- By re-signing with the Grizzlies, Tony Wroten received a $25K guarantee and a second non-guaranteed year, tweets Pincus. Wroten’s previous contract included several guarantee dates, but those have been removed — the point guard will get his full 2016/17 salary if he remains under contract through January 10.
With the free agent signing period winding down and teams looking ahead to the preseason, we at Hoops Rumors will be tracking the Salary Cap figures for each team around the league. These posts will be maintained throughout the season once financial data is reported. They will be located on the sidebar throughout the year, once all the teams’ cap figures have been relayed. You can always check RosterResource.com for up-to-date rosters for each franchise, with the Grizzlies’ team page accessible here.
Here’s a breakdown of where the Grizzlies currently stand financially:
Guaranteed Salary
- Mike Conley — $26,540,100
- Chandler Parsons — $22,116,750
- Marc Gasol — $21,165,675 [Contract has 15% Trade Kicker]
- Zach Randolph — $10,361,445
- Brandan Wright — $5,709,880 [Contract has 15% Trade Kicker]
- Tony Allen — $5,505,618
- Vince Carter — $4,264,057 [Contract has 15% Trade Kicker]
- Troy Daniels — $3,332,940
- James Ennis — $2,898,000
- Wade Baldwin — $1,793,760
- Deyonta Davis — $1,369,229
- Jarell Martin — $1,286,160
- Jordan Adams — $1,220,900 [Waived by team]
- JaMychal Green — $980,431
- Andrew Harrison — $945,000
- Troy Williams — $543,471 [Waived by team]
- Toney Douglas — $379,159 [Waived by team (Mar 18)]
- Jamaal Franklin — $163,296 [Waived via Stretch Provision]
- Toney Douglas — $100,593 [Waived by team (Dec 15)]
- Wayne Selden — $83,199
- Toney Douglas — $57,672 [10-day contract (Jan 30); actual salary — $77,379]
- Toney Douglas — $57,672 [10-day contract (Feb 9); actual salary — $77,379]
- D.J. Stephens — $35,000 [Waived by team]
- Matt Costello — $31,500 [Waived by team]
- Tony Wroten — $25,000 [Waived by team]
Total Guaranteed Salary= $110,966,507
Cash Sent Out Via Trade: $250K — Sent $250K to Hornets in Troy Daniels trade [Amount Remaining $3.25MM]
Cash Received Via Trade: $0 [Amount Remaining $3.5MM]
Payroll Exceptions Available
- None [Room Exception used to sign James Ennis]
Total Projected Payroll: $110,966,507
Salary Cap: $94,143,000
Estimated Available Cap Space: –$16,823,507
Luxury Tax Threshold: $113,287,000
Total Projected Payroll For Tax Purposes: $111,470,216
Amount Below Luxury Tax: $1,816,784
Last Updated: 3/20/17
The Basketball Insiders salary pages and The Vertical’s salary database were used in the creation of this post.
Longtime Spurs stars Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili both wrapped up their international careers with Olympic losses today in Rio de Janeiro. Parker confirmed that this afternoon’s defeat to Spain was his “last game” for the French team, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The 34-year-old Parker, whose playing time was limited during this Olympics, added that he’s “not gonna change his mind like that.”
Ginobili, 39, also acknowledged his retirement from international basketball after his Argentinian team was soundly defeated by the United States. He got more of a sendoff than he was expecting, writes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. “It was emotional,” Ginobili said. “I didn’t want it to be. I was hoping to sneak out and go to the locker room and do what I had to do there, but everybody conspired against it. The coach put me back in to play together one last time, somebody gave me the ball and brought me back in, somebody threw me a shirt. Then my teammates — it got emotional.” Ginobili has already signed with the Spurs for next season, and Parker is under contract until 2017/18.
There’s more news tonight from the Western Conference:
- Former Laker Xavier Henry is optimistic as he continues the long road back from a ruptured left Achilles tendon, writes Joey Ramirez of NBA.com. Henry, who was one of several NBA veterans at L.A.’s mini-camp today, spent last season with the D-League’s Santa Cruz Warriors and credits their coaching and training staffs for helping with his comeback. “I’ve been doing a lot of workouts this summer with a lot of different teams and getting feedback and seeing how I feel,” Henry said. “I’ve been feeling really good. I’m feeling blessed that I can even play basketball again.”
- The Lakers will hire Coby Karl, son of former NBA coach George Karl, to be head coach of their D-League affiliate, tweets Shams Charania of The Vertical. Karl was an assistant with the D-League’s Westchester Knicks last season.
- The Grizzlies have made the final two additions to new head coach David Fizdale’s staff, the team announced today. Bob Bender, who worked as a scout for the Nets last season, was hired as an assistant coach, and former Clippers and Nets shooting coach Bob Thate will fill that role in Memphis.
