- The Magic completed a pair of trades within the last week, acquiring cash in both deals. According to Bobby Marks of ESPN.com (Twitter link), Orlando received $2MM from the Thunder and $1MM from the Grizzlies. In addition to the money they acquired, the two trades allowed the Magic to turn Rodney Purvis and the draft rights to 2015 second-rounder Tyler Harvey into Jarell Martin.
Six days after initially reaching an agreement with the Hawks and Sixers, the Thunder have officially completed the trade that sends Carmelo Anthony and a future first-round pick to Atlanta, with Oklahoma City acquiring Dennis Schroder and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot.
As we detailed in our story on the trade, the move will create a traded player exception for the Thunder worth about $10.88MM and will also go a long way toward reducing the club’s projected tax bill. Oklahoma City’s salary remains well over the tax line, but the team’s projected tax penalties now work out to about $88.75MM rather than $150MM+. Taking into account their $148.74MM in player salaries, the Thunder are looking at a total roster cost of about $237.5MM for now.
Here’s more out of OKC:
- Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman explores whether Schroder makes sense in the old Reggie Jackson role on the Thunder’s roster, while Erik Horne of The Oklahoman examines the on-court fit of OKC’s newest guard and wonders whether the franchise can help rebuild the 24-year-old’s image.
- In another article for The Oklahoman, Tramel praises the work that GM Sam Presti has done in turning another seemingly unmovable contract into a useful asset. While Tramel’s argument is fair, I’d push back on his assertion that Schroder will be a better fit than Anthony from a chemistry perspective, given the whispers we heard about the point guard in Atlanta. The impact on team chemistry is yet to be determined, in my opinion, as are the long-term financial benefits of swapping Anthony’s $27.93MM expiring contract for Schroder’s $15.5MM annual salary over three years.
- In a piece focusing on newly-acquired wing Abdel Nader, Brett Dawson of The Oklahoman notes that 2018 second-rounders Devon Hall and Kevin Hervey appears “less likely” to be on the club’s regular-season roster. The Thunder still have two open roster slots (one 15-man, one two-way), but there’s no guarantee they’ll fill both of them, and 45th overall pick Hamidou Diallo would likely take priority.
As we detailed at length back in March, the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement made some changes to the trade rules related to non-guaranteed contracts.
Under the NBA’s old CBA, which was in effect through the 2016/17 season, a player’s full salary (not including unlikely incentives) was used for trade purposes, whether or not it was guaranteed. If a player had a $10MM salary with a partial guarantee of $1MM, his outgoing salary in a trade was the same as it would have been for a player who had a fully guaranteed $10MM contract.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Traded Player Exception]
That’s no longer the case under the league’s new CBA, however. While contracts signed under the old agreement still operate by the old rules, contracts signed after July 1, 2017 are subject to the rules of the current CBA. And under the current CBA, only the guaranteed portion of a player’s contract counts for outgoing salary purposes in a trade, limiting the appeal of non-guaranteed salaries as trade chips.
In the example above, the player with a $10MM salary and a $1MM guarantee would now only count for $1MM for outgoing salary purposes in a trade, but the team acquiring him would still have to consider him a $10MM player.
These new rules have perhaps put a damper on the trade market for players on non-guaranteed contracts this offseason, but there have still been a handful of moves involving those players. Here’s a breakdown of this month’s trades that have featured a non-guaranteed salary, and how the new rules impacted each deal:
Bulls acquire Julyan Stone ($1,656,092 non-guaranteed salary) from Hornets in three-team trade
The Hornets also sent Timofey Mozgov to the Magic for Bismack Biyombo in this deal, and Mozgov’s salary was large enough to match Biyombo’s. As such, it didn’t matter from Charlotte’s perspective that Stone counted as $0 for outgoing salary purposes.
Stone’s inclusion in the trade allowed Chicago to acquire an incoming piece without taking on any guaranteed salary. If Stone hadn’t been a part of the deal, the Bulls would have to receive a draft pick or the NBA rights to a draft-and-stash player just to ensure that they were getting something in the deal. Chicago waived Stone shortly after acquiring him.
Thunder acquire Rodney Purvis ($1,378,242 non-guaranteed salary) from Magic
Purvis was swapped for Dakari Johnson in this deal and both players were on two-year minimum salary contracts. That meant that each team could acquire its incoming player using the minimum salary exception without having to worry about matching salaries.
