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Community Shootaround: Should Raptors Trade Pascal Siakam?

August 7th, 2023 at 4:18pm CST by Rory Maher

The Raptors find themselves at a crossroads entering the 2023/24 season. The same is true of All-Star forward Pascal Siakam.

Despite everyone around the league keying in on Toronto as a possible seller at the February trade deadline, the team instead decided to make a win-now move, trading away a 2024 first-round pick to land center Jakob Poeltl. The Raptors played better down the stretch with the Austrian big man in the lineup, but they ultimately finished just 41-41 and were quickly eliminated from the play-in tournament.

Toronto lost guard Fred VanVleet — Siakam’s longtime running mate — to Houston in free agency, replacing him with Dennis Schröder. While Schröder is a solid player, most would consider him a pretty significant downgrade from VanVleet. And Toronto’s other notable offseason moves — signing Jalen McDaniels and drafting Gradey Dick — are unlikely to have a major impact on the standings in ’23/24.

Siakam, meanwhile, is entering the final year of his contract, and the Raptors won’t want to lose him for nothing like they did with VanVleet. The Hawks have been repeatedly mentioned as a trade suitor for the two-time All-NBA member this offseason. The Pacers and Trail Blazers have been cited at times as well, though Portland seems an unlikely destination after Damian Lillard‘s trade request.

Siakam reportedly doesn’t want to play anywhere but Toronto. He’s coming on off an excellent season in ’22/23, averaging 24.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 5.8 assists in 71 games (37.4 minutes), with the points and assists per game representing career highs.

The 29-year-old is a long, versatile play-maker who isn’t a great shooter — similar to ’21/22 Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes. OG Anunoby is another rangy forward on the roster who’s entering the final year of his deal, but the Raptors reportedly aren’t open to moving the All-Defensive Second Team member.

The decision to move Siakam or not certainly isn’t a simple one for the Raptors. Siakam, the ’18/19 Most Improved Player, has blossomed into a legitimate star, and the Raptors haven’t had much success landing top-tier free agents. There’s a real chance they could give him a contract extension if they don’t deal him.

If they move Siakam to free up bigger roles for Barnes and Anunoby, what would a return package look like? Masai Ujiri hasn’t shown any inclination to entertain a rebuild in the past, so draft picks are unlikely to be of much interest. Perhaps young players who would better fit the roster could make sense, but who can meet that ask?

We want to know what you think. Should the Raptors trade Siakam? Should they extend him? Or should they wait until the trade deadline or next offseason to resolve the matter? Head to the comments and share your thoughts. We look forward to your input.

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Community Shootaround: 2023/24 Most Improved Player

August 6th, 2023 at 8:41pm CST by Rory Maher

The NBA’s Most Improved Player award has an impressive list of winners since it was created ahead of the 1985/86 season. That’s been particularly true since ’12/13, with Paul George, Goran Dragic, Jimmy Butler, CJ McCollum, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Oladipo, Pascal Siakam, Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle, Ja Morant and most recently Lauri Markkanen honored over that span.

Over the past couple decades, the award has favored rising young players — 17 of the past 23 winners had played fewer than five seasons. However, two of the past three winners — Randle and Markkanen — broke that mold, as Randle won following his seventh season, while Markkanen just completed his sixth.

Attempting to predict the future is often a fool’s errand, obviously, but I’ve always enjoyed the MIP award because it’s fun to see players exceed what people may have thought they were capable of, and unexpected breakout seasons are both entertaining and rewarding.

According to BetOnline.ag, the way-too-early list of favorites for the 2023/24 Most Improved Player award is as follows:

Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley (+2500) and Thunder wing Jalen Williams (+2800) just missed out on the top 10.

Poole might seem like an odd choice to be the early favorite given his playoff struggles to end last season, but it makes some sense. There’s a good chance he’ll put up big offensive numbers for the Wizards after they traded Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis, their two leading scorers in ’22/23; he often did the same when Stephen Curry was injured.

I wonder if the mini-breakout Bridges had with Brooklyn after the team acquired him at the February deadline might work against him to an extent for MIP in ’23/24. It’ll be hard to top his averages with the Nets from last season — 26.1 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.0 SPG on .475/.376/.894 shooting in 27 games (34.2 MPG).

