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Values Of 2022/23 Mid-Level, Bi-Annual Exceptions

July 1st, 2022 at 7:00am CST by Luke Adams

The salary cap for the 2022/23 NBA league year has officially been set, with the league announcing that the cap will be $123,655,000, a 10% increase on last year’s number.

Under the league’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement, the values of the mid-level, room, and bi-annual exceptions are tied to the percentage that the salary cap shifts in a given year. Because the cap figure for 2022/23 increased by 10%, the values of the mid-level and bi-annual exceptions will increase by the same amount.

Listed below are the maximum annual and total values of each of these exceptions, along with a brief explanation of how they work and which teams will have access to them.

Mid-Level Exception (Non-Taxpayer):

Year Salary
2022/23 $10,490,000
2023/24 $11,014,500
2024/25 $11,539,000
2025/26 $12,063,500
Total $45,107,000

The non-taxpayer mid-level exception is the primary tool available for over-the-cap teams to add free agents. As long as a team hasn’t dipped below the cap to use cap space and doesn’t go over the tax apron ($156.98MM) at all, it can use this MLE, which runs for up to four years with 5% annual raises.

Mid-Level Exception (Taxpayer):

Year Salary
2022/23 $6,479,000
2023/24 $6,802,950
2024/25 $7,126,900
Total $20,408,850

If an over-the-cap team currently projects to be a taxpayer or expects to move into tax territory later in the 2022/23 season, it will have access to this smaller mid-level exception for taxpaying teams.

If a team uses more than $6,479,000 of its mid-level exception, it is forbidden from surpassing the tax apron at any time during the league year. So even if a team isn’t above the apron when it uses its MLE, it might make sense to play it safe by avoiding using the full MLE and imposing a hard cap.

The taxpayer MLE can be used to sign a player for up to three years, with 5% annual raises.

Room Exception:

Year Salary
2022/23 $5,401,000
2023/24 $5,671,050
Total $11,072,050

Although this is also a mid-level exception of sorts, it’s colloquially known as the “room” exception, since it’s only available to teams that go below the cap and use their cap room.

If a club goes under the cap, it loses its full mid-level exception, but gets this smaller room exception, which allows the team to go over the cap to sign a player once the team has used up all its cap space. It can be used to sign players for up to two years, with a 5% raise for the second season.

Bi-Annual Exception:

Year Salary
2022/23 $4,105,000
2023/24 $4,310,250
Total $8,415,250

The bi-annual exception, as its name suggests, is only available to teams once every two years. Of the NBA’s 30 clubs, only two – the Mavericks and Bulls – used it in 2021/22, so they won’t have access to it in 2022/23. The league’s other 28 teams could theoretically use it this season.

Still, even if a team didn’t use its BAE in ’21/22, that club doesn’t necessarily have access to it for the coming year. As is the case with the non-taxpayer MLE, this exception disappears once a team goes under the cap to use room. It’s also not available to teams over the tax apron — using the BAE creates a hard cap at the apron.

The BAE can be used to sign players for up to two years, with a 5% raise after year one.

Note: Be sure to check out our Hoops Rumors Glossary for more information on the mid-level exception and the bi-annual exception.

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NBA 2022 Free Agency: Day 1 Recap

July 1st, 2022 at 1:06am CST by Luke Adams

It was a very busy first day of NBA free agency on Thursday. By our count, a total of 38 free agents have agreed to new deals since the negotiating period officially began at 5:00 pm CT, while seven more players either signed or agreed to contract extensions.

However, all of those deals were overshadowed by the drama in Brooklyn, where Kevin Durant reportedly asked the Nets to trade him. With Durant’s situation unresolved, we could be in for some serious fireworks in the coming days.

In the meantime, listed below are all the free agent agreements, contract extensions, trades, and other notable news items from the first day of free agency.

Free agent agreements:

These deals aren’t yet official, so the reported terms could change — or agreements could fall through altogether. Generally speaking though, teams and players are on track to finalize these agreements sometime after the moratorium ends on July 6.

Note: Some of these salary figures may include options, incentives, or non-guaranteed money.

