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NBA Teams With Full Rosters

September 8th, 2016 at 1:14pm CST by Luke Adams

While NBA teams are limited to carrying 15 players on their regular-season rosters (with a few exceptions), roster limits expand to 20 players during the offseason. The five extra roster slots allow clubs to bring in veterans hopeful of earning a place on the regular-season roster, or young players who may eventually be ticketed for D-League assignments.

Most teams will fill up their 20-man rosters for training camp, but at this point in the NBA offseason, it can be difficult to determine which clubs still have room on their rosters. Many potential camp invitees have reportedly reached agreements with teams, but those signings haven’t yet been officially announced.

By our count, there are currently just two team at the 20-man offseason roster limit. One is the 76ers, who were at the 20-man limit for much of the offseason before waiving Carl Landry and Tibor Pleiss. Since then, they’ve added Elton Brand and Cat Barber, though it appears only 11 of the club’s 20 players have fully guaranteed salaries for 2016/17.

Meanwhile, on their official website, the Nuggets list 14 players who have guaranteed contracts, plus Axel Toupane, JaKarr Sampson, and D.J. Kennedy, who are on non-guaranteed or partially-guaranteed deals. In addition to those 17 players, the team has also reportedly reached agreements with Nate Wolters, Robbie Hummel, and Jarnell Stokes, bringing Denver’s total roster count to 20.

Still, not all of Denver’s signings are official, and even once they are, the Nuggets could easily make room for another player by cutting a non-guaranteed salary from their books. The same can be said for Philadelphia. While their rosters may technically be “full,” it’s not as if the Nuggets and the Sixers don’t have the flexibility to replace a camp invitee with a veteran free agent, if they so choose.

A more productive way of determining which teams’ rosters are “full” at this point in the offseason might be to examine the number of guaranteed salaries on their books. The deadline for teams to stretch the 2016/17 salary of a waived player is now behind us, so any team that cuts a player with a guaranteed salary won’t be able to reduce that cap hit unless the player agrees to a buyout. Most teams are reluctant to add much dead money to their cap with such a move, so if a club has 15 guaranteed contracts on its cap, we can assume its regular-season roster is fairly set, barring a trade or a surprise cut.

Here are the NBA teams that currently have 15 (or more) guaranteed salaries on their roster:

Nikola Pekovic "Still Not Ready Physically"

September 8th, 2016 at 10:27am CST by Luke Adams

In a recent episode of The Scoop podcast (hat tip to Dan Feldman of Pro Basketball Talk), Darren Wolfson of ESPN 1500 Twin Cities notes that Nikola Pekovic worked out in front of Timberwolves personnel last week, but is “still not ready physically.” Pekovic, who continues to recover from an Achilles issue, has been plagued by health problems in recent years, significantly reducing his role in Minnesota and making him a potential release candidatae.

Doc Rivers Talks Pierce, Allen, KG, Griffin

September 7th, 2016 at 1:52pm CST by Luke Adams

Clippers head coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers made an appearance in Boston at the annual ABCD Hoops Dream fundraiser at TD Garden on Tuesday, and made time for a discussion with reporters. Given the location of the event, it was no surprise that many of the questions focused on the NBA futures – or lack thereof – for the Celtics’ old “big three” of Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett.

In addition to discussing Pierce, Allen, and Garnett, the Clippers’ coach addressed a few other topics, including the offseason’s Blake Griffin trade rumors. ESPN’s Chris Forsberg has a nice round-up of Rivers’ comments, so let’s check out a few of the highlights….

On whether Pierce will be back for his 19th season, as has been reported:

“Depends on the day I talk to him. Paul has had the summer, he’s gone back and forth. … Paul didn’t have the best year last year. I don’t think he wants to go out that way. So I think that’s why he’s working to try to come back. But he still may change his mind next week. So we just have to wait. I told him if I see him at training camp, I’m assuming he’s playing.”

On Pierce’s eventual retirement:

“The day [Pierce] retires, he’s going to retire a Celtic. He has to. Paul’s a Celtic. So when he retires, he’s got to retire as a Celtic. I don’t think anyone disagrees with me.”

On whether Allen will return to the NBA:

“I don’t know. I won’t talk about what we talked about. I think if Ray was in the right spot, he may play. I think Ray wants to golf a lot too, right now. But Ray is in amazing shape. I don’t know how he does that. I didn’t know how he does that as a player; I don’t know how he does it as a non-player. He’s probably in top-five shape in the NBA. So could Ray play? Absolutely, I believe he could.”

On Garnett’s situation with the Timberwolves:

“I think Kevin – and I know it, because I talk to him – loves the young guys on his team. He loves how they work. He thinks they have an old-school mentality. So I think he’s really gotten into Kevin, the teacher. And I honestly never saw that coming, either. Yet he was a phenomenal teacher with [Boston]; I just didn’t think he would have the patience to do it. And I think Kevin loves teaching these young guys.”

On the Griffin trade rumors:

“We knew none of it was true. We figured that was one of you guys starting these rumors here in Boston. I was trying to find out who it was … No, it happens, unfortunately. Blake and [Chris Paul] are free agents [after this season]. Just like last year Oklahoma [City] had to deal with that, now it’s our turn.”

Be sure to check out the rest of Rivers’ comments right here.

NBA Teams Below Salary Floor For 2016/17

September 7th, 2016 at 8:53am CST by Luke Adams

On Tuesday, we examined the teams in – or near – luxury tax territory. Due to the size of those teams’ payrolls, they could face penalties at year’s end, paying a few extra tax dollars in addition to the salaries they’ll pay their players.

On the other end of the spectrum are six clubs whose team salaries continue to sit below the minimum salary floor, which is set at 90% of the cap. For the 2016/17 league year, that salary floor works out to $84.729MM. Every franchise will have to spend at least that much on players for the year, so if any team payrolls remain below that figure at season’s end, those teams have to make up the difference by paying a little extra to their own players.

Often, clubs sitting below the salary floor at this point in the year will get over that threshold at some point during the season. Taking on salary in a trade is one possibility — in the past, when cap room has been a rarer and more valuable commodity, teams like the Sixers have agreed to take on other clubs’ bad salaries as long as they can get something out of the deal themselves, such as second-round picks. That could still happen this year, but that sort of trade may be rarer now that the cap is at an all-time high and teams have more flexibility to maneuver.

Renegotiating a player’s contract and signing him to an extension is another way teams can use up their remaining salary cap space at this point in the season. As we saw with Russell Westbrook and the Thunder, and James Harden and the Rockets, clubs with room under the cap can rework a player’s contract to increase their current-year salary up to the max, while tacking on additional years — but only certain players are eligible.

Of course, signing free agents is another way a team can quickly add salary and reach the floor, but at this point in the offseason, most of the players still available are minimum-salary guys, and most teams’ rosters are fairly set anyway.

Here are the six teams currently below the salary floor:

Minnesota Timberwolves

Total team salary: $82,752,308
Guaranteed team salary: $80,791,446
Eligible for renegotiation/extension: Nikola Pekovic

Utah Jazz

Total team salary: $81,817,624
Guaranteed team salary: $79,332,496
Eligible for renegotiation/extension: Derrick Favors (eligible as of October 19), George Hill

Phoenix Suns

Total team salary: $80,900,983
Guaranteed team salary: $79,850,022
Eligible for renegotiation/extension: None

Brooklyn Nets

Total team salary: $76,948,637
Guaranteed team salary: $75,563,224
Eligible for renegotiation/extension: None

Denver Nuggets

Total team salary: $76,719,065
Guaranteed team salary: $74,039,362
Eligible for renegotiation/extension: None

Philadelphia 76ers

Total team salary: $70,341,137
Guaranteed team salary: $65,159,265
Eligible for renegotiation/extension: Hollis Thompson (eligible as of September 24)

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

Wolves To Work Out Dorell Wright, Rasual Butler

September 3rd, 2016 at 5:19pm CST by Arthur Hill

Dorell Wright and Rasual Butler are among the players invited to a workout the Timberwolves have scheduled next week for veteran free agents, tweets Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News in Minneapolis.

Wright, 30, spent most of last season in China before signing with the Heat in mid-April. He didn’t play any regular season games with Miami, but did appear in five playoff contests, averaging 3.2 points and 3.8 minutes per game. The Heat elected not to bring back the 6’9″ small forward after the postseason ended.

The 37-year-old Butler appeared in 46 games for the Spurs last season before being waived in March. The 6’7″ swingman has been with eight franchises in his 14-year NBA career.

Kings Were Reportedly Targeting Rubio

August 30th, 2016 at 5:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Kings have likely found their starting point guard to begin the season in Ty Lawson, who agreed to a one-year deal with the team earlier this week. Prior to Lawson coming aboard, Sacramento had been close to acquiring a point guard via trade, with the Wolves‘ Ricky Rubio the most likely target, according to Sirius XM NBA Radio host Mitch Lawrence (Audio link). It appears the addition of Lawson has put a halt to any trade talks for Sacramento at this time, Lawrence adds. There has been some speculation that Minnesota’s addition of rookie point guard Kris Dunn would ultimately lead to Rubio being dealt.