Barnes — the ’21/22 Rookie of the Year — would likely benefit individually if Toronto decides to trade Pascal Siakam, as their skill sets have a good deal of overlap. Sharpe will almost certainly have a bigger role next season if Portland eventually trades Damian Lillard as well.

Cunningham’s strong performance with the U.S. Select Team is worth noting after the former No. 1 overall pick missed the majority of last season with a shin injury. I’m not going to go over all the early betting favorites, but I do think it’s a solid list given we’re still two-plus months from the season starting and there are so many unknown variables in play.

That brings us to our question of the day: Who is your early pick for the 2023/24 Most Improved Player award? Head to the comments and let us know what you think.

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NBA Players With Trade Kickers In 2023/24

August 6th, 2023 at 10:26am CST by Luke Adams

A trade kicker is a contractual clause that pays an NBA player a bonus when he’s traded. They’re one of the tools teams have at their disposal to differentiate their free agent offers from the ones put on the table by competing clubs — or to incentivize a player to sign an extension before he reaches free agency.

Sometimes the kicker is worth 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 eligible for a bonus worth 10% of the amount of money he has yet to collect on his deal.

Regardless of whether a trade kicker is set at a fixed amount or a percentage, the bonus can’t exceed 15% of the remaining value of the contract. Most trade kickers are worth 15%, the highest percentage allowed.

A trade bonus must be paid by the team that trades the player, rather than the team acquiring him. The current Collective Bargaining Agreement also allows a player to waive his trade kicker as part of a deal, if he so chooses.

If you want a more detailed explanation of how trade kickers work, check out the Hoops Rumors Glossary entry on the subject.

Here’s a list of the NBA players who have active trade kickers for 2023/24, listed alphabetically, along with the details of those trade bonuses:

The following players have trade bonuses on their contracts, but those bonuses would be voided if they were to be traded during the 2023/24 league year, since they’re already earning this season’s maximum salary:

The following players have signed contract extensions that will include trade kickers, but those extensions won’t go into effect until at least the 2024/25 season:

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Community Shootaround: Cavaliers’ Offseason

August 5th, 2023 at 4:01pm CST by Rory Maher

The Cavaliers made a major splash last summer, trading for star guard Donovan Mitchell after an impressive turnaround in 2021/22. Mitchell made his first All-NBA appearance in ’22/23 following an excellent all-around year, but Cleveland — which went 51-31 during the regular season and entered the playoffs as the East’s No. 4 seed — had an early postseason exit, falling to the Knicks in a rather lopsided first-round series.

In addition to experience, the Cavaliers needed to find more shooting, depth and perhaps most importantly a good fit at small forward entering ’23/24. The team prioritized re-signing free agent swignman Caris LeVert as well, giving him a two-year, $32MM contract.

As an over-the-cap team, the Cavs didn’t have a ton of money to spend on free agents this offseason, and they only held one pick in June’s draft — 49th overall — which they used on former Eastern Michigan wing Emoni Bates, later signing him to a two-way contract. They also quickly reached an agreement to sign undrafted guard Craig Porter Jr. to a two-way deal and filled their third two-way slot by re-signing Isaiah Mobley.

In free agency, the Cavaliers took advantage of the new CBA’s more lenient salary-matching rules for non-taxpaying teams to give former Heat wing Max Strus more money than he previously would have been eligible for based on the outgoing salaries involved in the sign-and-trade to land him. They also gave forward Georges Niang a significant chunk of their non-taxpayer mid-level exception and used a portion of their bi-annual exception on guard Ty Jerome.

As our roster count shows, the Cavs still have a couple of standard roster spots open, but will almost certainly only add one more player to their main roster due to their proximity to the luxury tax. All three two-way slots are filled, as previously mentioned. Eventually, they’ll add some players on Exhibit 10 training camp deals to fill out their G League team.

Here’s a more condensed rundown of their offseason moves:

Roster additions:

Subtractions:

  • Cedi Osman (traded to Spurs in Strus deal)
  • Lamar Stevens (same as Osman, except Stevens was released before his contract became guaranteed and is currently an unrestricted free agent; he’s ineligible to re-sign with Cleveland)
  • Dylan Windler (joined Knicks on two-way deal)
  • Robin Lopez (signed with Bucks)
  • Raul Neto (signed with Turkish club Fenerbahce)

Danny Green and Mamadi Diakite (two-way) remain unrestricted free agents.