- The Grizzlies offered Serbian star Milos Teodosic more than $5MM in 2013, tweets international basketball writer David Pick. Teodosic’s agent, Nick Lotsos, said his client chose CSKA Moscow over Memphis.
Bob Bender has joined the Grizzlies’ coaching staff, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical. The move completes the staff of new head coach David Fizdale, who was hired in May, Wojnarowski notes.
Bender served as a scout with the Nets last season after working as an assistant with the Bucks in 2013/14. He had spent the previous nine seasons as an assistant with the Hawks after joining the team in 2004. He broke into the NBA as an assistant with the Sixers during the 2002-03 season.
Prior to that, Bender was an accomplished college coach, working for nine seasons at Washington and four years at Illinois State and earning Pac 10 Coach of the Year honors in 1996. Bender played for Indiana’s national championship team in 1976 and later played at Duke.
The NBA’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement is designed to give teams certain benefits when it comes to re-signing their own free agents. Many players who reach free agency, for instance, are permitted to get 7.5% annual raises from their own teams, while they can only get 4.5% raises from another team. More notably, Bird rights free agents can sign five-year contracts with their own teams, but can only go up to four years with other clubs.
In some cases, that extra year doesn’t make much of a difference. Al Horford left Atlanta for Boston and signed a four-year contract with the Celtics, even though there were reports suggesting the Hawks were open to going to five years (albeit not quite for the max). Kevin Durant signed with the Warriors on a two-year contract that he’ll likely opt out of after the first year in order to maximize his future earnings.
Still, for at least a handful of players, that five-year contract appears to have played a part in their decisions to return to their own teams. As our Free Agent Tracker shows, six free agents signed five-year deals this year, and all six of those contracts were worth at least $85MM. Three of them were maximum-salary pacts.
Here are those five-year contracts, which will run through the 2020/21 season:
- Mike Conley (Grizzlies): Five years, $152,605,578 (partial guarantee in year five)
- DeMar DeRozan (Raptors): Five years, $137,500,000 (player option in year five)
- Andre Drummond (Pistons): Five years, $127,171,313 (player option in year five)
- Bradley Beal (Wizards): Five years, $127,171,313
- Nicolas Batum (Hornets): Five years, $120,000,000 (player option in year five)
- Evan Fournier (Magic): Five years, $85,000,000 (player option in year five)
Although Conley drew significant interest from the Mavericks, he was always a favorite to return to the Grizzlies, and none of the other five players on this list were seriously linked to another suitor, which is interesting.
Drummond and Beal were restricted free agents who got max deals, so there was never any suspense about their destinations, but plenty of teams would have been interested in prying away DeRozan from the Raptors, Batum from the Hornets, or Fournier from the Magic. The fact that those players’ teams were willing to offer five years likely made negotiations much simpler, since no rival suitor could offer that fifth year.
A five-year contract provides additional long-term security for free agents, and also gives the team the opportunity to give the player some agency as well. In four of the six deals listed above, the contract features a fifth-year player option.
That means DeRozan, Drummond, Batum, and Fournier have a safety net for that 2020/21 season — if they’re still playing at a high level at that point, it might make sense to opt out and sign a new longer-term contract. If their production has slipped, or if they’re battling injuries, they’ll have the option of remaining in their current contract and collecting a big pay check in that fifth year.
The ability to offer an additional year to their own free agents hasn’t always prevented teams from losing top-tier players on the open market, but there are still plenty of instances where that fifth year seems to make a difference. As the CBA opt-out date nears and the NBA and NBPA explore potential changes to their current agreement, it makes sense for this aspect of the CBA to remain unchanged. That extra long-term security may not appeal to every marquee free agent, but it does give a player’s current team a leg up, which is crucial if the league is worried about potential imbalance.
A roller coaster of an offseason for Tony Wroten continued today, as the former first-round point guard formally signed a new contract with the Grizzlies, according to a press release from the team. The club’s official announcement also confirmed previously reported deals for D.J. Stephens, Troy Williams, and Wayne Selden.
[RELATED: Grizzlies’ 2016 free agent signings, via our Free Agent Tracker]
Wroten, the 25th overall pick in the 2012 draft, appeared in just eight games for the Sixers last season before Philadelphia waived him in December. The Knicks later signed Wroten to a two-year deal, minimum-salary deal that contained no guaranteed money for the 2016/17 campaign, but removed him from their roster in June when they acquired Derrick Rose from the Bulls. The Grizzlies claimed him off waivers at that point, but cut him in July.
One recent report from international basketball journalist David Pick indicated that Wroten could end up re-signing with Memphis, so it’s possible the Grizzlies simply wanted to rework the terms of the 23-year-old’s contract before bringing him back. Of course, based on the team’s cap limitations, neither Wroten nor any of the other three signees whose deals were confirmed today will receive more than the minimum salary.
