

Luxury Tax Threshold: $113,287,000

Amount Below Luxury Tax: $30,705,064

Salary Cap Floor: $84,729,000

Amount Below Salary Cap Floor: $2,147,064

Last Updated: 2/24/17

The Basketball Insiders salary pages and The Vertical’s salary database were used in the creation of this post.

Retweet 16 Share 1 Send via email0

Poll: 2005 NBA Draft Take Two (Pick No. 4)

August 5th, 2016 at 5:15pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Drafting players is far from an exact science, and many a GM has been second-guessed for his draft night decisions. While life, and the NBA, doesn’t often allow for second chances, we at Hoops Rumors believe it’s fun to give our readers a second take at picking players, complete with the benefit of hindsight.

We’ve previously tackled the 2003 and 2013 NBA Drafts and the next one we’re tackling is 2005’s, the year that the Bucks nabbed big man Andrew Bogut with the No. 1 overall pick. That year’s draft class is generally viewed as one of the weaker ones in recent memory, though, there were quite a few second-rounders that year (Ersan Ilyasova, Monta Ellis, Lou Williams, Amir Johnson and Marcin Gortat) who have gone on to have very solid NBA careers.

In the weeks ahead, we’ll provide a series of reader polls that ask you to vote on the player whom you believe should have been selected with each pick. We’ll continue onward with the Hornets/Pelicans, who held the No. 4 pick that season. Readers, you are now on the clock! Cast your vote for New Orleans’s pick and check back Saturday night for the results, as well as for your chance to vote for whom the Charlotte Bobcats should have taken at No. 5. But don’t limit yourself to a simple button click. Take to the comments section below and share your thoughts on the pick and why you voted the way that you did. Also, if I fail to list a player who you think should be selected, feel free to post that in the comments section and I’ll be certain to tally those votes as well.

Selections

  1. Bucks — Chris Paul [Actual Pick — Andrew Bogut]
  2. Hawks — Deron Williams [Actual Pick — Marvin Williams]
  3. Jazz — Monta Ellis [Actual Pick — Deron Williams]
  4. Hornets/Pelicans — ? [Actual Pick — Chris Paul]

If you’re a Trade Rumors app user, click here.

Retweet 5 Share 1 Send via email0

Players Eligible For Veteran Extensions

August 5th, 2016 at 1:38pm CST by Luke Adams

Outside of Kevin Durant, perhaps the two most notable stars to sign new contracts so far this summer are players who weren’t yet free agents. James Harden renegotiated and extended his deal with the Rockets, while Russell Westbrook recently did the same with the Thunder. In both cases, the player received a significant raise on his 2016/17 salary in addition to tacking on a couple extra years to his contract.

The Rockets and Thunder, however, were only permitted to bump up Harden’s and Westbrook’s current-year salaries because they had the cap space necessary to accommodate those raises. For over-the-cap teams, contracts can be extended, but renegotiated raises of that magnitude aren’t allowed. Veteran players are generally only eligible to sign extensions with a new starting salary worth up to 7.5% more than the salary in the final season of the contract under its existing terms, or, in special cases, the contract’s average salary.

Veteran extensions aren’t like rookie-scale extensions, which allow teams to go over the cap to sign players for a salary up to the maximum. Plus, veteran extensions can cover no more than three new seasons (four total), whereas rookie-scale extensions can run as long as five. That’s why rookie-scale extensions are fairly common, while veteran extensions are much rarer — it usually makes more sense for veterans to wait until free agency, even if they want to re-up with their current teams.

Further limiting the scope of veteran extensions is the fact that a player may only sign one if he’s been under his existing contract for three years, or once three years have passed since the last time he signed an extension. That means any contract that doesn’t run at least four seasons can’t be extended.

The limitations on veteran extensions mean that we likely won’t see many more of those deals agreed upon this offseason, if any at all. There are some teams, such as the Jazz and Sixers, who have the cap room necessary to give their extension-eligible players a renegotiated raise for 2016/17, making such a deal plausible. And some extension-eligible veterans may not be in line for a major pay increase in 2017’s free agent period anyway, making them more inclined to ink an extension now. For the most part though, these players will eventually reach free agency without a new agreement in place.

The complete list of players currently eligible for veteran extensions is as follows:

* — These players have been traded within the last six months, so they face further constraints. Veteran extensions for them can cover only two new years (three total), and the starting salary can be no more than 4.5% greater than the salary in the last season of the existing contract.

See the list of players eligible for rookie-scale extensions right here.

Roster Resource was used in the creation of this post. Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Retweet 3 Share 2 Send via email0

Community Shootaround: Miami Heat

August 5th, 2016 at 11:48am CST by Luke Adams

It’s been an offseason of surprises in Miami, where the Heat’s roster looks much different than it did a couple months ago.

