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Five Teams Carrying Just 12 Guaranteed Contracts

September 12th, 2017 at 6:02pm CST by Luke Adams

As our list of offseason roster counts shows, most NBA teams currently have at least 13 players on guaranteed salaries on their respective rosters, with many teams carrying 14 or 15 such players. However, there are a handful of clubs that haven’t reached that threshold, creating some potential intrigue about what their eventual 15-man regular season rosters will look like.

Of course, not every team needs to carry the maximum 15 players, but every club must have at least 14, so the teams with 12 or fewer guaranteed salaries on their books right now will have more than just those players on their roster for opening night.

Here’s a breakdown of the five teams currently carrying 12 players on guaranteed contracts:

Dallas Mavericks
Fully guaranteed salaries: 12
Non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed salaries: 7

With 19 players on NBA contracts and one two-way player, the Mavs have a full roster, but only 12 of those players have fully guaranteed deals. Still, there may not be many surprises when Dallas eventually makes its cuts for the regular season. Devin Harris and Dorian Finney-Smith don’t have full guarantees, but I wouldn’t expect either player to be waived.

If the Mavs carry 15 players, I’d give Jeff Withey the upper hand for the final roster spot, though Maalik Wayns, P.J. Dozier, Gian Clavell, and Brandon Ashley are also in the mix.

Houston Rockets
Fully guaranteed salaries: 12
Non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed salaries: 5

The Rockets stockpiled players on non-guaranteed contracts this offseason for trade purposes, but haven’t ended up dealing most of them. Troy Williams has a significant partial guarantee and should make the team’s opening night roster, but the final two roster spots could be up for grabs. Tim Quarterman, Shawn Long, Isaiah Taylor, and Cameron Oliver are candidates, and I might give the latter two the edge, since they signed outright with the Rockets, rather than arriving as trade pieces.

Minnesota Timberwolves
Fully guaranteed salaries: 12
Non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed salaries: 1

No team was carrying fewer players on NBA contracts entering Tuesday than the Timberwolves, who have indicated for about two months that they intend to add three more veterans, likely on guaranteed deals. Shabazz Muhammad became the first of the three, reaching an agreement today to return to the club and bringing the club’s total guaranteed salary count to 12. If the Wolves add two more vets, as planned, players like Dante Cunningham, Anthony Morrow, and Jason Terry would be candidates to sign.

If Minnesota doesn’t get up to 14 guaranteed contracts, players like Marcus Georges-Hunt and Melo Trimble (who reportedly agreed to sign with the club) could compete for roster spots.

Philadelphia 76ers
Fully guaranteed salaries: 12
Non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed salaries: 4

While a non-guaranteed salary would mean a precarious grip on a roster spot for most players, that’s not the case for three Sixers with non-guaranteed deals — Robert Covington, Richaun Holmes, and T.J. McConnell will eventually have their contracts guaranteed, barring some unexpected turn. Adding those three players to the 12 Sixers with fully guaranteed contracts already would fill up the 15-man regular season roster, leaving James Blackmon Jr. and any other camp invitees as the odd men out.

Phoenix Suns
Fully guaranteed salaries: 12
Non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed salaries: 2

The Suns currently only have 12 players with fully guaranteed salaries, but a handful of incumbent players may end up filling out the rest of the roster. Alex Len remains a restricted free agent, and seems like a good bet to return to Phoenix, which would bring the team’s roster count to 13. Derrick Jones and Elijah Millsap may also have an inside track on roster spots, having spent time with the franchise last season. Peter Jok – who has a reported agreement with Phoenix – and any other camp invitees could push for consideration with a strong preseason, however.

Note: The New Orleans Pelicans technically have just 12 guaranteed salaries on their books at the moment, but reached an agreement on Monday with Tony Allen, whose deal will increase the club’s guaranteed contract count to 13.

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

Knicks Notes: Anthony, Porzingis, Doncic, Value

September 12th, 2017 at 4:57pm CST by Arthur Hill

Whether we’ll see it during the season remains uncertain, but Carmelo Anthony, James Harden and Chris Paul were all on the same team Monday. The three stars joined forces in a pickup game in New York, relays Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle, who links to some video of the event. Other NBA players such as Russell Westbrook, Enes Kanter, JaVale McGee and Kenneth Faried were also involved, but the focus was on Anthony, Harden and Paul.

Anthony has made no secret of his desire to join the two All-Star guards in Houston, reportedly telling Knicks management that he will only waive his no-trade cause if he can join the Rockets. New York’s front office tried to accommodate him, but talks have slowed recently. The Rockets have been unable to find an additional team to facilitate a deal to the Knicks’ liking, and it appears Anthony may not be traded before training camps open in two weeks.

