- As Jackie MacMullan of ESPN explains, Pacers guard Victor Oladipo has seen his appreciation for basketball grow as he’s been sidelined with a ruptured right quadriceps tendon. Regarding watching his team’s performance during the playoffs last season, Oladipo said “It was so hard. It makes you appreciate the game more, your teammates more, even yourself more… Sometimes we don’t realize our own impact. You take it for granted. I won’t ever do that again.”
Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders has provided some additional details on one of the most interesting trade sequences of the offseason, filling in the blanks on the deals that sent Shabazz Napier and Treveon Graham from Brooklyn to Golden State to Minnesota.
As previously outlined by cap guru Albert Nahmad (Twitter link), in order to match salaries in their sign-and-trade deal for Kevin Durant ($38,199,000), the Nets had to send out $30,479,200 in salaries of their own, but D’Angelo Russell‘s maximum salary was only worth $27,285,000.
Brooklyn included Napier’s ($1,845,301) and Graham’s ($1,645,357) non-guaranteed contracts to make up that $3,194,200 difference, but had to partially guarantee those salaries in order for them to count for salary-matching purposes. According to Pincus (via Twitter), the Nets did so by giving each player a guarantee worth $1,597,100.
The hard-capped Warriors, who only took on the duo in order to acquire Russell, didn’t want those contracts on their books, so they flipped them to the Timberwolves in a separate trade. According to Pincus (via Twitter), Golden State paid $3.6MM in cash to Minnesota in that deal, more than enough to cover both players’ full salaries and make it worth the Wolves’ while (Napier’s and Graham’s combined salaries total $3.5MM for 2019/20).
[RELATED: 2019 NBA Offseason Trades]
Interestingly, teams are limited to sending out a total of $5,617,000 in cash in trades during the 2019/20 league year, and the Warriors have now sent out $3.6MM to Minnesota and $2MM to Memphis (in the Andre Iguodala deal). In other words, Golden State won’t have the ability to send out additional cash later in the season in another trade.
Here are more details on recent trades:
- In the three-way trade that landed them T.J. Warren from Phoenix and three future second-round picks from Miami, the Pacers sent $1.1MM in cash to the Suns, per Pincus (Twitter link).
- The Clippers sent $110K to the Heat in the four-team Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade deal, says Pincus (Twitter link). That small amount of cash – the minimum allowable in a trade – was the only outgoing piece for the Clips in a swap that landed them Maurice Harkless, the Heat’s lottery-protected 2023 first-round pick (later included in the Paul George package), and the draft rights to 2017 second-rounder Mathias Lessort.
- In addition to getting $1.1MM from the Wizards in their three-team Anthony Davis trade, the Pelicans also received $1MM in cash from the Lakers, tweets Pincus. Pincus also notes that Washington used its trade exception from February’s Markieff Morris trade to take on Bonga’s $1.42MM salary. That exception was originally worth $8.6MM and was also used to acquire Davis Bertans ($7MM), so it has essentially been all used up.
After a flurry of activity during the first 10 days of an especially active 2019 free agent period, only a small handful of teams around the NBA still have any meaningful cap room available.
According to Jeff Siegel’s data at Early Bird Rights and Bobby Marks’ numbers at ESPN, the Knicks, Mavericks, Hawks, Pacers, and Clippers are the only clubs that project to have more than $2MM in leftover cap space.
Here’s a look at those five teams that still project to have a bit more room remaining:
New York Knicks
The Knicks had seemingly exhausted nearly all their cap room based on their reported agreements with free agents. However, one of those deals – Reggie Bullock‘s two-year, $21MM pact – is no longer in place after an issue arose with Bullock’s physical. It sounds like the two sides still plan to work something out, but for now, the team has regained enough flexibility to reportedly offer Marcus Morris $15MM for one year.
The Knicks’ precise cap room projection will depend on how they structured all the deals they finalized earlier this week, but Marks lists them at $15.5MM for now. That space would go away if Morris reneges on his deal with the Spurs and heads to New York. If not, the Knicks will have more cap flexibility than any other team, at least until they reach a new deal with Bullock.
Dallas Mavericks
According to Siegel’s numbers (and my own math), the Mavericks can get up as high as about $14.61MM in cap room. However, there’s no guarantee that Dallas even intends to function as an over-the-cap team this offseason.