It’s worth noting that Ricky Rubio, who returned to action last season following a torn ACL, recently announced that he was taking a break from basketball to focus on his mental health. It’s unclear how that will affect the veteran guard’s status entering next season.

We want to know what you think. Did the Cavs improve this summer? Will they advance past the first round of the playoffs in 2023/24, assuming they make it in? Head to the comments and share your thoughts on Cleveland’s offseason.

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Hoops Rumors’ 2023 NBA Free Agent Tracker

August 5th, 2023 at 12:00pm CST by Luke Adams

We’re over a month into the 2023 free agent period, and while the news cycle has slowed down drastically since early July, contract agreements continue to be announced and/or reported on a near-daily basis.

Hoops Rumors is here to help you keep tabs on which players are heading to which teams this offseason, using our Free Agent Tracker, a feature we’ve maintained each year since our inception in 2012. Using our tracker, you can quickly look up deals, sorting by team, position, free agent type, and a handful of other variables.

A few notes on the tracker:

  • Some of the information you’ll find in the tracker will reflect tentative agreements, rather than finalized deals. As signings become official, we’ll continue to update and modify the data as needed.
  • Similarly, contract years and dollars will be based on what’s been reported to date, so in some cases those amounts will be approximations rather than official figures. Salaries aren’t necessarily fully guaranteed either.
  • Players who have reportedly agreed to training camp/Exhibit 10 deals won’t be added to the tracker until those deals are official.
  • A restricted free agent who signs an offer sheet won’t be included in the tracker right away. We’ll wait to hear whether the player’s original team will match or pass on that offer sheet before we update our tracker, in order to avoid any confusion.
  • If you’re viewing the tracker on our mobile site, be sure to turn your phone sideways to see more details.

Our 2023 Free Agent Tracker can be found anytime on the right sidebar of our desktop site under “Hoops Rumors Features,” and it’s also under the “Tools” menu atop the site. On our mobile site, it can be found in our menu under “Free Agent Lists.”

The tracker will be updated throughout the offseason, so be sure to check back for the latest info. If you have any corrections, please let us know right here.

Our lists of free agents by position/type and by team break down the players who have yet to reach contract agreements.

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Players Who Can’t Be Traded Until January 15

August 5th, 2023 at 7:55am CST by Luke Adams

As we detailed in an earlier article, players who signed new contracts as free agents during the 2023/24 league year can’t be traded for three months or until December 15, whichever comes later. That means that nearly every team has at least one player – and often more than one – who won’t become trade-eligible until mid-December.

There’s also a small subset of free agent signees whose trade ineligibility lasts for an extra month. These players all meet a specific set of criteria: Not only did they re-sign with their previous team this offseason, but they got a raise of at least 20%, their salary is worth more than the minimum, and their team was over the cap, using Bird or Early Bird rights to sign them.

Listed below are the players who meet this criteria and can’t be traded until at least January 15, 2024. Players who have the ability to veto trades in 2023/24 are marked with a caret (^).

We’ll continue to update this page over the next few months, if necessary.

Brooklyn Nets

Charlotte Hornets

Chicago Bulls

Los Angeles Lakers

Milwaukee Bucks

New Orleans Pelicans

Orlando Magic

Philadelphia 76ers

Portland Trail Blazers

Sacramento Kings

San Antonio Spurs

Toronto Raptors

Washington Wizards

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Players Who Can’t Be Traded Until December 15

August 4th, 2023 at 1:15pm CST by Luke Adams

As teams explore the trade market for potential deals to complete their rosters for training camp, there are a number of trade restrictions those clubs must take into account. Most notably, newly signed free agents can’t be dealt until at least December 15.

The NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement states that a free agent who signs with an NBA team can’t be traded for three months or until December 15, whichever is later. There are also some recently signed players who meet a few specific criteria and can’t be traded until January 15. That list of players can be found right here.

The players who aren’t eligible to be traded until December 15 are listed below.

Players whose contracts haven’t been officially finalized aren’t yet listed below. Players who have the ability to veto trades in 2023/24 are marked with a caret (^). Players on non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed contracts are marked with an asterisk (*).

We’ll continue to update this page over the next few months as players are signed or waived.

Updated 12-15-23 (7:00am CT)

Atlanta Hawks

Boston Celtics

Brooklyn Nets

Charlotte Hornets

Chicago Bulls

Cleveland Cavaliers

Dallas Mavericks

Read more

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NBA Players Who Can Veto Trades In 2023/24

August 2nd, 2023 at 12:43pm CST by Luke Adams

No-trade clauses are rare in the NBA, since a player must meet a specific set of criteria in order to qualify for one. And even those players who become eligible may not have the leverage to demand a no-trade clause, which significantly limits a team’s flexibility in future trade negotiations.

To be eligible to negotiate a no-trade clause, a player must have at least eight years of NBA experience and has to have spent at least four years (not necessarily the most recent four years) with his current team. He also must be signing a free agent contract, rather than an extension.

[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: No-Trade Clause]

Bradley Beal is the only NBA player who currently has a no-trade clause in his contract. The presence of that clause limited his trade market this past offseason when the Wizards sought to move him and helped steer him to a preferred destination (Phoenix) for a relatively modest return.

Although Beal is the only player who has an explicit no-trade clause, there are several others who will have implicit no-trade clauses in 2023/24, giving them the ability to veto trades during the current league year.

A player who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year contract – or a two-year deal with an option year – is given no-trade protection, unless he agrees to give up that protection when he inks his deal. That group doesn’t include players on two-way contracts, but it does include players who accept standard (non two-way) one-year qualifying offers.

A player who signs an offer sheet and has that offer matched by his previous team also has the ability to veto a trade for a full calendar year.

With those criteria in mind, here are the players who must give their consent if their teams want to trade them during the ’23/24 league year:

Players with a no-trade clause:

Players whose offer sheets were matched:

Players re-signing for one year (or two years, with a second-year player/team option):

If any player who re-signed for one year approves a trade during the 2023/24 league year, he’ll have Non-Bird rights at season’s end instead of Early Bird or full Bird rights.

A handful of players with veto rights consented to trades during the 2022/23 season, including Mike Muscala, Serge Ibaka, Ryan Arcidiacono, and Kessler Edwards. Muscala and Edwards eventually had their team options for ’23/24 picked up, so their Bird rights – only lack thereof – didn’t come into play this summer. Ibaka and Arcidiacono, meanwhile, were waived before season’s end, meaning they didn’t enter the offseason with any form of Bird rights anyway.

Any player who approves a trade will retain his veto ability on his new team, and would have to consent to any subsequent deal during the 2023/24 season.

The following players were re-signed to one-year contracts (or two-year deals with an option year), but agreed to give up their right to veto a trade in 2023/24:

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Community Shootaround: Which Non-Heat Team Should Pursue Lillard?

August 2nd, 2023 at 8:01am CST by Luke Adams

We’re now more than a month removed from Damian Lillard‘s trade request, which he submitted on July 1, and the Trail Blazers don’t appear to be much closer to moving the star guard today than they were at that time.

Lillard’s insistence that he only wants to play for the Heat has limited his market, as have the four years and $216MM left on his contract, which has reportedly made teams wary about giving up a significant package for him.

The Blazers are essentially stuck at an impasse, apparently “disinclined” to seriously engage with the Heat but also without any other viable options available to them for the time being, as ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said during an NBA Today appearance on Tuesday (YouTube link).

“As I look across the league and have conversations with executives and agents, I can’t identify another team that is seriously making an offer for Dame Lillard at this point,” Windhorst said. “And so my belief is that the Heat can’t either.

“And so while people can look at what the Heat’s offer might be and scoff at it, if their offer is the only one on the table, it therefore is the best one on the table. And the fact that Portland isn’t going forward with anything is a verification of that, that they don’t have another offer. So, very low incentive for the Heat to improve their offer at this point, and no incentive really right now for Portland to take that offer. And we have a stare-down.”

As ESPN’s Windhorst and Adrian Wojnarowski have said, and as Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald reiterates, Miami has no desire to bid against itself in an effort to bring Portland back to the negotiating table, but remains hopeful that the Blazers will be willing to reopen those conversations at some point in the coming weeks.