There’s more basketball news from New York City:

ESPN’s Chris Herring examines whether Anthony should still be considered an elite player at age 33. He finished 64th in the network’s rankings of the top 100 NBA players that were released today, dropping 33 spots from a year ago. Anthony’s rating has been hurt by four straight non-playoff seasons, Herring explains, and the Knicks’ desire to trade him and build around Kristaps Porzingis.
Knicks officials were very interested in today’s EuroBasket matchup that pitted Porzingis’ Latvia team against 18-year-old Luka Doncic and Slovenia, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post. The Knicks have a large group of scouts and other representatives at the game and have a strong interest in Doncic, a 6’7″ forward who is considered among the top prospects for the 2018 draft.
The Rockets sold for a record $2.2 billion last week, but the Knicks could easily top that if they ever hit the market, tweets Ian Begley of ESPN. One analyst has estimated the team’s worth at $3.5 billion.
The Knicks are doing the right thing by rebuilding around young players, but there’s not much hope for the upcoming season, according to the staff at Basketball Insiders. In their season preview, all five writers forecast New York to finish fourth or fifth in the Atlantic Division.
Earlier today, we passed along details on Charles Oakley‘s civil suit against James Dolan and MSG.

Extension Candidate: Clint Capela

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

What Comes Next In Rockets Sale

September 9th, 2017 at 6:57pm CST by Austin Kent

The sale of the Rockets to a Texas billionaire will impact the entire NBA landscape, Kevin Pelton of ESPN (Insider) writes. The $2.2B price point, $550MM more than Forbes’ 2017 projection, may encourage other team owners to start exploring the idea of cashing out.

Until outgoing Rockets owner Les Alexander announced he’d be selling, team owners had, for the most part, been standing pat on their investments, letting their franchises slowly appreciate over time. When the Clippers sold under duress for a record-breaking $2B, the public got its first glimpse of just how valuable the teams have begun.

As Pelton writes, the fact that the Rockets, a team projected to be the eighth most valuable in the league, sold for over $2B could mean that the average price of an NBA franchise is now close to $1.5B.

Ownership of the Rockets will be transferred to Tilman Fertitta but what does that entail? Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle broke down the next steps in the process, including the $1MM application fee Fertitta will have to pay to cover all the administrative costs associated with the sale of an NBA franchise.
Fear not, world, Tilman Fertitta has said that he’d be happy to have Beyoncé join his team in Houston, Alysha Tsuji of USA Today writes. The singer had previously been said to have had an interest in purchasing the Rockets.

Anthony Sending Messages To Knicks Teammates

September 9th, 2017 at 2:13pm CST by Arthur Hill

Anthony and his representatives have made it clear throughout the summer that his first choice is a trade to the Rockets, where he could join forces with James Harden and Chris Paul on one of the best teams in the Western Conference. Knicks management has expressed a willingness to move Anthony, but won’t take on the three years and $61MM remaining on Ryan Anderson‘s contract. Houston hasn’t found another team to help facilitate the deal, and with camp just 17 days away, Anthony appears to be preparing to remain in New York for a while.

Mutombo’s Group Came Close To Buying Rockets

September 6th, 2017 at 8:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

Hall of Fame center Dikembe Mutombo says the group he assembled came close to matching the record sale price for the Rockets, relays Mark Berman of FOX 26 Houston.

Current owner Leslie Alexander agreed on Tuesday to sell the team to Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta for $2.2 billion, but Mutombo claims he was able to assemble nearly as much cash.

“We did raise a lot of money. I raised close to $2 billion, but we just didn’t get a call, and it happens,” Mutombo said. “I was very happy with myself. I’m not crying for the fact that we didn’t win. I’m more happy that I was able to pull people together who did believe in my vision to put up that much money. I might be disappointed, but I’m not crying. Things happen, and sometimes they happen for a good reason.”

Mutombo, who ended his NBA career with five seasons in Houston, added that he is “happy for Mr. Tilman [Fertitta] and his family.” He said he has known Fertitta for a long time and called him “a great businessman.”

“I think he’s going to follow the spirit of Uncle Les and his vision,” Mutombo said. “I look forward to going to the games and cheering for my Rockets.”

Latest On Carmelo Anthony

September 5th, 2017 at 11:40am CST by Luke Adams

For much of the summer, after 2017’s top free agents came off the board, we waited for resolution on two notable trade candidates, Kyrie Irving and Carmelo Anthony. The Irving saga finally came to an end last week when the Celtics and Cavaliers finalized their blockbuster deal involving the All-Star guard. However, Anthony remains on the Knicks‘ roster, with no recent updates on where things stand with those trade talks.

Ian Begley of ESPN.com has a piece up today rounding up all the latest notes on the Anthony situation, so let’s dive in and pass along the highlights…

As of last week, the Knicks were “not close” on an Anthony deal. According to Begley, the Knicks have been telling people around the league that the Rockets – Anthony’s trade partner of choice – just don’t have pieces that appeal to them.
The Bucks emerged at one point as a potential third team to help accommodate a Rockets/Knicks swap, says Begley. However, Milwaukee has been trying to shed salary, so the prospect of taking on Ryan Anderson and the $60MM left on his contract likely isn’t much more appealing to the Bucks than it is to the Knicks.
In those “very preliminary” talks, Jabari Parker‘s name came up, though it’s not clear if the Bucks or Knicks introduced that idea, Begley writes. In that proposed scenario, Parker would have been part of a larger package that included at least one player on a big contract, such as John Henson or Greg Monroe.
Begley notes that the Knicks want to land a combination of a young player, a draft pick, and/or an expiring contract in an Anthony trade, so the idea of landing Parker and Monroe probably appealed more to New York than Milwaukee.
Although a trade seems unlikely to happen before the start of training camp, there has been little contact lately between Carmelo and members of the Knicks‘ organization, sources tell Begley. As the ESPN scribe notes, neither side appears to have much interest in having Anthony on the roster to start the season, but the Knicks’ front office remains unwilling to consider a buyout, so it will be interesting to see how the next several weeks play out.

Poll: Houston Rockets’ 2017/18 Win Total

September 4th, 2017 at 6:42pm CST by Luke Adams

The highlight of the Rockets’ offseason occurred before the new league year and free agent period even began. Chris Paul had been on track all year to be one of the top free agents available this summer, but when he committed to opting into the final year of his current contract, he pushed his free agency back by a year and gave the Rockets the opportunity to trade for him before July 1.

Houston sacrificed a ton of depth in the Paul trade, which saw players like Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley, Sam Dekker, and Montrezl Harrell head to the Clippers, and there may be some growing pains for the Rockets as Paul and James Harden figure out how best to share the ball.

Still, there’s plenty of reason for optimism in Houston — in addition to adding an All-Star point guard, the Rockets also re-signed Nene and brought aboard of pair of strong perimeter defenders in free agency, signing P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute.

The Rockets had a 55-27 record in 2016/17, and oddsmakers expect the team to finish right in that neighborhood again. Offshore betting site Bovada has placed Houston’s over/under for the 2017/18 season at 55.5 wins.

What do you think? Will the addition of CP3 give the Rockets the boost they need to improve upon last year’s record? Or will the loss of some role players and the adjustment period for the new-look roster result in a slight decline during the coming regular season? Vote below and jump into the comment section to share your thoughts!

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

Previous over/under voting results:

Golden State Warriors: Over 67.5 (53.57%)
Boston Celtics: Over 55.5 (63.5%)

And-Ones: Trade Candidates, Webster, Loyalty

September 3rd, 2017 at 6:44pm CST by Austin Kent

As the dust settles on the Kyrie Irving–Isaiah Thomas swap, Trade Machine junkies will need to find new ways to satisfy their impulses. Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders recognizes that we’re not likely to see another blockbuster trade before training camp but has a few ideas of who could possibly be involved if we did.

Of course the first name you might recall hearing on the rumor mill is likely Carmelo Anthony‘s. Kyler notes that the Rockets – a suitor most linked to the veteran forward – are only willing to field a package centered around Ryan Anderson. For this reason, and the fact that Anthony has never been a problem in the locker room, the Knicks would benefit from bringing him to training camp and dealing with the situation later.

Another name on Kyler’s list that could be moved is Reggie Jackson. If the Pistons get out to a slow start similar to what they suffered last season, the club could look to move the point guard for a player with a more palatable contract.

There’s more from around the NBA:

While the Pacers may bear the brunt of the Lakers‘ tampering, the Thunder, too, are stakeholders considering that Paul George is under contract in Oklahoma City until next summer. Erik Horne of the Oklahoman spoke with the sports law director at Penn State, Stephen Ross, about the issue. Ross’ perspective is different than some we’ve reported on previously. “To me, the test for player tampering is not the expression of love, it’s, are the players providing information to another player that he wouldn’t otherwise have?,” Ross said. “If a player texts another player, ‘I will sign an extension if you’ll tell me you’re going to come to my team,’ now I think you have a problem.”
After undergoing multiple back surgeries and a hip surgery, Martell Webster is attempting an NBA comeback, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe writes. Austin Kent wrote about him working out for the Pelicans last week.
A reality of the current NBA landscape is that, loyal or not, the majority of players and teams aren’t afraid to make calculated business decisions. Such is life, Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer writes.

Chuck Hayes Joins Rockets As Scout

September 1st, 2017 at 7:58pm CST by Austin Kent

Former Rockets big man Chuck Hayes will re-join the franchise as a scout, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle writes. Hayes, who played 11 years in the NBA, held a similar position with the Nuggets in 2016/17.