So far, the Mavs have acquired Delon Wright via sign-and-trade, agreed to deals with free agents Seth Curry and Boban Marjanovic, and come to terms on new contracts for three of their own players (Kristaps Porzingis, Maxi Kleber, and Dorian Finney-Smith). Only the Wright acquisition is official.
If the Mavs wanted to, they could use cap room to acquire Wright and sign Curry, retain the cap holds for their own free agents, and hold off on the Marjanovic signing — that would create $14.61MM in cap room. Once that room is used, Dallas could go over the cap to lock up Porzingis, Kleber, and Finney-Smith, and then sign Boban using the room exception.
However, Dallas has another potential path — stay over the cap by taking Wright’s contract into a preexisting $21MM+ trade exception created in February’s Harrison Barnes deal, sign Curry using the mid-level exception, sign Marjanovic using the bi-annual exception, and re-sign their own free agents using their Bird or Early Bird rights.
In that scenario, the Mavs would forfeit any potential cap room, but would retain about $12MM of that Barnes trade exception, which could be used at anytime up until February 7, 2020.
Trade exceptions aren’t as versatile as cap room, since they can’t be used to sign free agents outright. However, the trade exception’s shelf life would be longer. If Dallas doesn’t find a way to use cap room now, the team would lose it once it makes its agreements with Porzingis, Kleber, and Finney-Smith official. Those players’ cap holds only account for just over $20MM for now, but their combined first-year salaries are expected to total closer to $40MM.
My best guess is that the Mavs used the Barnes trade exception to acquire Wright, and are now actively exploring the free agent and trade markets to assess whether it makes more sense to dip below the cap or to remain above it.
Atlanta Hawks
The Hawks‘ situation is pretty simple. Once the signing of Jabari Parker is official, Atlanta will have a team salary in the $103-104MM range, giving the club between $5-6MM in cap room to work with. That figure come in at about $5.8MM if Parker’s deal has a standard 5% raise from year one to year two, per Siegel.
The Hawks could create up to $7.2MM in space if they waive Jaylen Adams‘ non-guaranteed contract. It’s not clear yet what their plans are for that remaining space though.
Indiana Pacers
The Pacers‘ projection will hinge on how they intend to sign T.J. McConnell. McConnell’s two-year, $7MM deal, which isn’t yet official, could be completed using the room exception. That would leave the Pacers with about $4.82MM in cap room available right now, which would need to be used before the team finalizes its agreements with McConnell and Edmond Sumner.
If the club simply finalizes those McConnell and Sumner contracts and eats up its remaining cap room, it would still have the full $4.77MM room exception at its disposal.
Los Angeles Clippers
Like the Mavericks, the Clippers have agreed to a series of deals that they’ve yet to make official. That’s probably because they’re trying to determine if they can do anything with their remaining space (up to approximately $3.59MM).
That projection accounts for cap holds for Patrick Beverley, Ivica Zubac, and Rodney McGruder, all of whom will be re-signed. It also takes into account Kawhi Leonard‘s maximum-salary contract, and Danilo Gallinari‘s and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander‘s cap hits, since trading them for Paul George figures to be one of the last moves the Clippers make.
Our Clippers’ projection was at about $4.49MM before the team officially signed second-round pick Terance Mann on Tuesday, adding his cap hit to the books — we’re assuming that contract will start at the rookie minimum, but L.A. had the room to give him more.
Once the Clippers determine what they’ll do with their remaining cap space and officially use it up, they’ll be able to move forward on all those deals, including signing JaMychal Green using the room exception.
As John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com details, Ross said he received either serious interest or a contract offer from the Lakers, Jazz, Mavericks, Pacers, and Kings while he was a free agent. Like teammate Nikola Vucevic though, Ross preferred to stick with the Magic.
JULY 8, 9:33pm: The Suns have officially signed Rubio, according to a team press release.
JUNE 30, 5:37pm: In a shocking development, the Suns have stolen presumed Pacers target Ricky Rubio. Phoenix will sign him to a three-year, $51MM deal, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.
Multiple reports this week indicated that Rubio was expected to join the Pacers once free agency began, with one story calling it a “virtual done deal.” Indiana saw point guard Darren Collison retire and it left them extremely thin at the position. However, the team was able to add Malcolm Brogdon via sign-and-trade.
As for the Suns, they haven’t had stability at the point guard spot since they traded Eric Bledsoe away. Rubio and newcomer Dario Saric, who came to the team in a draft night trade, will add veteran presence to a team looking to make the postseason.
A former fifth overall pick, Rubio averaged 12.7 PPG, 6.1 APG, and 3.6 RPG in 68 games (27.9 MPG) for the Jazz last season. He’s not a great shooter, but Phoenix will lean on him for his play-making, passing, and defense.
The Suns will need to make an additional roster move to fit Rubio in under the cap, if they plan to keep Kelly Oubre‘s cap hold on their books, notes ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Nearly half the teams in the NBA renounced their rights to multiple free agents this week as they prepared to make new roster moves official, per RealGM’s transactions log. In some cases, like when the Clippers renounced the rights to Garrett Temple and Wilson Chandler, those free agents already new homes lined up, and removing their cap holds was simply a formality to create cap room for incoming additions.
In other cases, the housekeeping moves were a bit more noteworthy. The Pacers, for instance, renounced Darren Collison‘s Bird rights, so if the 31-year-old – who announced his retirement before the start of free agency – ever attempts an NBA comeback, Indiana will no longer have a leg up to re-acquire him.
Besides those two teams, the Hawks, Bucks, Nets, Jazz, Sixers, Clippers, Pelicans, Lakers, Kings, Celtics, Wizards, and Bulls also renounced various free agents, according to RealGM’s log.
Here are a few more notes related to free agency:
- The Lakers have withdrawn their qualifying offer to two-way player Johnathan Williams and renounced his rights, according to RealGM. That doesn’t preclude the Lakers from bringing back Williams on a new two-way deal, but he’ll be able to sign outright with a new team if he so chooses.
- At least nine teams are now confirmed to attend the Amar’e Stoudemire/Monta Ellis workout taking place in Las Vegas on Monday, tweets Jordan Schultz of ESPN. We previously relayed word of Stoudemire’s and Ellis’ attempts to make NBA comebacks.
- ESPN’s Bobby Marks provides salary cap updates on a pair of Southeast teams, tweeting that the Magic and Wizards are both safely out of luxury tax territory for now. According to Marks (Twitter links), Orlando has $3.5MM in breathing room under the tax line, counting Khem Birch‘s $1.8MM cap hold, while Washington is about $4MM below that threshold after cutting Jonathon Simmons.
Malcolm Brogdon is now a Pacer after the sign-and-trade agreement with the Bucks became official today, both teams announced in press releases. Milwaukee receives a future first-round pick and two second-rounders in return.
The 2017 Rookie of the Year, Brogdon had three promising seasons with the Bucks, although injuries limited him to 48 and 64 games the past two years. He averaged a career-best 15.6 PPG this season before suffering a minor plantar fascia tear in his right foot in March. He was a member of the 50-40-90 club, shooting .505 from the field, .426 from 3-point range and .928 from the foul line.
“We feel like Malcolm embodies the values that we’re about here at the Pacers, and he’s the perfect fit for our team,” president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard said. “Having started on the team with the best record in the NBA last year, we value the leadership he’ll bring to our team, as well as his great ability to play multiple positions.”
Brogdon’s new contract with the Pacers is reportedly worth $85MM over four years, while the first-round pick they sent to the Bucks is lottery-protected in 2020.
The Nets enjoyed their most successful free agent period ever this week, agreeing to deals with Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and DeAndre Jordan. The moves figure to make Brooklyn one of the Eastern Conference’s premier teams next season, one year after the Nets’ made the postseason.
Even with the likelihood that Durant misses most – if not all – of next season, Brooklyn figures to be in the hunt for a top seed. Current Net Spencer Dinwiddie, a crucial part of the franchise’s increased success as of late, reportedly played a major role in recruiting those aforementioned All-Stars.
For the first time, Dinwiddie addressed Brooklyn’s moves, giving a coy response to the nature of recruitment among NBA players today.
“The thing about the NBA, everything you read is plausible,” Dinwiddie said to The Athletic’s Michael Scotto. “And with that being said, obviously, it could’ve happened, it may not have happened.”
