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Early NBA Minimum Salary Projections For 2025/26

August 17th, 2024 at 4:01pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s minimum salary is one of several figures that changes from year to year at the same rate as the league’s salary cap. If the cap increases by 5% from one season to the next, the minimum salary will rise by the same amount.

That means that even though we don’t know yet exactly where the minimum salaries will end up for the 2025/26 season, we can make an educated estimate. The NBA’s most recent projection for ’25/26 called for a $154,647,000 cap (the maximum allowable 10% increase), which is the number we’ll use to project next season’s minimum salaries.

[RELATED: NBA Minimum Salaries For 2024/25]

A player’s minimum salary is determined in part by how much NBA experience he has — a veteran who has 10+ seasons under his belt is eligible for a significantly higher minimum salary than a rookie would be.

Based on the current 2025/26 cap estimate, next year’s rookie minimum salary will surpass $1.27MM, while the minimum for a veteran with 10+ years of service will exceed $3.63MM.

Here are the current minimum salary projections for the 2025/26 season, using a $154,647,000 cap:

Years of Experience Salary
0 $1,272,870
1 $2,048,494
2 $2,296,274
3 $2,378,870
4 $2,461,463
5 $2,667,947
6 $2,874,436
7 $3,080,921
8 $3,287,409
9 $3,303,774
10+ $3,634,153

It’s worth noting that these figures will only apply to players who sign new minimum-salary contracts in 2025/26. The ’25/26 salaries for players with multiyear minimum deals will look a little different. For example, a rookie who signed a two-year deal worth the minimum ahead of the 2024/25 season would have a second-year salary of $1,955,377 for ’25/26, as we outline here.

We’ll update these projections later in the season if the NBA adjusts its cap estimate for the 2025/26 season, and then again next year when the league officially sets the ’25/26 cap.

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NBA 2024 Offseason Check-In: Houston Rockets

August 17th, 2024 at 2:57pm CST by Luke Adams

Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2024 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Houston Rockets.

Free agent signings

  • Aaron Holiday: Two years, $9,569,400. Second-year team option. Re-signed using bi-annual exception. Waived right to veto trade.
  • Nate Hinton: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Re-signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Jermaine Samuels: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Re-signed using minimum salary exception.

Trades

  • Acquired the Suns’ 2027 first-round pick, either the Mavericks’ or the Suns’ 2029 first-round pick (whichever is more favorable), swap rights for the Suns’ 2025 first-round pick, and swap rights for either the Mavericks’ or Suns’ 2029 first-round pick (whichever is least favorable) from the Nets in exchange for the Nets’ own 2026 first-round pick and control of the Nets’ own 2025 first-round pick (negating the Rockets’ right to swap either their own 2025 first-rounder or the Thunder’s 2025 first-rounder for Brooklyn’s pick).
  • Acquired AJ Griffin from the Hawks in a three-team trade in exchange for the draft rights to Pelle Larsson (No. 44 pick; to Heat).

Draft picks

  • 1-3: Reed Sheppard
    • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $45,853,024).

Two-way signings

Departed/unsigned free agents

Other moves

Salary cap situation

  • Operating over the cap ($140.6MM) and below the luxury tax line ($170.8MM).
  • Carrying approximately $163.9MM in salary.
  • Hard-capped at $178,132,000.
  • Full mid-level exception ($12.8MM) available.
  • One traded player exception available (worth $797,080).

The offseason so far

After making a major splash on the free agent market a year ago by signing several Fred VanVleet, Dillon Brooks, and a handful of other veterans, the Rockets had a much quieter summer in 2024.

Houston’s only real move of note in free agency was to bring back reserve point guard Aaron Holiday on a two-year contract that isn’t guaranteed beyond 2024/25. Holiday was solid in a rotation role last season, but he’s unlikely to play more than 15-18 minutes per game.

The team also made a minor move on the trade market by acquiring AJ Griffin from Atlanta in exchange for the No. 44 overall pick in this year’s draft. A 2022 first-round pick, Griffin had a promising rookie season, with 8.9 PPG and a .390 3PT%, then missed significant time in 2023/24 due to leg and ankle injuries, as well as personal issues. He wasn’t effective even when he did play, but Houston is betting on a bounce-back season for a player who will remain on his affordable rookie scale contract for two more seasons.

While the Rockets didn’t control their own first-round pick in 2024, one of the first-rounders they acquired from Brooklyn in the James Harden blockbuster paid off in a major way, moving up to No. 3 on lottery night. Houston used that selection to draft Reed Sheppard, who posted a .521 3PT% in his lone college season at Kentucky. Having added Griffin and Sheppard, it’s clear the Rockets made it an offseason priority to improve a three-point percentage (35.2%) that ranked 23rd in the NBA last season.