Salary Cap Snapshot: Minnesota Timberwolves

August 26th, 2016 at 9:00pm CST by Eddie Scarito

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 Wolves’ team page accessible here.

Here’s a breakdown of where the Wolves currently stand financially:

Guaranteed Salary

Ricky Rubio —$13,575,000 [Year-end cap hit adjusted due to bonuses]
Nikola Pekovic —$12,100,000
Kevin Garnett —$8,000,000 [Waived by team]
Cole Aldrich —$7,643,979
Andrew Wiggins —$6,006,600
Karl-Anthony Towns —$5,960,160
Jordan Hill —$4,000,000
Kris Dunn —$3,872,520
Nemanja Bjelica —$3,800,000
Brandon Rush —$3,500,000
Shabazz Muhammad —$3,046,299
Gorgui Dieng —$2,348,783
Zach LaVine —$2,240,880
Adreian Payne —$2,022,240
Kevin Martin —$1,360,305 [Waived via Stretch Provision]
Tyus Jones —$1,339,680
John Lucas III —$635,753 [Waived by team]
Omri Casspi —$138,414
Lance Stephenson —$57,672 [10-day contract (Feb 8); actual salary — $72,193]
Lance Stephenson —$57,672 [10-day contract (Mar 8); actual salary — $72,193]

Total Guaranteed Salary= $81,705,957

Cash Sent Out Via Trade: $0 [Amount Remaining $3.5MM]

Cash Received Via Trade: $0 [Amount Remaining $3.5MM]

Payroll Exceptions Available

Room Exception — $2,898,000

Total Projected Payroll: $81,705,957

Salary Cap: $94,143,000

Estimated Available Cap Space: $12,437,043

Luxury Tax Threshold: $113,287,000

Amount Below Luxury Tax: $31,581,043

Salary Cap Floor: $84,729,000

Amount Below Salary Cap Floor: $3,023,043

Last Updated: 4/15/17

The Basketball Insiders salary pages and The Vertical’s salary database were used in the creation of this post.

Dunn: Wolves A "Beautiful Organization"

August 25th, 2016 at 3:03pm CST by Luke Adams

Kris Dunn was linked to several teams leading up to – and during – draft night, including a couple clubs that had interest in trading for him. Ultimately, the rookie point guard landed in Minnesota, and he tells Larry Berger of USA Today Sports (video link) that the Timberwolves are a “beautiful organization.”

Wolves Had Conversation Regarding Norris Cole

August 25th, 2016 at 10:15am CST by Luke Adams

According to Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link), free agent guard Norris Cole, who has been represented by Rich Paul for the last two years, has a new agent. The Timberwolves received a call from Cole’s new rep this week and didn’t completely dismiss the idea of signing him, but there’s nothing close right now, says Wolfson. Minnesota already has three point guards with guaranteed salaries on the roster, and yesterday added two more veterans to compete in camp.

Timberwolves Sign Toure’ Murry, John Lucas III

August 24th, 2016 at 10:36am CST by Luke Adams

The Timberwolves have added a pair of players to their offseason roster, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, who reports (via Twitter) that the team has signed guards Toure’ Murry and John Lucas III. While RealGM’s transactions log lists Murry’s deal as official, it’s not clear if Lucas’ signing has also been formalized.

Murry, 26, appeared in 51 games for the Knicks during the 2013/14 season, but has only played in five NBA games since then, enjoying brief stints in Utah and Washington. Lucas has a more extensive NBA resume, having played in 237 regular season contests with the Rockets, Bulls, Raptors, Jazz, and Pistons. The 33-year-old averaged 4.8 PPG and 1.5 APG in those games, shooting 34.5% on three-pointers.

According to Stein, both Murry and Lucas will be given the opportunity to compete for a roster spot in Minnesota this fall. However, for that to happen, the Wolves would need to either trade or cut a player with a guaranteed salary. Currently, the club has 15 players on guaranteed contracts, including Ricky Rubio, Kris Dunn, and Tyus Jones at point guard, and Zach LaVine, Shabazz Muhammad, and Brandon Rush at the two.

One other scenario that could open up a roster spot in Minnesota would be a retirement decision from Kevin Garnett. For now, Garnett – who has one year remaining on his contract – hasn’t made a call one way or the other on his future.