Under the old rules, each club would have created a $1,378,242 traded player exception in the deal — that’s the amount of Purvis’ 2018/19 salary as well as Johnson’s. Under the new rules, however, only the Thunder could create such an exception, since Johnson’s salary was guaranteed. Purvis counted as $0 for Orlando’s outgoing salary purposes, so the Magic were unable to create a TPE as a result of the swap.
Thunder acquire Abdel Nader ($450,000 of $1,378,242 salary guaranteed) from the Celtics in exchange for Rodney Purvis ($1,378,242 non-guaranteed salary)
This is the most interesting deal of the three. Although Nader is technically earning the minimum salary, his deal runs longer than two years, meaning the Thunder couldn’t use the minimum salary exception to acquire him. They also couldn’t match salaries using Purvis, since he counted as a $0 outgoing salary.
So how did the Thunder acquire Nader? Using that traded player exception they’d just created in their deal with the Magic. Because Johnson and Nader had equal $1,378,242 salaries, Oklahoma City used up the entire trade exception just three days after it was created, making it the rare TPE to be used in full.
Meanwhile, the Celtics acquired Purvis using the minimum salary exception, but were only able to create a $450K trade exception for Nader — that’s the amount of his partial guarantee, so that was his outgoing-salary amount from Boston’s perspective.
Note: Richaun Holmes and Isaiah Whitehead, both on non-guaranteed contracts, were also involved in trades this month, but they were signed under the old CBA. As such, their contracts operated under the old rules.
JULY 25: The three-team trade involving the Thunder, Hawks, and Sixers is now official, according to a series of press releases.
The deal took several days to finalize because the clubs had to complete a few other roster moves first, including Philadelphia signing Jonah Bolden earlier today.
Upon being released by the Hawks, Anthony intends to sign with the Rockets.
JULY 19: The Thunder and Hawks have agreed to a trade that will send Carmelo Anthony and a protected 2022 first-round pick to Atlanta, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). According to Wojnarowski, Oklahoma City will receive Dennis Schroder in the deal. Royce Young of ESPN adds (via Twitter) that the 2022 first-rounder will have 1-14 protection, and will turn into two second-rounders if it doesn’t convey in ’22.
The Sixers will also be involved in the trade, according to Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who tweets that Philadelphia will acquire Mike Muscala from Atlanta and will send Justin Anderson to the Hawks. The 76ers will also deal Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot to Oklahoma City, Vivlamore adds (via Twitter).
Upon acquiring him, the Hawks will waive Anthony, Wojnarowski adds. That will free up the veteran forward to join whatever a new team when he clears waivers, and the Rockets remain the strong frontrunners to land him.
We heard rumblings earlier this week about discussions between the Hawks and Thunder involving Anthony, Schroder, and Muscala, so it seems those two teams were able to find common ground, with the Sixers entering the mix as well. Here’s how the deal looks for each of the three teams involved:
Oklahoma City Thunder:
It has been nearly two weeks since word broke that the Thunder intended to part ways with Anthony, but the team resisted waiving him outright. Doing so would have reduced his $27.93MM cap charge to just $9.31MM, significantly reducing the club’s luxury-tax bill for 2018/19, but it would have added dead-money cap hits worth $9.31MM for the next two years as well.
By trading Anthony and a future protected pick and taking back Schroder and Luwawu-Cabarrot, the Thunder will reduce their 2018/19 team salary and projected tax bill substantially while also adding a productive point guard in Schroder. The 24-year-old, who averaged 19.4 PPG and 6.2 APG last season, figures to assume a role similar to the one Reggie Jackson previously had in Oklahoma City.
According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), Thunder GM Sam Presti and coach Billy Donovan were granted permission to speak to Schroder before the deal was agreed upon, and both Presti and Donovan are “enthusiastic” about the fit. Oklahoma City had been seeking more speed and another ball-handler, Woj notes.
Still, there’s a reason Schroder was available. There are on-court questions about his shooting and defense, and off-court concerns about his character and his legal issues. Schroder was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge last September, with Georgia officials recommending in March that he be prosecuted for felony aggravated battery. He’ll face discipline from his team and/or the league when that case is resolved, but the Thunder appear to be banking him avoiding a more serious sentence.
As for the specific tax figures, by my count, the Thunder will now have a team salary of about $148.74MM with a projected tax bill just over $88.75MM. Prior to the deal, those numbers sat at about $160.97MM and $157.75MM, respectively. While Oklahoma City’s tax outlook for 2018/19 has improved, the Thunder will have to be wary about increased penalties in future seasons after adding Schroder’s $15.5MM annual salary through 2020/21. They’ll likely deal with that when the time comes though.