The rest of the Rockets’ moves are arguably more noteworthy for what they mean going forward than the impact they’ll have in the short term.

Houston picked up its team options on Jeff Green ($8MM) and Jae’Sean Tate ($7.6MM) while guaranteeing Jock Landale‘s $8MM salary for 2024/25, giving the team nearly $24MM in expendable expiring contracts that could come in handy at this season’s trade deadline. Green, Tate, and Landale figure to see some action during the regular season, but none are locks to spend all year in the rotation, especially if the club’s young players continue to improve — they may be more valuable as trade chips.

The Rockets also gave up control of the Nets’ first-round picks in 2025 (they had swap rights) and 2026 (they would’ve acquired Brooklyn’s pick outright) in exchange for two future first-rounders and two future swaps. Three of those four are Suns picks. It’s an interesting play for Houston, which is pushing its trade assets further into the future and betting against Phoenix’s longevity as a contending team, as most of those picks and swaps are for either 2027 or 2029.

Up next

With plenty of expiring money on their books, a surplus of future draft assets, and a handful of talented young players on their roster, the Rockets are well positioned to make a bid for a star if one becomes available on the trade market.

Between now and the start of the regular season, however, the more pressing issue is whether to extend Alperen Sengun and/or Jalen Green. Both players are eligible for rookie scale extensions until October 21.

Sengun enjoyed a breakout year in 2023/24, finishing third in Most Improved Player voting after averaging 21.1 PPG, 9.3 RPG, and 5.0 APG. Green’s scoring average declined, but he continued to show flashes of stardom, including one 20-game stretch from February to April in which he put up 26.6 PPG, 6.1 RPG, and 4.3 APG on .465/.381/.822 shooting.

Still, Green remains an inconsistent overall shooter and defender; Sengun, who was injured to finish the season, isn’t really a rim protector in the middle; and the Rockets had a higher net rating when each player was off the court than when he was on it. That’s not to say that Sengun and Green don’t deserve extensions, but neither case is a no-brainer for Houston, especially if those 2021 first-rounders are seeking maximum salaries or something close to it.

It’s also unclear whether the Rockets want to maintain the flexibility to potentially clear maximum-salary cap room in 2025. If so, it would certainly make sense to hold off on an extension for Sengun, at least. His cap hold as a restricted free agent would be just $16.3MM, far below his projected first-year salary on a new deal. Green’s cap hold would come in just above $31MM, so postponing an extension for him would only create additional cap flexibility if Houston expects to pay him more than that in 2025/26.

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Hawks, Nets, Bulls Control Largest Trade Exceptions

August 17th, 2024 at 1:21pm CST by Luke Adams

As our list of traded player exceptions shows, six NBA teams currently control TPEs worth more than $10MM apiece. Those exceptions are as follows:

  1. Atlanta Hawks: $25,266,266 (expires 7/7/25)
  2. Brooklyn Nets: $23,300,000 (expires 7/7/25)
  3. Chicago Bulls: $17,506,232 (expires 7/8/25)
  4. Dallas Mavericks: $16,193,183 (expires 7/7/25)
  5. Memphis Grizzlies: $12,600,000 (expires 2/3/25)
  6. Washington Wizards: $12,402,000 (expires 2/10/25)

A trade exception allows a team to acquire a player’s contract without sending out matching salary in return. So in theory, the exceptions listed above could put these clubs in position to take on a sizable salary in a preseason or mid-season trade, perhaps acquiring a draft asset or two in the deal for their troubles.

[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Traded Player Exception]

In practice though, it will be difficult for any of these teams to make full use of their large TPEs in that sort of move. The Hawks, Nets, Bulls, Mavericks, and Wizards are all hard-capped at the first tax apron, while the Grizzlies would be if they were to use any portion of their exception.

Atlanta, Brooklyn, and Memphis also don’t have much breathing room below the luxury tax line, while Dallas is already in the tax, so they won’t be eager to take on much extra salary anyway.

Chicago could get about $6.6MM below the tax line by waiving Onuralp Bitim‘s non-guaranteed salary, while Washington could get about $11.9MM below that threshold by waiving their non-guaranteed players, so accommodating modest salary dumps could be in play for those clubs — especially the Wizards, whose big TPE will expire at the trade deadline. But generally speaking, these trade exceptions might not prove all that useful until the 2025 offseason.

Our TPE list uses italics to show which exceptions are currently ineligible to be used. As a reminder, teams operating above either tax apron can’t use trade exceptions generated during the previous regular season (2023/24) or the previous offseason (2023), while teams operating above the second tax apron can’t use new TPEs created from sign-and-trades.

That means, for example, that the Timberwolves are ineligible to use the $4MM exception they generated in February when they traded Troy Brown to the Pistons. They’re also ineligible to use the $8.8MM TPE they generated by signing-and-trading Kyle Anderson to Golden State last month. However, they could use the $2.5MM TPE created in July’s Wendell Moore deal, since it’s new since the season ended and wasn’t the result of a sign-and-trade.

