Membership Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Offseason Observations: Exhibit 10 Terms, Okoro, Current FAs, Stretch Provision

September 20th, 2024 at 5:36pm CST by Luke Adams

With the start of most NBA training camps just 11 days away (and even sooner than that for the Celtics and Nuggets), the 2024 offseason is nearing its end.

Before we put a bow on the summer of 2024, we have one more installment of our "Offseason Observations" to share today, following up on similar articles published in July and August.

Here are some of the under-the-radar cap- and CBA-related stories I'm keeping an eye on as teams around the league prepare for their media days and training camps.

The disparity between Exhibit 10 bonuses

As we've written many teams in recent weeks, when a player signs an Exhibit 10 contract with an NBA team, is waived before the regular season begins, and then spends at least 60 days with his club's G League affiliate, he's eligible to earn a bonus worth up to $77.5K.

We always clarify that those bonuses can be worth "up to" $77.5K because that's the maximum possible Exhibit 10 bonus in 2024/25 (up from $75K a year ago, having increased at the same rate as the salary cap). But not every player who signs an Exhibit 10 contract is able to negotiate that maximum bonus.

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS

Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Luke Adams
Join exclusive weekly live chats with Arthur Hill
Remove ads and support our writers.

Two CBA Measures Coming In 2025 Will Make Dynasty-Building Even Harder

September 13th, 2024 at 11:54am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA's current Collective Bargaining Agreement went into effect fairly recently, in 2023, and many of the more punitive restrictions on tax apron teams weren't implemented until 2024, but we're already feeling the impact of the new CBA on the league's highest-spending clubs.

The Celtics, Bucks, Suns, and Timberwolves, who are operating above the second tax apron in 2024/25, were unable to sign any outside free agents for more than the veteran's minimum this offseason. They've also faced significant limitations on the trade market, including an inability to aggregate salaries, trade cash, use previous trade exceptions, or take back more salary than they send out.

Those restrictions have been a major factor in the clubs' relative inactivity on the trade market. Boston and Milwaukee are two of just four teams around the NBA who haven't made any trades this summer. The Lakers, another one of those four teams who haven't made a deal, are operating just a hair below the second apron).

Meanwhile, of the four second-apron teams, the Suns are the only one to have acquired a player on an NBA contract in an offseason trade. That deal - David Roddy for E.J. Liddell - was a straightforward salary dump that ultimately resulted in the newly acquired player (Liddell) being waived for luxury tax savings, which serves as an important reminder -- on top of their roster-building limitations, those apron teams will be on the hook for substantial tax payments at season's end.

Still, as impactful as the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement has already been on some of the NBA's most expensive rosters, some of the toughest penalties being imposed on the league's biggest spenders are still to come in 2025. Today, we're taking a closer look at a couple more notable ways in which the current CBA will complicate teams' dynasty-building efforts in the coming years by further disincentivizing big spending.

Let's dive in...

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS

Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Luke Adams
Join exclusive weekly live chats with Arthur Hill
Remove ads and support our writers.

Five Teams Who May Pursue Cost-Cutting Trades

September 7th, 2024 at 1:23pm CST by Luke Adams

Most of the 29 trades completed so far this offseason by NBA teams have been made with financial considerations in mind. In some cases, those considerations were obvious -- when the Timberwolves sent Wendell Moore to Detroit, the Nuggets dealt Reggie Jackson to Charlotte, or the Grizzlies traded Ziaire Williams to Brooklyn, saving money was the primary motivating factor.

For other trades, cap savings were just one part of the equation. For example, Portland's July deal with the Wizards was primarily about acquiring Deni Avdija, but by including Malcolm Brogdon in their package for Avdija, the Trail Blazers were able to duck out of luxury tax territory. The same is true of the Hawks in the Dejounte Murray trade, which reduced their team salary for 2024/25 and helped them sneak below the tax line.

While some teams have already made their cost-cutting moves for '24/25, there are others who are worth keeping an eye on this fall and winter. Based on their proximity to the luxury tax line or the tax aprons, they look like potential candidates to pursue deals that would shed some salary.

Let's take a closer look at some of those teams...

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS

Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Luke Adams
Join exclusive weekly live chats with Arthur Hill
Remove ads and support our writers.

Super-Max Candidates To Watch In 2024/25

September 4th, 2024 at 3:48pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA's Designated Veteran rule, as we explain in our glossary entry on the subject, allows players to qualify for a maximum salary worth 35% of the cap before they gain the required NBA service time.

Typically, a player is ineligible to receive a maximum contract that starts at 35% of the cap until he has at least 10 years of experience, but the Designated Veteran rule gives a player with between seven and nine years of experience the opportunity to do so if he meets certain performance criteria. This has become colloquially known as signing a "super-max" deal.