A veteran assistant coach who spoke to Jackson suggests that the Heat and Blazers both have some incentive to try to get something done before the regular season begins. If Miami is going to acquire Lillard, the assistant observes, the team would prefer to do it sooner rather than later in order to begin establishing chemistry with its new-look roster following the loss of guards Gabe Vincent and Max Strus. Portland, meanwhile, would presumably like to have a clean slate to begin the 2023/24 season rather than keeping a disgruntled star on the roster and remaining in a holding pattern.

The clearest way for the negotiations to move forward would be for a second suitor besides the Heat to emerge as a serious contender for Lillard. Even if the Blazers don’t ultimately make a deal with that non-Heat team, the presence of another bidder could help push Miami to increase its offer to the point that Portland would be more willing to seriously consider it.

So our Community Shootaround question for today is this: Which non-Heat team makes the most sense as a suitor for Lillard?

The team would presumably have to meet a few criteria.

It would need to have the young player(s) and/or draft picks necessary to put together a strong offer for Lillard, as well as a strong enough core to seriously contend for a title after giving up several assets to land the veteran guard.

It would need to be comfortable with the idea of paying Lillard $60MM+ per year in 2025/26 and ’26/27.

And it would need to be confident in its leaders and culture to sell the seven-time All-Star on embracing a new NBA home somewhere besides Miami.

What do you think? Which non-Heat team is the best bet – or the most logical candidate – to emerge as a contender for Lillard? Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!

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Hoops Rumors Glossary: NBA Roster Limits

August 1st, 2023 at 1:56pm CST by Luke Adams

The rules governing the number of players an NBA team can carry on its roster vary depending on the time of year.

Between the start of the regular season and the last day of a team’s season, a club isn’t allowed to carry more than 15 players on its roster, except in rare instances. Generally, when a club with 15 players on its roster acquires a new player, it must waive someone to clear a spot. In the offseason though, teams are permitted to carry up to 21 players on their rosters.

The regular season limit applies to players on standard contracts, while the offseason limit applies to players on any form of contract.

During both the regular season and offseason, a team is permitted to carry up to three players on two-way contracts, which are a non-standard form of deal that allows a player to be transferred back and forth between the NBA and G League.

In the regular season, two-way players don’t count toward the 15-man limit, meaning teams can essentially have 18 players under contract at a time. However, two-way players do count toward the 21-man limit in the offseason. If a club is carrying 21 players on standard NBA contracts in August, it can’t sign a player to a two-way deal without waiving someone.

[RELATED: 2023/24 NBA Roster Counts]

In some cases, a team ravaged by injuries will receive one or more extra spots on its regular season roster via the hardship provision. The NBA can grant a hardship exception – which allows the club to sign a player to a 10-day contract without requiring a roster spot – when a team has at least four players who have missed three consecutive games and who are expected to remain sidelined for at least the next two weeks due to injury or illness.

A team qualifies for a single hardship exception when it has four players who meet that criteria, but it can become eligible for additional hardship exceptions if it has a fifth or sixth injured/ill player. For example, if a club has six players who have missed at least three consecutive games due to injury and are expected to remain out for two more weeks, it could be granted three hardship exceptions, allowing the club to temporarily carry three extra players beyond its usual 15 (not counting two-ways).

A club is also permitted to add a 16th man to its regular season roster if it has a player on the suspended list. A player who is suspended by his team for four or more games may be placed on the suspended list following the third game of his ban, while a player suspended by the NBA for six or more games can be placed on the suspended list following the fifth game of his ban. Teams can’t make use of the suspended list for shorter suspensions.

Generally speaking, the fewest number of players an NBA team can have on its roster during the regular season is 14, not counting two-way players. However, a team is permitted to dip to 12 or 13 players for a limited period. That club can’t carry fewer than 14 players on standard contracts for more than two weeks at a time or more than 28 total days during a regular season.

The rules for in-game roster minimums and maximums are as follows:

  • A team can have between 12 or 15 players listed as active for a game.
  • A team can carry as few as 11 active players for up to two weeks at a time or up to 28 total days during a regular season.
  • A team must have at least eight players dressed for a game (at least three or four players beyond those eight must technically be listed as active).

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 by Luke Adams.

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