A Washington product, Wroten began his NBA career in Memphis in 2012, before later joining the Sixers. In 145 total games in the NBA, he has averaged 11.1 points and 3.0 assists per contest, but has shot just 41.3% from the floor, including a paltry 23.1% from downtown. When Wroten was waived by the Knicks, a report from Stefan Bondy and Frank Isola of The New York Daily News suggested that the team made the decision due to an undisclosed disciplinary issue, but it appears that issue didn’t scare off the Grizzlies.
Over the next week, we’ll be breaking down 2016 NBA free agent spending by division, examining which teams – and divisions – were the most active this July.
These divisional breakdowns won’t present a full picture of teams’ offseason spending. Some notable free agents, including LeBron James, remain unsigned, so there’s still money out there to be spent. Our lists also don’t include money spent on this year’s first- and second-round picks or draft-and-stash signings. There are a few free agent names missing in some instances as well, since those deals aren’t yet official or terms haven’t been reported.
Still, these closer looks at divisional spending should generally reveal how teams invested their money in free agency this summer, identifying which clubs went all-out and which ones played it safe.
With the help of our Free Agent Tracker and contract info from Basketball Insiders, we’ll kick off the series today with a look at the Southwest division. Let’s dive in…
1. Memphis Grizzlies
- Total money committed: $266,310,613
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $251,079,762
- Largest expenditure: Mike Conley (five years, $152,607,578)
- Other notable signings:
- Chandler Parsons (four years, $94,438,523)
- Troy Daniels (three years, $10,000,000)
- James Ennis (two years, $5,926,410)
- Notes:
- Wayne Selden‘s deal is not included in these totals, since it’s a summer contract and won’t count toward the Grizzlies’ cap unless he makes the regular-season roster.
- The fifth year of Conley’s deal is not fully guaranteed for now, but will become guaranteed if Conley plays in 55 games in the 2018/19 or 2019/20 seasons.
2. Dallas Mavericks
- Total money committed: $208,352,773
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $173,518,115
- Largest expenditure: Harrison Barnes (four years, $94,438,523)
- Other notable signings:
- Dirk Nowitzki (two years, $50,000,000)
- Dwight Powell (four years, $37,268,750)
- Deron Williams (one year, $9,000,000)
- Seth Curry (two years, $5,926,410)
- Notes:
- Keith Hornsby‘s contract with the Mavericks is not included in these figures, since details haven’t yet been reported.
- Nowitzki’s deal contributes significantly to the gap between the Mavs’ total money and guaranteed money committed, since his second year ($25MM) is a team option.
3. Houston Rockets
- Total money committed: $135,784,790
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $135,784,790
- Largest expenditure: Ryan Anderson (four years, $80,000,000)
- Other notable signings:
- Eric Gordon (Four years, $52,886,790)
- Nene (One year, $2,898,000)
- Notes:
- The Rockets are believed to have two-year, minimum-salary agreements in place with Pablo Prigioni, Kyle Wiltjer, Isaiah Taylor, and Gary Payton II. However, those deals haven’t been made official, so they’re not included in our totals.
- Bobby Brown‘s deal is not included in these totals, since it’s believed to be a summer contract which won’t count toward the Rockets’ cap unless he makes the regular-season roster.
4. New Orleans Pelicans
- Total money committed: $99,104,431
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $99,104,431
- Largest expenditure: Solomon Hill (four years, $48,000,000)
- Other notable signings:
- E’Twaun Moore (four years, $34,000,000)
- Langston Galloway (two years, $10,634,000)
- Tim Frazier (two years, $4,090,000)
- Notes:
- Terrence Jones will earn $1,050,961 on a minimum-salary contract, but the Pelicans will only pay $980,431 of that salary, with the NBA footing the rest of the bill.
- The Pelicans still figure to add non-guaranteed deals to fill out their preseason roster, but all their signees so far have had fully guaranteed contracts.
5. San Antonio Spurs
- Total money committed: $57,678,976
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $54,981,536
- Largest expenditure: Pau Gasol (two years, $31,697,500)
- Other notable signings:
- Manu Ginobili (one year, $14,000,000)
- Dewayne Dedmon (two years, $5,926,410)
- David Lee (two years, minimum salary)
- Notes:
- Lee’s contract hasn’t been formally announced, but it’s said to be a two-year, minimum-salary pact with a player option in year two. We’ve included that deal in our count, but not Patricio Garino‘s, since the official terms on that one haven’t been reported.
- Ryan Arcidiacono and Bryn Forbes are the only Spurs free agent signings without fully guaranteed deals so far.
- The Grizzlies added Wayne Selden to their offseason roster with a summer contract, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders, who notes (via Twitter) that the training-camp, minimum-salary deal offers no real injury protection for the former Jayhawk.
- Troy Williams‘ two-year deal with the Grizzlies includes a partial guarantee of $150K for 2016/17, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets.