- Clippers star Kawhi Leonard hasn’t been cleared to play 5-on-5, but he continues to make progress in his return from an ACL injury, ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk said on “NBA Today” (video link). Newly signed John Wall will compete with Reggie Jackson for the starting point guard spot, Youngmisuk adds.
July 8: Wall’s deal with the Clippers is now official, the team announced (via Twitter). “John is one of the great downhill drivers and shot creators of his era,” said president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank. “He will add depth to our backcourt with his initiating, passing and point-of-attack defense.”
July 1: The Clippers and point guard John Wall have formally agreed to terms on a two-year contract worth $13.2MM, according to a tweet from Klutch Sports Group.
Wall reached a buyout agreement earlier in the week with the Rockets and was officially cut on Tuesday, clearing waivers on Thursday. Reporting at the time of his agreement with Houston indicated that he intended to join the Clippers, likely on a deal worth the taxpayer mid-level exception. His agency has now confirmed that’s the case.
Wall gave back a reported $6.5MM of his $47MM+ salary for 2022/23 in his buyout with the Rockets. That’s almost the exact amount the taxpayer MLE is worth for 2022/23.
Wall has played in just 72 regular season contests since the 2017/2018 season. Much of that missed time was due to injuries, including heel surgery and a ruptured Achilles tendon. However, he was believed to be healthy last season when he and the Rockets reached an agreement to keep him away from the team as Houston focused on developing its young backcourt.
Wall put up solid numbers during 40 games with the Rockets in 2020/21, averaging 20.6 PPG and 6.9 APG, though he shot a career-worst 40.4% from the field. His production peaked in ’16/17, when he averaged 23.1 and 10.7 APG for Washington.
The 31-year-old, who has five All-Star appearances on his résumé, will join a veteran-heavy Clippers team that aims to compete for a title in 2022/23 with a healthy Kawhi Leonard and Paul George back in the lineup. Wall will likely share ball-handling duties with guards like Reggie Jackson, Terance Mann, and Norman Powell in addition to those star forwards.
The Clippers have 11 players on guaranteed contracts, with Wall, Nicolas Batum, and Amir Coffey set to sign new deals. That leaves just one open spot on the club’s projected 15-man regular season roster.
The Clippers have renamed their G League affiliate, formerly known as the Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario, to the Ontario Clippers, the team announced today in a press release.
According to the club, Los Angeles’ G League affiliate will continue to play its home games at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California through at least the 2023/24 season.
As Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times notes (via Twitter), the L.A. Clippers’ new Inglewood arena is scheduled to open in 2024, and while the main venue would probably be too big for a G League team, there will be other courts in the facility.
Given that the franchise’s basketball and business departments will operate out of the new Intuit Dome and the Ontario Clippers are only locked into playing in Toyota Arena through ’23/24, Greif wonders if the G League squad could eventually be relocated to Inglewood.
A total of 13 traded player exceptions created during the 2021 NBA offseason are set to expire this month if they go unused.
A trade exception is an NBA salary cap exception that can be generated when a team trades a player away. It allows that team to acquire a certain amount of salary without sending out any in return for one year after the exception was created. The club is permitted to trade for a player earning the amount of the exception, plus $100K.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Traded Player Exception]
For instance, the Trail Blazers are set to use their $20,864,198 trade exception, created in February’s CJ McCollum trade, to acquire Jerami Grant, who is earning $20,955,000 in 2022/23. Grant narrowly fits into that TPE after accounting for the $100K in wiggle room.
Most trade exceptions expire without being used, but teams can sometimes find a use for them — especially the bigger ones like Portland’s. So it’s worth keeping tabs on which ones are still available.
Here are the 13 exceptions set to expire this month:
- Boston Celtics: $17,142,857 (expires 7/18)
- Los Angeles Clippers: $8,250,000 (expires 7/18)
- Indiana Pacers: $7,333,333 (expires 7/7)
- New Orleans Pelicans: $6,382,262 (expires 7/7)
- Chicago Bulls: $5,000,000 (expires 7/7)
- Memphis Grizzlies: $4,054,695 (expires 7/7)
- Brooklyn Nets: $3,246,530 (expires 7/6)
- Toronto Raptors: $3,070,052 (expires 7/6)
- Atlanta Hawks: $1,782,621 (expires 7/7)
- Golden State Warriors: $1,782,621 (expires 7/7)
- Milwaukee Bucks: $1,517,981 (expires 7/7)
- Boston Celtics: $1,440,549 (expires 7/7)
- Brooklyn Nets: $118,342 (expires 7/6)
The Celtics’ $17MM exception, created in last year’s Evan Fournier sign-and-trade, is the most noteworthy one here, but it appears unlikely to be used. Boston reached a deal last week to acquire Malcolm Brogdon without having to use the exception, and now appears to be a long shot to strike another major trade agreement.
The third exception on this list, the Pacers’ $7.3MM TPE, will disappear if Indiana decides to operate under the cap. The team would have to renounce the exception in order to actually make use of its cap room.
While it’s possible some of the other exceptions on this list will be used before they expire, they won’t accommodate any of the deals that have been agreed upon to date.
The full list of outstanding trade exceptions can be found right here.
- Clippers owner Steve Ballmer believes “the sky is the limit” for his team, especially if Kawhi Leonard can make a full comeback from the torn right ACL that prevented him from playing this season, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.
After landing John Wall, the Clippers have one opening on their 15-man roster. There’s no rush to fill it, Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times writes. While they could use a backup center, the team is more interested in staying flexible rather than quickly adding a player. The team is already looking at a $143MM tax bill for next season and another signing would add to that.
We have more from the Western Conference:
- Donte DiVincenzo was believed to have offers for the full taxpayer mid-level exception of $6.479MM. However, he chose the Warriors’ offer of two years and $9.3MM with a player option. The option was key to his decision to take a $4.5MM salary next season, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic. He has a chance to join a championship team and pump up his value. If he does that, he can re-enter the free-agency market. If he doesn’t, he’s protected with a second-year player option worth $4.8MM.
- Nuggets GM Calvin Booth is carrying out his stated agenda of improving the team’s defense, Mike Singer of the Denver Post notes. By trading for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, agreeing to sign free agent Bruce Brown, re-signing Davon Reed and drafting Christian Braun and Peyton Watson, Booth targeted players who could switch on defense, disrupt passing lanes, play bigger than their height and stay on the floor in the postseason.
- Malik Monk has been friends with De’Aaron Fox since high school. That played a role in his decision to ditch the Lakers and agree to a two-year, $19MM contract with the Kings, Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee reports.
The 2021/22 NBA season was a record-setting one for luxury tax payments.
According to data from Albert Nahmad of HeatHoops.com and Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype, the league’s previous single-year record for total luxury tax payments was $173.3MM, back in 2002/03.
This season, the Warriors‘ tax penalties alone nearly matched that league-wide record. And they were joined by six other taxpayers whose combined end-of-season bills shattered the previous record even without Golden State’s help.
Here’s the complete breakdown of the seven taxpaying teams, courtesy of Eric Pincus of SportsBusinessClassroom.com:
- Golden State Warriors: $170,331,194
- Brooklyn Nets: $97,711,261
- Los Angeles Clippers: $83,114,692
- Milwaukee Bucks: $52,037,160
- Los Angeles Lakers: $45,117,195
- Utah Jazz: $18,833,260
- Philadelphia 76ers: $13,876,624
All told, the seven teams paid a staggering combined total of $481,021,386.
Half of that total will be dispersed to the league’s non-taxpayers, which means that 23 teams will receive $10,456,987 each. The league will get the remaining $240,510,693 to help fund its revenue sharing program, says Pincus.
These numbers make it more obvious why a team like the Celtics made a concerted effort to get out of luxury tax territory at the trade deadline. A tax bill of $2MM or so wouldn’t break the bank for Boston’s ownership group, but the C’s generated more than just $2MM in savings by ducking below the tax line — they’re now one of the 23 teams that will receive a $10MM+ windfall.
Having said that, the Celtics gladly would have paid the tax penalty had they won the championship — Jaylen Brown would have received a bonus in that scenario, which would have pushed them over the line.
It’s worth noting that the Warriors are the only one of these seven taxpayers who were subject to “repeater” penalties this season, so it’s not as if those more punitive repeater penalties fueled this year’s record-setting totals. Even without the repeater penalties, the Dubs would have owed approximately $131MM in taxes.
The majority of these teams project to be taxpayers again in 2022/23.
JULY 6: The Clippers have officially re-signed Coffey, according to NBA.com’s transactions log.
JUNE 30: The Clippers will re-sign 25-year-old restricted free agent shooting guard Amir Coffey to a three-year, $11MM contract, agents Bill Duffy and Marlon Harrison have revealed to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (via Twitter).
After going undrafted out of Minnesota in 2019, Coffey joined L.A. on a two-way contract. He played sparingly at the NBA level during the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons, averaging 3.2 PPG across 62 total contests.
Coffey initially returned to the Clippers on a two-way deal in 2021. In five games with the Clippers’ NBAGL club, the Agua Caliente Clippers, Coffey averaged 19.6 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 2.8 APG and 1.2 SPG. He was ultimately promoted to the club’s 15-man roster in March.
In 69 games with Los Angeles during the 2021/22 season, including 30 starts, Coffey averaged 9.0 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 1.8 APG and 0.6 SPG in 22.7 MPG. He posted shooting splits of .453/.378/.863. Presumably, the 25-year-old’s minutes and touches may be reduced with the full-time returns of All-Star wings Kawhi Leonard and Paul George next season.
Los Angeles has been making sure it re-signs several key role players already during free agency, anticipating a deep postseason run in 2022/23. The team will reportedly extend center Ivica Zubac on a three-year, $33MM deal, and also is set to bring back forward Nicolas Batum on a two-season, $22MM agreement.
JULY 6: The Clippers have officially re-signed Batum, the team announced today in a press release.
“Nico is a selfless vet and a winning player whose intelligence, versatility and skill have lifted our team for the past two years,” president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said in a statement. “We wanted to keep building with him and are honored he wanted the same.”
JUNE 30: Veteran Clippers forward Nicolas Batum has agreed to return to Los Angeles on a two-season, $22MM contract, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
After being selected with the No. 25 pick in 2008, Batum first established himself as a switchable, reliable 3-and-D wing with the Trail Blazers. After becoming a full-time starter on multiple Portland playoff teams, Batum was eventually traded to the Hornets in 2015.
Following a lackluster run with the Hornets on a lucrative five-year, $120MM deal, Batum was waived by Charlotte ahead of the 2020/21 season, which would have been the final year on his deal. Batum joined the Clippers on a minimum contract in 2020, and promptly rebuilt his NBA value as a solid forward on both ends of the floor, capable of playing either small or power forward.
During the 2021/22 season, Batum averaged 8.3 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 1.7 APG, 1.0 SPG and 0.7 BPG for the Clippers across 59 games, including 54 starts. He posted a shooting line of .463/.400/.658. Batum declined a $3.3MM player option with L.A. ahead of the start of free agency today.
Los Angeles is gearing up for an anticipated deep playoff run, with All-Star wings Kawhi Leonard and Paul George both projected to be healthy during the 2022/23 season. In addition to bringing back 33-year-old Batum, the Clippers also are set to add 31-year-old former five-time All-Star John Wall to a team-friendly contract as they shore up veteran depth.
The Clippers are re-signing Batum using the Early Bird exception, which requires the deal to be for at least two years, with no options.
On a Spotify Live appearance with Marc Stein, Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report said he has heard there’s mutual interest between the Kings and Malik Monk in free agency (hat tip to Talkin’ NBA). Monk played college ball at Kentucky with De’Aaron Fox, so there’s obviously a connection between the two athletic guards.
Monk had a career-year in his first season with the Lakers last season, averaging 13.8 PPG, 3.4 RPG and 2.9 APG on .473/.391/.795 shooting in 76 games (37 starts, 28.1 MPG). He’s reportedly looking for a role where he can receive significant minutes and “be himself,” as he told Jovan Buha of The Athletic.
The Kings could offer Monk the mid-level exception, projected to be worth about $10.5MM next season, which is significantly more than the Lakers can offer (taxpayer MLE — $6.5MM).
Here are more rumors ahead of free agency, which kicks off in less than 17 hours:
- Fischer also reports (hat tip to Talkin’ NBA) that in addition to Denver, Detroit and Washington, the Bulls are in the mix for Victor Oladipo. Fischer previously wrote that Oladipo was unlikely to remain with Miami.
- John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Phoenix hears (via Twitter) that Suns backup center JaVale McGee is looking for a multiyear deal, with the Bucks, Mavericks and Nets interested in his services. Gambadoro adds that he’s unsure if Phoenix would go for a two-year deal to re-sign McGee, who was highly productive (9.2 PPG, 6.7 RPG and 1.1 BPG) in a reserve role with the Suns last season (74 games, 15.8 MPG).
- Patty Mills is expected to draw “significant interest” on the free agent market after declining his player option, but he hasn’t ruled out a return to the Nets, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Brian Lewis of The New York Post hears Mills and his wife enjoyed their time in Brooklyn, but it’s possible he could get a more lucrative offer elsewhere.
- Sources tell Marc Stein (via Twitter) that Isaiah Hartenstein hasn’t ruled out a return to the Clippers, stating that it’s “well-known among rival teams” with interest in the center that he might re-sign with Los Angeles. Lewis hears similarly, with sources close to the 24-year-old telling The Post that “he loves” playing for the Clips. The main issue is the Clippers are reportedly using their taxpayer MLE to sign John Wall, so they’ll be extremely limited in what they can offer Hartenstein. Stein previously reported that the Magic are the “leading suitor” for Hartenstein, who has also been linked to the Bulls, Raptors and Rockets.