  1. Bradley Beal, Wizards agree to five-year, $251.02MM (maximum-salary) contract.
  2. Jalen Brunson, Knicks agree to four-year, $104MM contract.
  3. Anfernee Simons, Trail Blazers agree to four-year, $100MM contract.
  4. Luguentz Dort, Thunder agree to five-year, $87.5MM contract.
  5. Bobby Portis, Bucks agree to four-year, $48.58MM contract.
  6. Marvin Bagley III, Pistons agree to three-year, $37MM contract.
  7. Chris Boucher, Raptors agree to three-year, $35.25MM contract.
  8. P.J. Tucker, Sixers agree to three-year, $33.04MM contract.
  9. Tyus Jones, Grizzlies agree to two-year, $30MM contract.
  10. Gary Payton II, Trail Blazers finalizing three-year, $28MM contract.
  11. Jae’Sean Tate, Rockets agree to three-year, $22.1MM contract.
  12. Nicolas Batum, Clippers agree to two-year, $22MM contract.
  13. Mohamed Bamba, Magic agree to two-year, $21MM contract.
  14. JaVale McGee, Mavericks agree to three-year, $20.1MM contract.
  15. Nic Claxton, Nets agree to two-year, $20MM contract.
  16. Malik Monk, Kings agree to two-year, $19MM contract.
  17. Kyle Anderson, Timberwolves agree to two-year, $18MM contract.
  18. Isaiah Hartenstein, Knicks agree to two-year, $16.7MM contract.
  19. Delon Wright, Wizards agree to two-year, $16MM contract.
  20. Patty Mills, Nets agree to two-year, $14.49MM contract.
  21. Victor Oladipo, Heat agree to one-year, $11MM contract.
  22. Amir Coffey, Clippers agree to three-year, $11MM contract.
  23. Dewayne Dedmon, Heat agree to two-year, $9MM contract.
  24. Danuel House, Sixers agree to two-year, $8.42MM contract.
  25. Andre Drummond, Bulls agree to two-year, $6.6MM contract.
  26. Joe Ingles, Bucks agree to one-year, $6.48MM contract.
  27. Lonnie Walker, Lakers agree to one-year, $6.48MM contract.
  28. Kevin Knox, Pistons agree to two-year, $6MM contract.
  29. Jevon Carter, Bucks agree to two-year, $4.6MM contract.
  30. Damian Jones, Lakers agree to two-year, minimum-salary contract.
  31. Trevelin Queen, Sixers agree to two-year, minimum-salary contract.
  32. Troy Brown, Lakers agree to one-year, minimum-salary contract.
  33. DeAndre Jordan, Nuggets agree to one-year, minimum-salary contract.
  34. Mike Muscala, Thunder agree to one-year, minimum-salary contract.
  35. Juan Toscano-Anderson, Lakers agree to one-year, minimum-salary contract.
  36. Anthony Gill, Wizards agree to two-year contract.
  37. Davon Reed, Nuggets agree to two-year contract.
  38. Wesley Matthews, Bucks agree to one-year contract.

Contract extensions:

  1. Nikola Jokic, Nuggets agree to five-year, super-max veteran extension.
  2. Devin Booker, Suns agree to four-year, super-max veteran extension.
  3. Karl-Anthony Towns, Timberwolves agree to four-year, super-max veteran extension.
  4. Ja Morant, Grizzlies agree to five-year, maximum-salary rookie scale extension.
  5. Gary Harris, Magic officially complete two-year, $26MM veteran extension.
  6. Taurean Prince, Timberwolves officially complete two-year, $16MM veteran extension.
  7. Thaddeus Young, Raptors officially complete two-year, $16MM veteran extension.

Trades:

  1. The Jazz traded Royce O’Neale to the Nets in exchange for either the Rockets’, Nets’, or Sixers’ 2023 first-round pick (whichever is least favorable).
  2. The Hawks and Spurs officially completed their trade sending Dejounte Murray and Jock Landale to Atlanta for Danilo Gallinari and three first-round picks and a first-round pick swap. Gallinari is expected to be waived.

Other news:

  1. The Pistons and Kemba Walker are finalizing a buyout agreement.
  2. The Jazz waived Juancho Hernangomez.
  3. Former Sixers head coach Brett Brown rejoined Gregg Popovich‘s Spurs staff as an assistant.

As active as the first day of free agency was, several of this year’s top free agents don’t yet have deals in place, including Zach LaVine, James Harden, and Deandre Ayton. Our full free agent list is here.

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Hoops Rumors’ 2022 NBA Free Agent Tracker

July 1st, 2022 at 12:13am CST by Luke Adams

With free agency officially underway and news of contract agreements breaking left and right, Hoops Rumors is here to help you keep track of which players are heading to which teams this offseason. To this end, we present our Free Agent Tracker, a feature we’ve had 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:

  • Early in free agency, most 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 many cases those amounts will be approximations rather than official figures. Salaries aren’t necessarily fully guaranteed either.
  • 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 2022 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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2022 NBA Free Agency Primer

June 30th, 2022 at 11:16am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s 2022 free agency period officially begins on Thursday at 5:00 pm central time. At that point, we can expect news of contract agreements to start pouring in, continuing well into the night.

By our count, a staggering 56 free agents agreed to deals on day one of free agency in 2021 — we’ll see if that number is matched later today.

Here are a few links to prepare for you one of the most exciting days on the NBA calendar:

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2022 NBA Qualifying Offer Recap

June 30th, 2022 at 9:33am CST by Luke Adams

Players eligible for restricted free agency don’t become restricted free agents by default. In order for a team to make a player a restricted free agent, it must extend a qualifying offer to him. The qualifying offer, which is essentially just a one-year contract offer, varies in amount depending on a player’s previous contract status.

A qualifying offer is designed to give a player’s current team the right of first refusal. Because the qualifying offer acts as the first formal contract offer a free agent receives, his team then has the option to match any offer sheet the player signs with another club. If a player doesn’t receive a qualifying offer, he becomes an unrestricted free agent and is free to sign with any team — his previous club is given no formal opportunity to match.

You can read more about qualifying offers here.

Listed below are the details on which players did and didn’t receive qualifying offers this summer. Our list is based on various reports and team announcements leading up to the June 29 deadline, along with confirmation from RealGM’s official NBA transactions log.

It’s possible that one or two qualifying offers slipped through the cracks and will be reported later today before free agency officially gets underway — if so, we’ll update this list.

For now though, this is what the qualifying offer landscape looks like. The players who received QOs will be restricted free agents, while the players who didn’t will be unrestricted.

Received qualifying offers:

Players on standard contracts:

Note: Qualifying offers marked with an asterisk (*) are based on a projected $123,655,000 salary cap and would increase or decrease if the cap comes in higher or lower than that.

Players on two-way contracts:

Note: Qualifying offers for two-way players are one-year, two-way contracts with a $50K guarantee unless otherwise indicated.

Did not receive qualifying offers:

Players on standard contracts:

Players on two-way contracts:

Note: Some of the players listed below may not have been eligible for a qualifying offer due to the limited time they spent on a two-way contract.

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2022 NBA Offseason Trades

June 27th, 2022 at 7:54am CST by Luke Adams

As we did with last year’s offseason trades and the in-season swaps from 2021/22, Hoops Rumors will be keeping track of all of the trades made this offseason, right up until the start of the 2022/23 season, updating this post with each transaction.

Trades are listed here in reverse chronological order, with the latest on top. So, if a player has been traded multiple times, the first team listed as having acquired him is the one that ended up with him. If a trade has not yet been formally finalized, it will be listed in italics.

For our full story on each trade, click on the date above it. For more information on the specific conditions dictating if and when draft picks involved in these deals will actually change hands, be sure to check out RealGM.com’s breakdown of the details on traded picks. We’ll continue to update this list with the latest specific details on picks and other compensation, as they’re reported.

Here’s the full list of the NBA’s 2022 offseason trades:

2022/23 League Year:

September 30

September 27

  • Thunder acquire Maurice Harkless, the Hawks’ 2029 second-round pick, and amended terms on the Hawks’ traded 2025 second-round pick.
  • Hawks acquire Vit Krejci.
  • Note: The Thunder had previously acquired the Hawks’ 2025 second-round pick with top-55 protection. As a result of this trade, the pick is now top-40 protected.

September 22

September 3

  • Cavaliers acquire Donovan Mitchell.
  • Jazz acquire Lauri Markkanen, Ochai Agbaji, Collin Sexton (sign-and-trade), the Cavaliers’ 2025 first-round pick (unprotected), the Cavaliers’ 2027 first-round pick (unprotected), the Cavaliers’ 2029 first-round pick (unprotected), the right to swap first-round picks with the Cavaliers in 2026, and the right to swap first-round picks with the Cavaliers in 2028.

August 25

July 11

  • Pistons acquire Alec Burks, Nerlens Noel, the Pistons’ 2023 second-round pick, either the Knicks’ or the Timberwolves’ 2026 second-round pick, and cash ($2MM).
  • Knicks acquire the draft rights to Nikola Radicevic and the Pistons’ 2025 second-round pick (top-55 protected).
    • Note: The Knicks had acquired the Pistons’ 2023 second-round pick in a previous trade; the Pistons got it back in this deal.

July 9

July 6

  • Pistons acquire Kemba Walker and the draft rights to Jalen Duren (No. 13 pick).
  • Knicks acquire the Bucks’ 2025 first-round pick (top-four protected).

July 6

  • Nuggets acquire the draft rights to Ismael Kamagate (No. 46 pick).
  • Trail Blazers acquire either the Hornets’ or Timberwolves’ 2024 second-round pick (whichever is most favorable).

July 6

July 6

July 6

  • Timberwolves acquire Rudy Gobert.
  • Jazz acquire Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Leandro Bolmaro, the draft rights to Walker Kessler (No. 22 pick), the Timberwolves’ 2023 first-round pick (unprotected), the Timberwolves’ 2025 first-round pick (unprotected), the Timberwolves’ 2027 first-round pick (unprotected), the Timberwolves’ 2029 first-round pick (top-five protected), and the right to swap first-round picks with the Timberwolves in 2026.

July 6

  • Trail Blazers acquire Jerami Grant and the draft rights to Ismael Kamagate (No. 46 pick).
  • Pistons acquire the draft rights to Gabriele Procida (No. 36 pick), the Bucks’ 2025 first-round pick (top-four protected), the Pistons’ 2025 second-round pick, and either the Trail Blazers’ or Pelicans’ 2026 second-round pick (whichever is most favorable).
    • Note: The Trail Blazers had acquired the Pistons’ 2025 second-round pick in a previous trade; the Pistons got it back in this deal.

July 6

2021/22 League Year:

June 30

  • Nets acquire Royce O’Neale.
  • Jazz acquire either the Nets’, Rockets’, or Sixers’ 2023 first-round pick (whichever is least favorable).

June 30

  • Hawks acquire Dejounte Murray and Jock Landale.
  • Spurs acquire Danilo Gallinari, the Hornets’ 2023 first-round pick (top-16 protected), the Hawks’ 2025 first-round pick (unprotected), the Hawks’ 2027 first-round pick (unprotected), and the right to swap first-round picks with the Hawks in 2026.

June 24

June 24

  • Timberwolves acquire the draft rights to Wendell Moore (No. 26 pick).
  • Rockets acquire the draft rights to TyTy Washington (No. 29 pick), the Timberwolves’ 2025 second-round pick, and the Timberwolves’ 2027 second-round pick.

June 24

June 24

  • Pacers acquire the draft rights to Kendall Brown (No. 48 pick).
  • Timberwolves acquire either the Pacers’, Heat’s, or Spurs’ 2026 second-round pick (whichever is least favorable) and cash.

June 24

  • Bucks acquire the draft rights to Hugo Besson (No. 58 pick).
  • Pacers acquire cash ($1MM).

June 24

  • Grizzlies acquire the draft rights to Jake LaRavia (No. 19 pick) and the Timberwolves’ 2023 second-round pick.
  • Timberwolves acquire the draft rights to Walker Kessler (No. 22 pick) and TyTy Washington (No. 29 pick).

June 24

  • Grizzlies acquire the draft rights to Kennedy Chandler (No. 38 pick).
  • Spurs acquire the Lakers’ 2024 second-round pick and cash ($1MM).

June 24

  • Warriors acquire the draft rights to Ryan Rollins (No. 44 pick).
  • Hawks acquire the draft rights to Tyrese Martin (No. 51 pick) and cash ($2MM).

June 24

  • Hornets acquire the draft rights to Bryce McGowens (No. 40 pick).
  • Timberwolves acquire the draft rights to Josh Minott (No. 45 pick) and the Knicks’ 2023 second-round pick.

June 24

  • Mavericks acquire the draft rights to Jaden Hardy (No. 37 pick).
  • Kings acquire the Mavericks’ 2024 second-round pick and the Mavericks’ 2028 second-round pick.

June 23

  • Thunder acquire JaMychal Green and the Nuggets’ 2027 first-round pick (top-five protected).
  • Nuggets acquire the draft rights to Peyton Watson (No. 30 pick), either the Thunder’s, Wizards’, Mavericks’, or Heat’s 2023 second-round pick (whichever is second-most favorable), and either the Hornets’ or Timberwolves’ 2024 second-round pick (whichever is most favorable).
    • Note: If the Mavericks’ and Heat’s 2023 second-rounders are the two most favorable of those four picks, the Nuggets would instead receive the third-most favorable of the four.

June 23

  • Knicks acquire the draft rights to Jalen Duren (No. 13 pick).
  • Hornets acquire the Nuggets’ 2023 first-round pick (top-14 protected), the Knicks’ 2023 second-round pick, the Jazz’s 2023 second-round pick, either the Thunder’s, Wizards’, Mavericks’, or Heat’s 2023 second-round pick (whichever is least favorable), and the Knicks’ 2024 second-round pick.
    • Note: If either the Mavericks’ or Heat’s 2023 second-rounder is the least favorable of those four picks, the Hornets would instead receive the second-least favorable of the four.

June 23

  • Thunder acquire the draft rights to Ousmane Dieng (No. 11 pick).
  • Knicks acquire the Nuggets’ 2023 first-round pick (top-14 protected), the Wizards’ 2023 first-round pick (top-14 protected), and the Pistons’ 2023 first-round pick (top-18 protected).

June 23

  • Cavaliers acquire the No. 49 pick in the 2022 draft.
  • Kings acquire the draft rights to Sasha Vezenkov and cash ($1.75MM).

June 23

  • Lakers acquire the No. 35 pick in the 2022 draft.
  • Magic acquire either the Lakers’ or Wizards’ 2028 second-round pick (whichever is most favorable) and cash ($2.15MM).
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Community Shootaround: Draft Winners/Losers

June 24th, 2022 at 1:29am CST by Rory Maher

The 2022 NBA draft is officially complete, and it was certainly an eventful night. The first big surprise came right off the bat, when the Magic made Duke big man Paolo Banchero the No. 1 overall pick.

Virtually all reporting leading up to draft night had Auburn forward Jabari Smith as the favorite to go first, with ESPN’s Jonathan Givony suggesting earlier this week that it would be a major surprise to most teams around the NBA if Smith wasn’t Orlando’s pick.

Since Smith unexpectedly fell to the Rockets with the No. 3 pick, and they were able to pick up a couple of highly regarded prospects in Tari Eason and TyTy Washington at Nos. 17 and 29 in addition to a couple of future second-rounders, they seem like one of the clear winners tonight. Smith and Eason, in particular, are long, versatile defenders who should immediately improve Houston’s 29th ranked defense, and a core of Kevin Porter Jr., Jalen Green, Eason, Smith, and Alperen Sengun sounds pretty intriguing on paper.

The Thunder used a small portion of their war chest of future draft picks to acquire a third lottery pick, used on French forward Ousmane Dieng with the No. 11 pick (via the Knicks). In addition to Dieng, the Oklahoma City snagged Chet Holmgren at No. 2, Jalen Williams at No. 12, and Jaylin Williams at No. 34 (that definitely won’t be confusing).

The Pistons were able to take Jaden Ivey at No. 5, widely regarded as the top guard prospect in the draft, and added a second lottery pick (No. 13 via the Hornets) in Jalen Duren. The Grizzlies and Timberwolves were both very active during the draft as well, maneuvering up and down to select their preferred targets.

Despite rumors that they were interested in moving into the draft, both the Suns and the Jazz left the draft the same way they entered it, with no draft picks. The Sixers traded out of the draft, but landed 24-year-old De’Anthony Melton from Memphis for the No. 23 pick and Danny Green.

There will be a flurry of undrafted free agent signings in the coming hours and days, but we’d like to take a break from transactions for a moment to solicit your opinions on the draft’s winners and losers. Which teams do you think did the best? Which did the worst? Head to the comments section and share your thoughts!

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Enter Hoops Rumors’ 2022 Free Agent Prediction Contest

June 23rd, 2022 at 9:00am CST by Luke Adams

Hoops Rumors is taking a page from our sister site MLB Trade Rumors this offseason and introducing our inaugural Free Agent Prediction Contest!

You’ll have the opportunity to compete against Hoops Rumors readers and win prizes by predicting the landing spots for the players on our list of 2022’s top 50 NBA free agents.

We will award $500 to first place, $300 to second place, and $100 to third place. We will also be giving one-year memberships to Trade Rumors Front Office (our ad-free tier) to everyone who finishes in the top 15. Winners must respond to an email within one week.

Click here to enter your picks for the destinations for our top 50 free agents. The deadline to submit your picks is the start of the June 23 draft (7:00 pm CT). You’ll be able to enter and edit your selections up until that time, but entries will be closed at that point.

Here are more details on what to know for our Free Agent Prediction Contest:

  • After the window to make picks has closed, we’ll post a public leaderboard page so you can see who’s winning the contest as players sign with teams. We’re going to use entrants’ full names on it, so if that concerns you, please do not enter the contest. Entries with inappropriate names will be deleted.
  • We are also collecting email addresses, which we will use to notify winners.
  • After you submit your picks, you’ll receive an email from Google Forms. In that email, you’ll see a button that allows you to edit your picks.
  • We will announce the winners on Hoops Rumors once all 50 free agents have signed or on September 27, 2022, whichever comes first. If there are any unsigned players as of September 27, they’ll be excluded from the competition.
  • Our top-50 list may undergo some edits by June 23 if certain players move on or off the market, but the contest will be based on our initial top-50 list and won’t be changed to reflect subsequent updates.
  • If a player on our top-50 list picks up an option or signs an extension between now and the close of the contest, that’s a freebie, but you still need to go in and make the correct pick. For example, since Jeff Green has opted in with the Nuggets, you’ll need to list Denver as Green’s destination to get that free point.
  • If a player with an option has the option exercised (by himself or his team), he is considered to have re-signed with his current team, even if he’s subsequently traded. That means that if you think the Thunder will pick up Luguentz Dort‘s team option and then trade him, you should list him as “re-signing” with Oklahoma City.
  • On the other hand, a free agent who joins a new team in a sign-and-trade deal is considered to have signed with the new team. So if you believe Bradley Beal will decline his option and then head to Memphis in a sign-and-trade deal, you should list his destination as the Grizzlies.
  • During the NBA’s July moratorium, the leaderboard will be updated based on tentative contract agreements. However, until those agreements become official after the moratorium, they won’t be locked in. In other words, if we’d been running this contest back in 2015, when DeAndre Jordan committed to the Mavericks before changing his mind and signing with the Clippers, you wouldn’t have gotten credit for predicting Jordan would sign with Dallas, even if he may have been listed in our leaderboard as a Mav for a few days.
  • Ties will be broken based on which entrant picked the higher-ranked free agents more accurately on a cumulative basis. Each free agent will be assigned a point value based on his ranking and the entrant with the lower overall point total would win a tiebreaker. For instance, an entrant who correctly picks the No. 4 and No. 8 free agents’ destinations (12 points) would earn the tiebreaker over an entrant who correctly picks No. 1 and No. 14 (15 points).

If you have any further questions, ask us in the comment section of this post! Otherwise, make your picks now!

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2022 NBA Offseason Preview: Golden State Warriors

June 21st, 2022 at 9:28pm CST by Luke Adams

After injuries scuttled not just the Warriors‘ title hopes but their playoff aspirations in 2020 and 2021, it took a while for the team to get back to full strength in 2021/22. Klay Thompson missed the first third of the season, Draymond Green went down right around the time Thompson made his debut, and Stephen Curry got hurt one game after Green returned. Incredibly, the Warriors’ three veteran stars played just 11 minutes together during the regular season.

It didn’t matter. Even without their full arsenal of weapons, the Warriors stormed out of the gate by winning 18 of their first 21 games and spent the entire season holding onto one of the Western Conference’s top four seeds, ultimately finishing at No. 3.

In the playoffs, the Warriors were finally back at full strength (Curry, Thompson, and Green played 455 postseason minutes together), and while they may not have been quite as dominant as they were with Kevin Durant in the picture in 2017 and 2018, they once again looked like a championship-caliber team.

Golden State made quick work of the shorthanded Nuggets, held off the upstart Grizzlies, and slowed Luka Doncic enough to shut down the Mavericks and reach the NBA Finals, where they came back from a 2-1 deficit to defeat the Celtics and secure their fourth championship in the last eight years.

Having faced scrutiny for maintaining a monster payroll and opting not to trade any of their young prospects or lottery picks for win-now help during their non-playoff seasons, the Warriors were vindicated by their 2021/22 success and won’t be satisfied to stop there. Management is hopeful that youngsters like James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga, and Moses Moody will be ready to carry the torch and keep the team in title contention in the coming years as Curry, Green, and Thompson enter their mid-30s.

The Warriors’ Offseason Plan:

Two key Warriors role players are unrestricted free agents this summer, with Kevon Looney and Gary Payton II set to reach the open market.

Looney bounced back from a couple injury-plagued seasons to start 80 regular season games (and play in all 82) for the Warriors and proved his value as a versatile frontcourt defender who can play alongside offensive weapons without needing the ball himself. Looney’s stats don’t jump off the page, but centers who can stay on the court in playoff series against a variety of lineups are valuable assets in today’s NBA, so he’ll likely draw mid-level interest from teams in need of frontcourt help.

Payton, meanwhile, emerged as an important rotation piece in Golden State after a few years of brief minimum-salary auditions around the NBA. Like Looney, Payton doesn’t need the ball much on offense, but benefited from the attention defenses dedicated to players like Curry, Thompson, and Jordan Poole, making well-timed cuts to the basket and shooting 61.6% from the floor, an impressive mark for a guard. Of course, his primary contributions came on the defensive end, where he followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming one of the league’s top perimeter defenders.

Assessing the market for Looney and Payton is tricky, since they fit better in their defined roles with the Warriors than they might with a new team. Golden State has the cap flexibility to make competitive offers to both players – the team holds Looney’s Bird rights and Payton’s Early Bird rights – but the tax implications of giving either player a sizable raise would be substantial. If Looney and Payton don’t accept “hometown” discounts to stay in the Bay Area, it will be fascinating to see how high the Dubs are willing to go to retain them.

If Looney and Payton return, the Warriors would have seven of their eight most-used players from the postseason under contract for next season, with only Otto Porter Jr. facing free agency. The club did well to secure Porter and Nemanja Bjelica to minimum-salary contracts last summer, but Porter in particular will probably get an offer from another team that the Warriors can’t realistically match, since they only have his Non-Bird rights.

I suspect Golden State would welcome players like Porter, Bjelica, and Damion Lee back on minimum deals, but if the price goes any higher, the team may have to look elsewhere to fill those roster spots, perhaps trying to strike gold on the minimum-salary market again.

The Warriors hold the No. 28 overall pick in this year’s draft, but are reportedly looking into trading that pick, which makes sense. If they expect Wiseman, Kuminga, and Moody to take on greater roles next season, the Warriors don’t need to add another rookie to the mix, and they’d save some money by carrying another minimum-salary player instead of that first-rounder. Shopping the 28th pick to either acquire multiple second-rounders or a future protected first-rounder seems reasonable.

Besides addressing the potential holes in their 2022/23 rotation, the Warriors will have to start seriously thinking about the long-term futures of players like Poole and Andrew Wiggins. Poole is eligible for a rookie scale extension this offseason, while Wiggins is also extension-eligible as he enters a contract year.

Both Poole and Wiggins played important roles on this year’s title team and should be rewarded for that, but the Warriors are under no pressure to rush into a deal with either player. Neither player’s value is likely to get significantly higher during the 2022/23 season, so Golden State is in position to wait another year and assess its options at that point if either player drives a hard bargain during this year’s negotiations. But if the Warriors can get a team-friendly rate on either player – maybe $18-20MM per year for Poole or $23-25MM annually for Wiggins – they shouldn’t hesitate to complete an extension.

Green and Thompson are also extension-eligible this offseason, and if either player is extended in the coming weeks or months, I’d expect it to be Green — Thompson has two guaranteed years left on his contract and didn’t quite look like his old self on a consistent basis in 2021/22. There will be no urgency to give him another maximum-salary extension that begins at age 34 without seeing next season if he still has that All-Star level in him.

Green, on the other hand, has just one guaranteed year left, with a player option for 2023/24. He continues to provide value on both ends of the court despite not being a scoring threat, and I imagine the Warriors will want to do right by him, given that he has earned far less than Curry and Thompson (and Wiggins, for that matter) in recent years. Still, the Warriors won’t simply write him a blank check — if he picks up his ’23/24 option, a max extension would start at $33MM+ in his age-34 season, which may make the club nervous.

Salary Cap Situation

Note: Our salary cap figures are based on the league’s latest projection ($122MM) for 2022/23.

Guaranteed Salary

Player Options

  • None

Team Options

  • None

Non-Guaranteed Salary

  • None

Restricted Free Agents

Two-Way Free Agents

Draft Picks

  • No. 28 overall pick ($2,196,240)
  • No. 51 overall pick (no cap hold)
  • No. 55 overall pick (no cap hold)
  • Total: $2,196,240

Extension-Eligible Players

Note: These are players who are either already eligible for an extension or will become eligible before the 2022/23 season begins.

  • Draymond Green (veteran)
  • Jordan Poole (rookie scale)
  • Klay Thompson (veteran)
  • Andrew Wiggins (veteran)

Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds

Offseason Cap Outlook

With $171MM in guaranteed money already committed to eight players, the Warriors are a lock to be operating above the projected tax line of $149MM next season. The only question will be how big their bill gets. By our count, they spent more than $345MM (in salaries and taxes) on their 2021/22 roster, and that number looks like a good bet to increase going forward.

Cap Exceptions Available

  • Taxpayer mid-level exception: $6,392,000 2
  • Trade exception: $1,782,621

Footnotes

  1. These cap holds remain on the Warriors’ books from prior seasons because they haven’t been renounced. These players can’t be used in a sign-and-trade deal.
  2. This is a projected value.

Salary and cap information from Basketball Insiders and RealGM was used in the creation of this post.

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2022 NBA Offseason Preview: Boston Celtics

June 20th, 2022 at 3:50pm CST by Luke Adams

The 2021 offseason was one of change for the Celtics, who saw Danny Ainge step away from his longtime role as the team’s president of basketball operations and Brad Stevens move from the sidelines to the front office to replace Ainge in that role. First-time head coach Ime Udoka was hired as Stevens’ replacement, and Stevens’ first major roster move was to end the Kemba Walker era in Boston, sending him to Oklahoma City with a first-round pick for Al Horford.

If you watched the Celtics during the first half of the season, you could be forgiven for questioning the wisdom of those offseason maneuvers. Boston was still below .500 halfway through the regular season, as observers second-guessed the hiring of Udoka and speculated about the possibility of breaking up star wings Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

Shortly after the season’s halfway point, however, everything began to click into place. From January 22 onward, the Celtics had the best record (28-7), best offensive rating (120.2), and best defensive rating (104.8) in the NBA, storming up the Eastern Conference standings to claim the No. 2 seed.

Some roster changes at the trade deadline – including essentially replacing Dennis Schröder, Josh Richardson, and Enes Freedom with Derrick White and Daniel Theis – helped matters, but the Celtics’ starters also made major strides over the course of the year, working hard to build chemistry and find the right roles for each player after Marcus Smart publicly called out Tatum and Brown for their play during the first month of the season.

Impressive series wins over Brooklyn, Milwaukee, and Miami earned the Celtics a spot in the NBA Finals, but after taking a 2-1 lead, the C’s ultimately came up short, falling to the Warriors in six games. While missing out on a championship was a bitter pill to swallow, the season in Boston has to be considered a huge success, given where things stood in January.