With the spotlight now shining on the Nets, Dinwiddie noted that the team expects to be in contention for not just a playoff spot but for a title in the coming seasons.
“Anytime you add two probably top-10 players in the world, multi-time All-Stars, you’re obviously going to get better,” Dinwiddie said. “It’s on the rest of us to kind of help facilitate that transition, and hopefully we can be a very good team next year.”
Check out more Eastern Conference notes:
- Even with cap space for two max contracts, the Knicks failed to lure any top-tier free agents to New York this summer. Marc Berman of the New York Post opines that the Knicks’ failures warrant an image overhaul of the franchise if it hopes to lure top players in the future.
- The Pistons plan to keep Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk on the roster, thus fully guaranteeing his salary for the 2019/20 season, Ben Stinar of Amico Hoops relays (Twitter link). Mykhailiuk’s minimum-salary contract had a guarantee date of July 5.
- After suffering a torn Achilles, C.J. Wilcox thought his career was over. At 28 years old, Wilcox – who re-signed this week with the Pacers – is in the midst of a comeback attempt, Robby General of the Indianapolis Star writes. “Eight months ago, I was done playing basketball after tearing my Achilles,” Wilcox said. “Now I have some level of a contract, which is something to be proud of.”
JULY 6: The Heat have officially acquired Okpala’s draft rights, sending the Pacers their 2022, 2025, and 2026 second-round picks, Miami announced in a press release. The deal technically became a three-team trade, having merged with the Pacers’ acquisition of T.J. Warren from the Suns.
JUNE 20: The Pacers agreed to send the No. 32 pick to the Heat, who selected Stanford small forward KZ Okpala, Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. The Pacers gained the rights to that pick earlier in the day in a trade with the Suns.
Indiana will receive three future second-round picks from Miami. The Heat had traded away their second-round pick.
Indiana also acquired forward T.J. Warren from Phoenix, which used cap room to make that deal in a salary dump. The Suns received cash considerations.
The 6’9” Okpala averaged 16.8 PPG and 5.7 RPG last season.
JULY 6: The trade is official, according to an announcement from the Pacers. It became a three-team trade, with Indiana sending the rights to No. 32 pick KZ Okpala to Miami in exchange for three second-rounders.
JUNE 20: The Pacers and Suns have reached a trade agreement that will send T.J. Warren to Indiana, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). According to Wojnarowski (Twitter links), the Pacers will also acquire the No. 32 overall pick from Phoenix and will take on Warren using cap room, sending cash to the Suns to complete the deal.
The trade looks like a straight salary dump for the Suns, who will move Warren with three years and $35.25MM left on his contract. Phoenix wanted to unload Warren – who will earn $10.81MM in 2019/20 — in order to open up more cap space, per Wojnarowski.
The Suns had a logjam at the small forward position and didn’t project to have much – if any – cap room this offseason, so the trade addresses both issues, though it will cost them a pretty good draft pick and a pretty good player with little return.
Injuries limited Warren to just 43 games in 2018/19, but he was a very effective scorer when he did play, averaging 18.0 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 1.5 APG, and 1.2 SPG with a .486/.428/.815 shooting line.
Assuming Phoenix keeps the cap hold for restricted free agent Kelly Oubre on its books, the team now projects to have about $21MM in cap room once the trade is finalized in July, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. That space will give the club more flexibility to go after a starting-caliber point guard on the open market, but still won’t be enough for a maximum-salary offer.
As for the Pacers, many of their key rotation players are headed for free agency this summer, so they’ll have plenty of cap room to take on Warren. Acquiring him will also reduce some of the uncertainty surrounding those free agents — the team could have a little added leverage in negotiations with the likes of Bojan Bogdanovic or Thaddeus Young with Warren now under control.
According to Marks, the Pacers will still have nearly $31MM in cap room available once the acquisition of Warren is finalized, though that projection doesn’t account for Bogdanovic’s cap hold.
[RELATED: Pacers eyeing Ricky Rubio]
Indiana now controls three picks in tonight’s draft, adding the No. 32 selection to Nos. 18 and 50. The Suns are left with just the No. 6 overall pick.
Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com first reported earlier today that the Pacers were among the teams with interest in Warren.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.