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Community Shootaround: Wizards Offseason

August 17th, 2024 at 9:59am CST by Tristan Tucker

The Wizards were one of the busiest teams of the offseason, bringing in first-round draftees in Alex Sarr, Carlton “Bub”  Carrington and Kyshawn George. They also signed Jonas Valanciunas and Saddiq Bey in free agency while making other roster moves around the margins.

Last season marked the worst in Washington franchise history, with the team registering a .183 win percentage that was about four percentage points worse than their previous low in the 1961/62 season. While the Wizards didn’t become overnight contenders, the general sentiment is they did well to continue infusing young talent and serviceable veterans.

Sarr had a bit of a tough Summer League, but he was neck-and-neck with No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher in the eyes of most talent evaluators for best prospect in the draft. In my view, Washington did well to surround him with veterans with differing skill sets who can help him as he rises through the ranks. Carrington enters the league as one of the youngest and most explosive guards and should have a runway to minutes relatively early in his career. George similarly has an interesting upside and brings both ACC experience (Miami) and international expertise (Switzerland).

Bey was a free agent move that fell under the radar but should help the team massively. Bey’s efficiency fell off a bit this past season but he shot 36.1% on three-pointers on 6.5 attempts in the first three years of his career. Once he recovers from his ACL surgery, should help a Wizards team that ranked 25th in three-point efficiency last season improve in that regard.

Another major area to watch out for is how Washington’s young players continue to grow alongside one another. Corey Kispert is 25 now but has steadily improved over the course of his three-year career. Meanwhile, Bilal Coulibaly showed immense promise last season and should only continue to improve as a scorer and defender. His upside and development are key to this current build becoming competitive.

Jordan Poole had a tough start to last season but he quietly averaged 21.0 points while making 36.4% of 8.9 three-point attempts per night in his last 24 games of the season. Maybe he and Kyle Kuzma (22.2 PPG on .463/.336/.775 shooting) don’t build on those numbers, but they could both be used to help supplement this young team. For what it’s worth, Kuzma has seemed to enjoy being a focal point in Washington.

The Wizards aren’t done making moves this offseason. They have 17 players signed to standard contracts and are one of the only teams who have to deal with that sort of roster crunch. While the club may just end up cutting both Eugene Omoruyi and Jared Butler, the team’s only two non-guaranteed salaries, we explained in July why it might not be that simple.

The Wizards seem to like Omoruyi, and Butler played well last season while also fitting a positional need at point guard. They could just cut other players on small standard deals, but it’s hard to pinpoint who exactly would be on the chopping block. The team re-signed Anthony Gill to a third contract with the team and clearly values him. Patrick Baldwin could be another option, but he’s still young and may have untapped upside. Washington could also address its roster crunch on the trade market — perhaps the team gives Johnny Davis a change of scenery.

Regardless of what other moves the Wizards make for the rest of the offseason, their young core is undeniably in a better place than where it was last season.

That brings us to our question of the day. How do you evaluate the Wizards’ offseason? Are you intrigued by their young players? What moves should they make to trim the roster? What’s next? 

Take to the comments to let us know what you think. We look forward to reading your input.

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Hoops Rumors Glossary: Salary Cap Exceptions

August 16th, 2024 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

There are a number of ways that NBA teams without salary cap space are able to add players. When we discuss trades and free agency at Hoops Rumors, we’ll often refer to these salary cap “exceptions.”

In case you’re wondering what exactly we mean when we mention a “Non-Bird exception” or a “bi-annual exception,” we’ve compiled a brief overview for reference. The NBA’s salary cap exceptions found in the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement are listed below, along with links to more extensive glossary entries on each exception.

  • Bird Exception: If a player has been on the same team for three years (not necessarily full seasons), his team can re-sign him for up to the player’s maximum salary. Generally, a player who changes teams via trade retains his Bird rights, but he loses them if he signs with a new team as a free agent. A Bird player can sign for up to five years with maximum annual raises of 8%.
  • Early Bird Exception: If a player has been on the same team for two years (not necessarily full seasons), his team can re-sign him for up to 175% of his previous salary or 105% of the average player salary from the previous season, whichever is greater. Early Bird contracts must be for at least two seasons (no more than four), with maximum annual raises of 8%.
  • Non-Bird Exception: If a player finishes a season with a team without having earned Bird or Early Bird rights, his team can re-sign him for 120% of his previous salary, 120% of the applicable minimum salary, or – if he’s a restricted free agent – the amount of his qualifying offer. A Non-Bird player can sign for up to four years with maximum annual raises of 5%.
  • Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception: A team operating below the first tax apron can offer a player a contract for up to four years with maximum annual raises of 5% using the mid-level exception. The MLE amount for 2024/25 is $12,822,000; it will increase annually at the same rate as the salary cap. This exception, which can be used on one or multiple players, can also be used to acquire players via trade or waiver claim.
  • Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception: A team operating below the second tax apron can offer a player a contract for up to two years with a maximum second-year raise of 5% using the mid-level exception. The taxpayer MLE amount for 2024/25 is $5,168,000; it will increase annually at the same rate as the salary cap. This exception, which can be used on one or multiple players, can only be used to sign players, not to acquire them via trade or waiver claim.
  • Room Exception: If a team uses room under the cap to sign players, it forfeits its full mid-level exception and receives this exception, which isn’t available to teams above the cap. After using its cap room, a team can offer a player a contract for up to three years with maximum annual raises of 5%. The room exception amount for 2024/25 is $7,983,000; it will increase annually at the same rate as the salary cap. This exception, which can be used on one or multiple players, can also be used to acquire players via trade or waiver claim.
  • Bi-Annual Exception: A team can offer a player a contract for up to two years with a maximum raise of 5% using the bi-annual exception. However, it’s only available to teams that operate over the cap and below the first tax apron. The bi-annual exception amount for 2024/25 is $4,668,000; it will increase annually at the same rate as the salary cap. This exception, which can be used on one or multiple players, can also be used to acquire players via trade or waiver claim. As its name suggests, the bi-annual exception can only be used every other year.
  • Minimum Salary Exception: A team can offer a player a contract for up to two years worth the applicable minimum salary. A team can also use this exception to trade for minimum-salary players, as long as their contracts don’t cover more than two seasons and never included a salary above the minimum. There is no limit to the number of players a team can acquire using this exception.
  • Rookie Scale Exception: A team can sign its first-round draft picks for up to 120% of the rookie salary scale amount or as little as 80% of the rookie salary scale amount. The rookie salaries for 2024 first-round picks can be found right here. The rookie scale increases annually at the same rate as the salary cap.
  • Second-Round Pick Exception: A team can sign a second-round pick to a three- or four-year contract with a team option on the final year. A contract signed using the second-round exception can exceed the applicable rookie minimum in the first year (or the first two years, for a four-year deal), but not in the final two years. The details for second-round pick exception signings in 2024/25 can be found right here.
  • Disabled Player Exception: If a player suffers an injury deemed more likely than not to sideline him through the following June 15, a team can be granted this exception by the league. It can be used to sign a replacement player for one year, and is worth 50% of the disabled player’s salary or the amount of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, whichever is lesser. It can also be used to acquire a player via trade or waiver claim if he’s in the final year of his contract. This exception, which must be applied for between July 1 and January 15, can only be used once and is forfeited if not used by March 10 (or the next business day, if March 10 falls on a weekend).
  • Traded Player Exception: Any team can replace a traded player – or traded players – simultaneously (in the same transaction) with one or more players whose total salaries amount to no more than 100% of the outgoing salary. For teams operating below the tax aprons, the incoming value can increase to as high as 200% of the outgoing salary (plus $250K), depending on the amount of that salary. Alternately, both non-taxpaying and taxpaying teams can replace a traded player non-simultaneously (within one year) with one or more players whose total salaries amount to no more than 100% of the traded player’s salary.

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.

Earlier versions of this post were published in 2012 and 2018.

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Early NBA Maximum Salary Projections For 2025/26

August 16th, 2024 at 2:48pm CST by Luke Adams

Although a number of big-money free agent contracts were completed over the summer, several of the most lucrative deals signed by players so far in 2024/25 have been contract extensions. And many of those extensions have been maximum-salary deals.

[RELATED: 2024/25 NBA Contract Extension Tracker]

Because those extensions won’t go into effect until at least the 2025/26 season and the NBA won’t finalize the ’25/26 salary cap until next summer, we can only ballpark what many of year’s maximum-salary contracts will look like based on the league’s latest cap estimates.

The NBA’s most recent projection for ’25/26 called for a $154,647,000 cap, which is the number we’ll use to project next season’s maximum salaries. That would represent a 10% increase on this season’s cap, which is the maximum allowable increase for one year league year to the next.

Listed below are the early maximum-salary projections for 2025/26.

The first chart shows the maximum salaries for a player re-signing with his own team — a player’s previous club can offer five years instead of four, and 8% annual raises instead of 5% raises. The second chart shows the maximum salaries for a player signing with a new team.

A player’s maximum salary is generally determined by his years of NBA experience, so there’s a wide gap between potential earnings for younger and older players. Unless they qualify for a more lucrative extension by meeting certain performance criteria, players with no more than six years of NBA experience are limited to a starting salary worth up to 25% of the cap. For players with seven to nine years of experience, that number is 30%. For players with 10 or more years of experience, it’s 35%.

Here are the the early max-salary projections for 2025/26:

A player re-signing with his own team (8% annual raises, up to five years):

Year 6 years or less 7-9 years 10+ years
2025/26 $38,661,750 $46,394,100 $54,126,450
2026/27 $41,754,690 $50,105,628 $58,456,566
2027/28 $44,847,630 $53,817,156 $62,786,682
2028/29 $47,940,570 $57,528,684 $67,116,798
2029/30 $51,033,510 $61,240,212 $71,446,914
Total $224,238,150 $269,085,780 $313,933,410

The “6 years or less” column here is what the new extensions for Scottie Barnes, Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, and Franz Wagner will look like if none of them make an All-NBA team in 2025. All four players have Rose Rule language in their contracts, however, and could move up to the 30% max column (“7-9 years”) if certain performance criteria are met.

The 30% max column will also apply to players who reach the free agent market next summer with between seven and nine years of NBA experience under their belts. That would be Brandon Ingram‘s maximum contract with his current team, for instance.

The third column (35%) will apply to the super-max extension signed by Celtics star Jayson Tatum or to a player with 10+ years of NBA service who reaches free agency next summer, such as Mavericks star Kyrie Irving.

A player signing with a new team (5% annual raises, up to four years):

Year 6 years or less 7-9 years 10+ years
2025/26 $38,661,750 $46,394,100 $54,126,450
2026/27 $40,594,838 $48,713,805 $56,832,773
2027/28 $42,527,925 $51,033,510 $59,539,095
2028/29 $44,461,013 $53,353,215 $62,245,418
Total $166,245,525 $199,494,630 $232,743,735

If a player changes teams as a free agent, he doesn’t have access to a fifth year or 8% raises. So if someone like Alperen Sengun were to sign an offer sheet with a new team next summer, his maximum contract would be a four-year deal projected to be worth just over $166MM.

If a veteran free agent with between seven and nine years of NBA experience – such as Ingram – wants to change teams in 2025, he would be able to sign a four-year contract worth up to a projected $199.5MM.

Irving or another veteran with 10+ years of experience would be able to earn up to $232.7MM across four years if they change teams as free agents in 2025.

Although it happened with Paul George during the 2024 offseason, it’s relatively rare for a player with that many years of experience to sign a four-year, maximum-salary contract with a new team, especially since some of those older stars (like LeBron James) would be ineligible to sign a four-year max deal due to the Over-38 rule.

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NBA 2024 Offseason Check-In: Charlotte Hornets

August 16th, 2024 at 1:33pm CST by Luke Adams

Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2024 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Charlotte Hornets.

Free agent signings

  • Miles Bridges: Three years, $75,000,000. Re-signed using Bird rights.
  • Seth Curry: One year, minimum salary. Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Taj Gibson: One year, minimum salary. Partially guaranteed ($1,082,270). Signed using minimum salary exception.

Trades

  • Acquired Devonte’ Graham and the Pelicans’ 2025 second-round pick from the Spurs in exchange for cash.
    • Note: Graham was subsequently waived.
  • Acquired Josh Green, Reggie Jackson, the Nuggets’ 2029 second-round pick, and the Nuggets’ 2030 second-round pick from the Mavericks and Nuggets in a six-team trade in exchange for the Sixers’ 2025 second-round pick (to Mavericks or Timberwolves) and cash (to Nuggets).
    • Note: Jackson was subsequently bought out.

Draft picks

  • 1-6: Tidjane Salaun
    • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $34,035,472).
  • 2-42: KJ Simpson
    • Signed to two-year, two-way contract.

Two-way signings

Departed/unsigned free agents

Other moves

Salary cap situation

  • Went below the cap to use room.
  • Now operating over the cap ($140.6MM) and below the luxury tax line ($170.8MM).
  • Carrying approximately $153.6MM in salary.
  • Hard-capped at $188,931,000.
  • Full room exception ($8MM) available.

The offseason so far

The Hornets only won 21 games in 2023/24, their lowest mark in over a decade, but there were a few positive developments over the course of the season – the first under their new ownership group – that may pay off for the franchise in the long run.

For one, last year’s No. 2 overall pick Brandon Miller looks like a long-term building block and a future star. Charlotte also made a smart mid-season pivot, accepting the best offers on the trade market for veterans Terry Rozier, P.J. Washington, and Gordon Hayward, which netted the club several future draft assets. Finally, the team made a front office change in the spring, hiring Jeff Peterson to be its new head of basketball operations.

It will take some time before we can really evaluate several of the moves Peterson made during his first offseason at the helm. For instance, his head coaching hire looks like a good one — Charles Lee has received rave reviews for his work as an assistant. But first-time head coaches don’t come without risk, so it remains to be seen whether Lee’s transition to a lead role is a smooth one.

The biggest roster move the Hornets made this summer was re-signing forward Miles Bridges to a three-year, $75MM contract as an unrestricted free agent. That looks like a fair deal based on his on-court production, but Bridges’ history of domestic violence cases can’t be ignored. The hope in Charlotte is that Bridges’ past behavior is fully in the rear-view mirror and that he’ll be an upstanding citizen going forward, but you can certainly make a case that the Hornets never should have made that sort of investment to a player with those allegations on his record.

The Hornets’ 2024 lottery pick doesn’t come without risk either, albeit for entirely different reasons — Tidjane Salaun just turned 19 last week and isn’t considered likely to make an NBA impact as a rookie. Many people around the league were surprised Salaun was selected as high as No. 6, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Woo; ESPN’s Jonathan Givony describes him as a player who is “still just getting his feet wet at the highest levels.” That doesn’t mean Salaun won’t become an impact player down the road, but Charlotte will have to be patient with his development.

The Hornets operated under the cap this offseason, with Peterson using that room to accommodate a handful of salary dumps (Devonte’ Graham, Reggie Jackson, Josh Green) rather than pursuing outside free agents.

Graham and Jackson came with draft picks attached and were subsequently waived, whereas Green – a 23-year-old wing with a three-and-D skill set – projects to be a rotation player in Charlotte going forward. He’s under contract through the 2026/27 season.

Up next

The Hornets still have roster spots to fill before the regular season begins, with 14 players on standard contracts and a pair on two-way deals.

While the team could leave that 15th standard roster spot open to start the season, there’s no real reason not to fill it, given how far Charlotte’s team salary is from the luxury tax line. If the Hornets aren’t yet prepared to commit to a player for the full season, they could carry a 15th man with a non-guaranteed salary this fall.

Tre Mann, who was acquired from the Thunder at the 2024 trade deadline, is eligible for a rookie scale extension, while Cody Martin is eligible for a veteran extension. Martin isn’t a candidate for a new deal at this point, given his injury woes over the past two seasons, but Mann might be one worth watching — he made 28 starts for Charlotte down the stretch and played well (11.9 PPG, 5.2 APG, .453/.364/.759 shooting).

That’s a relatively small sample size, so the Hornets may prefer to wait another year on Mann and then negotiate a deal with him in restricted free agency next summer. But if they’re encouraged by how he looks in camp and if the price is right, I wouldn’t be totally shocked if the two sides worked something out sooner rather than later.

The Hornets are a team to watch on the trade market during the preseason and into the season, since they can afford to take on some salary and have shown in the last eight months that they’re happy to take on unwanted contracts in order to continue stockpiling draft assets.

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Community Shootaround: Potential Rookie Of The Year Candidates

August 16th, 2024 at 9:27am CST by Luke Adams

As we relayed on Thursday, No. 5 overall pick Ron Holland recently expressed a desire to win the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award in 2024/25.

On the surface, Holland looks like a long shot for that honor. He just turned 19 years old and struggled last season as a member of the G League Ignite with his outside shot (.239 3PT%), overall scoring efficiency (.682 FT%), and turnovers (3.5 per game). The oddsmakers at BetOnline.ag list Holland at +1800 for Rookie of the Year award, with 10 players ahead of him.

Still, it’s not an unreasonable goal for Holland. He should have an opportunity to earn minutes on the rebuilding Pistons, and this year’s Rookie of the Year race looks awfully wide open. A year ago, BetOnline.ag listed Victor Wembanyama as the overwhelming favorite (-150) for the award; this time around, the player with the best odds – Rockets guard Reed Sheppard – is at just +600.

Zaccharie Risacher of the Hawks and Alex Sarr of the Wizards were the top two picks in the 2024 draft, but neither player is expected to make the sort of immediate impact that Wembanyama – or even No. 2 overall pick Brandon Miller – did. They’re listed as the third- and fourth-best bets for Rookie of the Year honors at +850 and +900, respectively.

Sheppard will have to earn minutes in a crowded Rockets rotation, but he showed during his lone college season at Kentucky that he’s capable of providing the sort of outside shooting Houston could use — he made a whopping 52.1% of his three-point attempts in 2023/24.

Grizzlies center Zach Edey, who has the second-best ROY odds at +650, could be a compelling candidate. It remains to be seen how he’ll adjust to the speed and athleticism at the NBA level, but he has a path to playing time in a Memphis frontcourt that no longer features Steven Adams or Xavier Tillman. He also spent four years playing college ball and should be more NBA-ready than many of his fellow lottery picks. Plus, the Grizzlies arguably have more upside in 2024/25 than any other lottery team, so if the team wins 50+ games, that could help Edey in the end-of-season vote.

Spurs guard Stephon Castle (+900), Bulls forward Matas Buzelis (+900), Lakers sharpshooter Dalton Knecht (+1100), Timberwolves guard Rob Dillingham (+1200), Wizards guard Carlton Carrington (+1400), and Trail Blazers center Donovan Clingan (+1600) are some of the other first-year players viewed as Rookie of the Year candidates, but not all of them are locks to be in their teams’ rotations right away. Clingan, for instance, will have to battle Robert Williams and Duop Reath for minutes at center behind presumptive starter Deandre Ayton.

We want to know what you think. If you had to make a Rookie of the Year prediction today, which player would you feel most comfortable picking? Will there be several good contenders for the award or is there a particular rookie you expect to pull away from the pack?

Of the last 10 Rookie of the Year winners, five have been No. 1 overall picks and four others were selected in the top four. Will we deviate from that trend this year and get our first winner outside the top four since No. 36 overall pick Malcolm Brogdon won the 2017 award?

Head to the comment section below to share your thoughts on which of this year’s rookies will make the biggest first-year impact.

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NBA 2024 Offseason Check-In: Golden State Warriors

August 15th, 2024 at 5:11pm CST by Luke Adams

Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2024 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Golden State Warriors.

Free agent signings

  • Buddy Hield: Four years, $37,756,096. Third year partially guaranteed ($3MM). Fourth-year player option (partially guaranteed for $3,136,364 if exercised). Signed using Bird rights and acquired via sign-and-trade from Sixers.
  • Kyle Anderson: Three years, $27,658,536. Third year non-guaranteed. Signed using Bird rights and acquired via sign-and-trade from Timberwolves.
  • De’Anthony Melton: One year, $12,822,000. Signed using non-taxpayer mid-level exception.
  • Jackson Rowe: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.

Trades

  • Acquired Lindy Waters from the Thunder in exchange for the draft rights to Quinten Post (No. 52 pick).
  • Reacquired the draft rights to Quinten Post (No. 52 pick) from the Trail Blazers in exchange for cash.
  • Acquired Kyle Anderson (sign-and-trade) and Buddy Hield (sign-and-trade) in a six-team trade in exchange for Klay Thompson (sign-and-trade; to Mavericks), swap rights for the Warriors’ 2031 second-round pick (to Timberwolves), and cash (to Timberwolves)

Draft picks

Two-way signings

Departed/unsigned free agents

Other moves

Salary cap situation

  • Operating over the cap ($140.6MM), over the luxury tax line ($170.8MM), and below the first tax apron ($178.1MM).
  • Carrying approximately $176.6MM in salary.
  • Hard-capped at $178,132,000.
  • Bi-annual exception available.
  • One traded player exception available (worth $2,019,706).

The offseason so far

It was the end of an era this summer in the Bay Area, as four-time champion Klay Thompson, decided to move on to a new team after spending his first 13 NBA seasons with the Warriors.

Seeing Thompson in a Mavericks uniform next season will be an adjustment — if there was one group of active core players who seemed destined to spend their entire careers with a single franchise, it was Thompson, Stephen Curry, and Draymond Green with the Warriors.

Still, it’s hard to say the move was particularly surprising, given how disgruntled Thompson seemed to be during his final season in Golden State as his role diminished, his production declined, and the Warriors’ extension offer(s) came in below what he believed his history with the organization warranted.

Thompson is still an effective offensive weapon (he averaged 17.9 PPG with a .387 3PT% last season), but his defense has fallen off since he tore his ACL and Achilles, and moving on from him and Chris Paul (whose $30MM non-guaranteed salary was waived) makes the Warriors’ roster younger, more flexible, and more affordable heading into the 2024/25 season.

After operating above the luxury tax line for years, the Warriors made a concerted effort to cut costs — ownership would likely still be willing to spend big bucks for a championship contender, but the club didn’t make it out of the first round of the play-in tournament this spring. It didn’t make sense to continue carrying such a significant payroll.

The move below the first tax apron allowed the Dubs to make the kinds of moves that had been off-limits for years, including using their full mid-level exception (on versatile guard De’Anthony Melton) and acquiring players via sign-and-trade (sharpshooter Buddy Hield and savvy veteran Kyle Anderson).

The newcomers won’t instantly return Golden State to title contention, but there’s optimism that their mix of skill sets and the ongoing development of young players like Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemski, and Trayce Jackson-Davis can make the Warriors a deeper, more dangerous team than they were in 2023/24.

Up next

With 14 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals, the Warriors’ roster looks just about regular-season-ready. Adding a 15th man is unlikely due to the team’s proximity to its hard cap, and while Gui Santos and Lindy Waters aren’t necessarily locked in for the regular season due to their non-guaranteed salaries, there has been no indication Golden State will look to replace either player.

Still, there are issues to address before the season begins, starting with potential contract extensions. Kuminga and Moody are eligible for rookie scale extensions, while Curry could sign a one-year veteran extension worth approximately $62.6MM for 2026/27.