The Celtics’ Offseason Plan:

Of the 15 players who finished the season on standard contracts with the Celtics, 12 are under contract for 2022/23. Two – Sam Hauser and Juwan Morgan – have team options on their deals, while just one – Luke Kornet – is facing unrestricted free agency. Given that those three players logged a total of 247 minutes for Boston this past season, they’re unlikely to be major offseason priorities — perhaps one or two return, but not for more than the veteran’s minimum.

With no key players headed for free agency and no first-round pick, the Celtics’ list of pressing offseason tasks won’t be as long as it was a year ago, but the team will still have some roster decisions to make.

To start, three of those 12 players under contract for next season have non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed salaries. It will be an easy call to guarantee the remaining $7MM on Horford’s $26.5MM expiring deal, but Nik Stauskas and Malik Fitts, whose minimum-salary contracts are non-guaranteed, aren’t locks to return.

If the Celtics were to let Kornet, Morgan, and Hauser walk in free agency and waive Stauskas and Fitts before their salaries guarantee, they’d have up to five openings on their 15-man roster, opening the door for the front office to scour the market for veterans looking to compete for a title on minimum-salary deals.

With virtually all of their playoff rotation pieces set to return, Boston may not be able to offer a significant role to any free agent targets. Still, the opportunity to join a title contender has appeal, and the team will have the taxpayer mid-level exception at its disposal if it’s willing to use it — that could be a difference-maker for a veteran free agent who wouldn’t have interest in a minimum deal.

Exploring the trade market in search of a rotation upgrade is one path the Celtics could go down, especially since Stevens has shown a real willingness to wheel and deal since taking the reins in the front office. Boston has made nine trades since his promotion. However, given how well the current group jelled down the stretch and in the postseason, Stevens will likely be more cautious about shaking things up this offseason.

Even if their roster for 2022/23 doesn’t change much, the Celtics will have to begin considering what the team will look like beyond next season. Grant Williams is eligible for a rookie scale extension this offseason after proving in this year’s playoffs that he can play a key role in big games.

A year ago, Boston signed Robert Williams to a four-year, $48MM extension (plus incentives) that looked like a roll of the dice based on Williams’ injury history and track record at the time. If the Celtics are bullish on Grant Williams’ developmental path and can sign him at a similarly team-friendly rate, it would make sense to once again move early to avoid the risk of him getting significantly more expensive a year from now.

Brown and Horford are also extension-eligible this offseason, but there’s probably no rush to lock up either player. Brown is still two years away from free agency, while Horford just turned 36 years old. Extending a player at that age is generally an unnecessary risk, since you never know when he’ll lose a step and see his value sharply drop off.

Salary Cap Situation

Note: Our salary cap figures are based on the league’s latest projection ($122MM) for 2022/23.

Guaranteed Salary

Player Options

  • None

Team Options

Non-Guaranteed Salary

Restricted Free Agents

  • None

Two-Way Free Agents

Draft Picks

  • No. 53 overall pick (no cap hold)

Extension-Eligible Players

Note: These are players who are either already eligible for an extension or will become eligible before the 2022/23 season begins.

  • Jaylen Brown (veteran)
  • Al Horford (veteran)
  • Grant Williams (rookie scale)

Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds

Offseason Cap Outlook

After narrowly avoiding the luxury tax in 2021/22, the Celtics could theoretically try to do it again next season, but I’d be surprised if it’s a major priority after the club reaped the financial benefits of an extended postseason run.

Once Horford’s salary becomes guaranteed, Boston will already be at the projected tax line of $149MM for just 10 players. Even filling out the roster with minimum-salary players would put team salary well into tax territory, so ducking the tax would require at least one or two cost-cutting trades.

Cap Exceptions Available

  • Taxpayer mid-level exception: $6,392,000 5
  • Trade exception: $17,142,857
  • Trade exception: $6,907,815
  • Trade exception: $5,890,000
  • Trade exception: $3,804,360
  • Trade exception: $2,161,152
  • Trade exception: $1,910,860
  • Trade exception: $1,782,621
  • Trade exception: $1,669,178
  • Trade exception: $1,440,549
  • Trade exception: $500,000

Footnotes

  1. Morgan’s salary will remain non-guaranteed even if his option is exercised.
  2. Hauser’s salary will become partially guaranteed ($300K) if his option is exercised.
  3. Stauskas’ salary will become fully guaranteed after July 15.
  4. Fitts’ salary will become partially guaranteed ($50K) after September 1.
  5. This is a projected value. The Celtics could instead have access to the full mid-level exception ($10,349,000) and bi-annual exception ($4,050,000) if they remain below the tax apron.

Salary and cap information from Basketball Insiders and RealGM was used in the creation of this post.

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