After months of posturing over whether or not the team would be willing to offer Hassan Whiteside the max, Miami relented, holding off aggressive rival suitors to re-sign the star center to a four-year deal. However, several days later, the Heat lost their other key free agent, longtime star guard Dwyane Wade, when he decided to head to Chicago. With Wade no longer on their books, the Heat turned around and matched Tyler Johnson‘s pricey four-year offer sheet from the Nets, an outcome that likely surprised even Johnson.

The Heat also got one of the bargains of the summer when they signed Dion Waiters using their room exception, but the addition of Waiters – along with veterans like James Johnson, Wayne Ellington, and Luke Babbitt – raises questions about the club’s plan for 2016/17.

Will Miami hand the reins to young players like Whiteside, Johnson, Justise Winslow, and Josh Richardson, and start looking ahead to the future? Or is this still a team focused on immediately contending with the help of its veterans?

The status of Chris Bosh could go a long way toward determining the Heat’s future, at least in the short term. If Bosh can return to the court, the club will have its eye on the playoffs and on the 2017 free agent market, where it could pursue an impact player to complement Whiteside, Bosh, and the team’s other core players. If Bosh is deemed medically unfit to return, the Heat may shift into retooling mode. Of course, even with Bosh on the floor, it doesn’t look like Miami has enough talent to seriously challenge LeBron James and the Cavaliers in the East.

Complicating matters is Russell Westbrook‘s recent extension with the Thunder — if the Heat were already looking ahead to the 2017 free agent period, Westbrook likely would have been atop the club’s wish list. Instead, he no longer looks like a viable target until at least 2018.

What do you think? How do you think the Heat should move forward? Should they shift into retooling mode, allowing their young players to take on larger roles? Or should the team still be exploring the trade market and looking ahead to next summer’s free agent market in an effort to make upgrades and compete immediately? Are those two scenarios even mutually exclusive, or is there a way for the club to do both?

Take to the comments section below to share your opinions on the Heat. We look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Retweet 11 Share 3 Send via email0

Players With Trade Kickers

August 4th, 2016 at 10:38pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Trade kickers are contractual clauses that pay players a bonus when they’re traded, and they represent one of the tools teams have to differentiate their free agent offers from the deals competing clubs put on the table. According to the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the bonus must be paid by the team that trades the player, rather than the acquiring team.

Sometimes the kicker is a fixed amount, but usually it’s based on a percentage of the remaining value of the contract. So, a player who has a 10% trade kicker is given 10% of the amount of money he’s yet to collect on his deal. Regardless of whether the trade kicker is set at a fixed amount or a percentage, the bonus can’t exceed 15% of the remaining value of the contract. That means that if a set amount of $1MM would equal more than 15% of what the player is owed, the kicker would pay out less than $1MM in the event of a trade. If you want a more detailed explanation of how trade kickers work, check out our Hoops Rumors Glossary entry on the subject.

Most trade kickers are worth 15%, the highest percentage allowed. The trade kicker that Tyreke Evans is unusual, as it calls for him to see either a set amount ($1MM) or 15% of the value of his contract, whichever is less. Below is a list of every NBA player with an active trade kicker, listed alphabetically, along with the details of the kickers. Players who signed deals this summer are marked with an asterisk.

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

Retweet 9 Share 1 Send via email0

Salary Cap Snapshot: Dallas Mavericks

August 4th, 2016 at 6:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

With the free agent signing period winding down and teams looking ahead to the preseason, we at Hoops Rumors ware tracking the Salary Cap figures for each team around the league.  These posts will be maintained throughout the season once new financial data is reported. They will be located on the sidebar throughout the year, once all the teams’ cap figures have been relayed. The next franchise we’ll be looking at are the Dallas Mavericks, who currently are well over the league’s salary cap of $94,143,000 for the 2016/17 season. You can always check RosterResource.com for up-to-date rosters for each franchise, with the Mavericks’ team page accessible here.

Here’s a breakdown of where the Mavs currently stand financially:

Guaranteed Salary

Total Guaranteed Salary= $103,625,983

Cash Sent Out Via Trade: Sent $3,227,286 to Jazz as part of Jeremy Evans trade [Amount Remaining $272,714]

Cash Received Via Trade: $0 [Amount Remaining $3.5MM]

Payroll Exceptions Available

  • Trade Exception: $6,642,537 (Andrew Bogut trade) — Expires on 2/23/18
  • Trade Exception: $1,514,160 (Justin Anderson trade) — Expires on 2/23/18
  • Room Exception: $0 (used on Seth Curry)

Total Projected Payroll: $103,625,983

Salary Cap: $94,143,000

Available Cap Space: –$9,482,983

Luxury Tax Threshold: $113,287,000

Estimated Amount Below Luxury Tax: $9,661,017

Last Updated: 4/15/17

The Basketball Insiders salary pages and The Vertical’s salary database were used in the creation of this post.

Retweet 10 Share 1 Send via email0
Load More Posts