I wouldn’t necessarily expect Moody to get a new deal this summer or fall. His playing time has been inconsistent in his first three seasons, so the Warriors will be reluctant to pay him big money based on his career achievements so far, while Moody will be reluctant to lock in a long-term deal before he gets a chance to show what he can do with a more regular role.

Curry, on the other hand, seems more likely to get something done. The Over-38 rule prevents the Warriors from tacking on more than one year to the two left on his current deal, but I have to think they’d be willing to give him that one year if he wants it. Curry showed in the gold medal game at the Paris Olympics that we shouldn’t count on his performance falling off anytime soon.

Kuminga’s case is a trickier one. Based on his breakout performance during the second half of the 2023/24 season (he averaged 20.0 PPG and 5.4 RPG on .547/.377/.778 shooting during a 34-game stretch from January 12 to March 26 before injuring his knee), he’d be justified in seeking a massive payday.

I don’t expect the Warriors to give him the maximum-salary deal that his fellow 2021 draftees Scottie Barnes, Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, and Franz Wagner received. The question is whether there’s an amount below the max that makes sense for both sides.

Given his limited track record, you may balk at the idea of a deal in the range of $150-175MM for Kuminga, but if he follows up last year’s breakout by taking another step forward, he could be worth even more than that in free agency next summer. As a point of comparison, Immanuel Quickley got $162.5MM in guaranteed money from Toronto last month as a restricted free agent. This will be a tricky negotiation, so it wouldn’t be a shock if Golden State takes its chances and postpones it until 2025.

In addition to sorting through possible extensions, the Warriors will have to resolve Quinten Post‘s situation. The No. 52 overall pick is one of the only unsigned players from this year’s draft class — a two-way deal would make sense, given his draft slot, but Golden State would have to waive someone (possibly Pat Spencer?) to create a two-way opening for Post.

The Warriors’ pursuit of Lauri Markkanen showed that the front office isn’t opposed to shaking up its roster before training camp, but with the Jazz forward no longer trade-eligible, I don’t see any trade candidates out there right now that make a ton of sense for Golden State. While general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. will probably keep an eye out for possible deals, I’d be a little surprised if he does anything significant by October.

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Leftover Details On Draft Picks Traded This Summer

August 14th, 2024 at 4:02pm CST by Luke Adams

It has been over a month since most of this summer’s trades were finalized and more than two weeks since any deal was completed. However, RealGM has updated its invaluable tracker of traded draft picks with new details on some of the picks that changed hands this offseason that we hadn’t seen reported anywhere else.

Here are a few of the clarifications and new details from RealGM’s list that we’d been keeping an eye out for:

The 2025 second-rounders in the six-team Klay Thompson trade

The Hornets created some confusion on July 6 when they announced in a press release that their part of the first ever six-team trade involved sending Philadelphia’s 2025 second-round pick to the Nuggets, which didn’t align with reporting leading up to the deal or with the Mavericks‘ press release announcing the move.

Based on reports out of Minnesota and Denver, we were able to piece together the details, which RealGM has confirmed. Charlotte did send that pick to Denver, but the Nuggets flipped it within the same transaction — the Mavericks will receive the most favorable of the Nuggets’ and Sixers’ 2025 second-rounders, while the Timberwolves will get the least favorable of the two.

To clarify, prior to the trade, the Nuggets controlled their own 2025 second-round pick and Charlotte controlled the Sixers’ 2025 second-rounder, but those picks have essentially now been paired together to create most/least favorable terms for Dallas and Minnesota. I don’t recall ever seeing picks from two separate teams combined like that in a single transaction, but I suppose it wouldn’t be a six-team trade if we weren’t seeing something new.

The Spurs’ 2031 first-round swap rights

The swap rights the Spurs acquired in the three-team DeMar DeRozan trade will allow San Antonio to swap its own 2031 first-round pick for the Kings‘ 2031 first-rounder.

San Antonio had previously acquired the Timberwolves’ 2031 first-round pick, so I’d thought the Spurs might be able to swap the least favorable of those two picks for the Kings’ selection, essentially getting the two most favorable of those three picks. But the Minnesota pick won’t be involved in those swap rights at all — the Spurs will simply acquire it separately.

The Grizzlies’ 2030 second-round pick

The 2030 second-round pick that the Timberwolves acquired from the Grizzlies in the four-team trade involving Wendell Moore and a series of 2024 second-rounders is top-50 protected. That pick was previously said to be protected, but I hadn’t seen the specific details of that protection reported until now.

If that pick falls between 51-60, Minnesota will get it. Otherwise, the Grizzlies will keep it and their obligation to the Wolves will be extinguished.

You can find the full details on all of this offseason’s trades right here.

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