The performance criteria are as follows (only one of the following must be true):

The player was named to an All-NBA team and/or was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in the most recent season, or in two of the last three seasons.
The player was named the NBA MVP in any of the three most recent seasons.

Since the NBA introduced the concept of the Designated Veteran contract in 2017, 13 players have signed them across eight offseasons. Celtics star Jayson Tatum became the latest player to join that group this summer when he signed a five-year extension projected to become the first $300MM+ contract in NBA history.

Tatum will be the only player who signs such a contract this offseason, but it's worth taking a peek down the road to see which players are the best candidates to join the list of super-max recipients in 2025.

Here are some players to watch during the 2024/25 season:

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS

Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Luke Adams
Join exclusive weekly live chats with Arthur Hill
Remove ads and support our writers.

The Rockets’ Path To Max-Salary Cap Room In 2025

August 23rd, 2024 at 10:44am CST by Luke Adams

It hasn't been all that common in recent years for would-be contenders to carry significant cap room into free agency, but the Sixers and - to a lesser extent - the Thunder showed this year that it can still pay off in a big way.

Philadelphia plotted for over a year to maximize its cap room for the 2024 offseason, putting off a contract extension for Tyrese Maxey in order to generate extra spending power by keeping his modest cap hold on the books and then going over the cap to re-sign him. That approach put the 76ers in position to sign Paul George, arguably the top unrestricted free agent on the market, to a four-year, maximum-salary contract and then to use their remaining cap room to sign complementary players like Caleb Martin and Andre Drummond.

Oklahoma City, meanwhile, didn't have maximum-salary room available and didn't go big-game hunting at the very top of this year's free agent class, but the Thunder used their space to give Isaiah Hartenstein a front-loaded contract starting at $30MM, outbidding the Knicks to land either the best or second-best center available (depending on how you feel about Nic Claxton).

At this point, there are hardly any teams that project to operate under the cap in 2025, and many of the clubs that could have cap room - such as the Nets and Wizards - are still very much in the retooling stage.

There's one potential exception though. The Rockets finished last season with a 41-41 record and appear poised to take another step forward this season as their young core (which now includes No. 3 overall pick Reed Sheppard) continues to grow. Houston also has the ability to create maximum-salary cap space next offseason.

However, the Rockets' path to maximum-salary room isn't quite as clean as the Sixers' was, and may require shedding one or two starter-caliber players. Let's take a closer look at the team's potential path to max space.

Houston currently has just two players with guaranteed salaries for the 2025/26 season, but that total could increase to seven once the team picks up several rookie scale options for '25/26 by the October 31 deadline. Here are the details:

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS

Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Luke Adams
Join exclusive weekly live chats with Arthur Hill
Remove ads and support our writers.

Offseason Observations: Yabusele, MLEs, Draftees, Trade Vetos, Swap Rights

August 16th, 2024 at 7:18am CST by Luke Adams

With the Lauri Markkanen situation resolved, the Paris Olympics in the books, and NBA training camps still about a month-and-a-half away, we're entering the quietest portion of the 2024 offseason.

However, that doesn't mean there's nothing worth discussing.

Here are a few of the summer subplots I've been keeping an eye on, ranging from how Guerschon Yabusele's buyout with Real Madrid impacts a potential move to the NBA to the new ways in which teams are negotiating draft-pick swap rights in trades.

How Guerschon Yabusele's buyout works

A former NBA first-round pick who has been out of the league since 2019, Yabusele had an impressive showing for the French national team during the Olympics and suggested on social media after the Games that he'd welcome another opportunity stateside. However, reporting from Marc Stein indicated that Yabusele's buyout with Real Madrid is worth $2.5MM.

At least one report has stated Yabusele would be responsible for paying the majority of that $2.5MM buyout, while another has suggested an NBA team that signs him would be on the hook for the full amount. The truth depends on your perspective. Here's how it works:

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS

Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Luke Adams
Join exclusive weekly live chats with Arthur Hill
Remove ads and support our writers.

Ten Minimum-Salary Free Agent Signings With Bargain Potential

August 9th, 2024 at 5:09pm CST by Luke Adams

The Suns' deal with Tyus Jones and the Bucks' addition of Gary Trent Jr. have been widely lauded as steals, with each contract coming in well below what the player was expected to earn on the open market.

But those aren't the only minimum-salary signings that could pay off in a big way in 2024/25. In fact, they're not even the only potential minimum-salary bargains on Phoenix's or Milwaukee's roster.

Listed below are 10 players - not including Jones or Trent - who signed for the veteran's minimum as free agents this summer and are in position to return surplus value for their respective teams. Let's dive in...

1. Spencer Dinwiddie (Mavericks)

The fact that Dinwiddie had to settle for a minimum-salary deal this offseason isn't a huge surprise, given that he's coming off a down year and finished last season on a minimum contract after hitting the buyout market in February.

But the veteran point guard is just one year removed from averaging 17.3 points and 6.5 assists in 34.5 minutes per game across 79 outings (all starts). He was also especially effective during his previous stint with the Mavericks from February 2022 to February 2023, posting an impressive shooting line of .466/.404/.788 while averaging 17.1 PPG.

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS

Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Luke Adams
Join exclusive weekly live chats with Arthur Hill
Remove ads and support our writers.

The Complexities Of The Lauri Markkanen Situation

August 2nd, 2024 at 8:15am CST by Luke Adams

On the surface, the Lauri Markkanen situation in Utah looks relatively straightforward.

The Finnish forward is a star on an expiring contract playing for a team very much still in a rebuilding stage. The Jazz will have to make a decision that lottery teams face all the time. Does it makes more sense to trade Markkanen now in order to bottom out ahead of the 2025 draft and ensure they don't lose him later for nothing, or to hang onto the 27-year-old and attempt to sign him long-term to make him part of the core moving forward?

It's not simply a matter of choosing one course or the other though. A confluence of factors, such as the Jazz's $30MM+ in cap room, Markkanen's contract situation (including an unusually low cap hit for a former All-Star), and a series of rules in the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement, create added complications.

The Jazz will have decisions to make beyond just whether or not to trade Markkanen. He, in turn, will face decisions of his own, as soon as next week.

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS

Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Luke Adams
Join exclusive weekly live chats with Arthur Hill
Remove ads and support our writers.

Possible Fits For The Remaining FAs From Our Top-50 List

July 26th, 2024 at 8:03am CST by Luke Adams

Of the 50 players we listed as our top free agents of the summer last month, 43 have signed NBA contracts. That leaves seven unsigned players from that top-50 list. They are as follows:

Tyus Jones, G
Isaac Okoro, F (Cavaliers RFA)
Luke Kennard, G
Precious Achiuwa, F/C
Markelle Fultz, G
Cedi Osman, F
Gordon Hayward, F

There aren't a lot of viable destinations left out there for these seven guys, as many teams around the NBA have filled their projected 15-man rosters and/or aren't in position to continue adding players due to their proximity to the luxury tax line or one of the tax aprons.

Still, it would be a little surprising if these players doesn't have an NBA home by the fall. So where might they end up? Let's take a closer look to see if we can come up with logical landing spots for each of them.

Tyus Jones

We opened up a discussion on Jones' best fit last week -- I made a few suggestions in our article and got some good feedback from readers in the comment section. One thing that struck me during that exercise was that many of the best fits for Jones - a good distributor and shooter who never turns the ball over - project to be some of the worst teams in the league.

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS

Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Luke Adams
Join exclusive weekly live chats with Arthur Hill
Remove ads and support our writers.

Offseason Observations: Apron Impact, Rockets, Spurs, Okogie

July 18th, 2024 at 11:52am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA's offseason is far from over. As we saw last summer, when Damian Lillard was traded to Milwaukee in late September and Jrue Holiday was flipped from Portland to Boston on October 1, the trade market stays open into the fall.

We also could still see impactful moves on the free agent market occurring much later in the offseason, as was the case a year ago when Derrick Jones and P.J. Washington - two key members of the Mavericks' team that made the NBA Finals - signed their respective contracts during the second half of August (Washington signed with the Hornets before being traded to Dallas later in the season).

Still, the pace of the offseason action has certainly slowed down since the start of July, giving us an opportunity to look back and reflect on all that's gone down in the last few weeks.

From one of the biggest storylines of the summer (the impact of the new tax apron rules) to some under-the-radar developments (like the structure of Josh Okogie's new deal with the Suns), we're taking a closer look today at some of the more curious offseason subplots.

Let's dive in...

Has the impact of the new apron restrictions been overstated?

The concept of the tax apron has existed in the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement for years, and a second apron was implemented in 2023, but the 2024 offseason is the first time all the new apron-related restrictions introduced in the current CBA have been in place. Those new restrictions affect the trade market most significantly, with teams operating over the first tax apron not permitted to take back more salary than they send out and teams over the second apron prohibited from aggregating player salaries.

While it's true that these rules have made it challenging for teams with high payrolls to make moves as easily as they used to, I think they've also become a convenient scapegoat for teams to justify certain roster decisions.

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS

Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Luke Adams
Join exclusive weekly live chats with Arthur Hill
Remove ads and support our writers.