It’s worth noting that a lengthy suspension without pay for Schroder could further reduce the Thunder’s team salary and tax hit in 2018/19. A suspension would also reduce the likelihood of the point guard earning the $2MM in unlikely incentives included in his contract, though not all of those bonuses are tied to individual performance, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes.
Finally, the Thunder will create a traded player exception worth $10,883,189 in the deal. They’ll have a year to use it.
Atlanta Hawks:
The Hawks had been determined to move Schroder for much of the offseason, and drafting Trae Young and acquiring Jeremy Lin made Atlanta’s former starting point guard even more expendable. Despite his solid production, Schroder had a slew of on- and off-court question marks, as detailed above, and he was drafted and extended by Atlanta’s previous front office — general manager Travis Schlenk never seemed particularly attached to him.
By moving Schroder ($15.5MM) and Muscala ($5MM) for Anthony ($27.93MM) and Anderson ($2.52MM), the Hawks take advantage of their remaining cap room — they’re able to take back significantly more salary than they sent out as a result of that space.
Atlanta won’t get any real immediate help out of the deal, but the club will create future cap flexibility by clearing Schroder’s three remaining years from its books — both Anthony and Anderson are on expiring deals, and Carmelo will be waived shortly. According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), he’ll get his full $27.93MM salary from the Hawks. That was certainly agreed upon prior to the completion of the deal, since Anthony had a no-trade clause and could’ve vetoed the move if he thought Atlanta would ask him to give back money in a buyout.
The Hawks will also acquire a 2022 first-round pick, which they’ll receive as long as Oklahoma City is a playoff team in ’22 — otherwise, it will become two second-rounders. The Stepien rule, which prevents teams from trading consecutive future first-rounders, meant that the Thunder would have had a hard time dealing an earlier first-round pick, since they’d already sent their top-20 protected 2020 first-rounder to Orlando.
Philadelphia 76ers:
While the Sixers’ involvement in this deal may seem extraneous, it’s a nice bit of business for Philadelphia. In Muscala, the team will acquire a big man capable of knocking down outside shots — he’s a career 37.8% three-point shooter and made a career-best 1.2 threes per game in 2017/18.
The Sixers thought they’d acquired a player who fit that role earlier in the offseason when they reached an agreement to sign Nemanja Bjelica, but Bjelica backed out of his deal with the team, leaving Philadelphia seeking a replacement. Muscala is a solid fallback plan, and is on an expiring contract, meaning he won’t compromise the team’s future cap flexibility.
In order to acquire Muscala, the Sixers only had to surrender Anderson and Luwawu-Cabarrot, a pair of players who seemed unlikely to have regular rotation roles for the team in 2018/19. The move will also help the 76ers clear out a roster logjam, as the team had 16 players under contract and was still believed to be considering bringing over draft-and-stash prospect Jonah Bolden. Following the deal, the Sixers are back down to 15 players on NBA contracts, not including Bolden or 2018 second-rounder Shake Milton.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
In an extended analytical piece, Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer takes a look at how the Thunder‘s soon-to-be acquired point guard Dennis Schroder will fit with incumbent starter and All-Star Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City’s backcourt.
Consistently ranked near the bottom of the league in passing metrics, Thunder head coach Billy Donovan has regularly spoke about how he wants better ball movement on offense. But, as Donovan admits, “There’s a balance between [giving the ball to your stars] and then trying to play faster with more ball and player movement.”
Enter Schroder, who can create against a defense with his quickness perhaps better than any other point guard the Thunder have had in recent years outside of Westbrook, including Reggie Jackson.
Only time will tell whether or not Westbrook and Schroder will be able to play together, but if they can, Donovan will be able to install more pace and ball-movement concepts featuring multiple ball handlers running the show, rather than relying on Westbrook alone, which should help the Thunder be less one-dimensional against the better Western Conference teams come playoff time.
There’s more from the Northwest Division:
- While the Trail Blazers may not have been able to bring in as much talent as they had hoped for during this summer’s free agency period in an effort to improve upon last season, Damian Lillard says that he’s ready and excited for the upcoming season and that he has a “deeper connection” with the city of Portland that goes beyond basketball, per Sean Meagher of The Oregonian.
- As part of a Wolves’ mailbag, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic opines that although the relationship between Karl-Anthony Towns and the Timberwolves could obviously use some work right now, the opportunity for repair remains, as Towns likely would have cancelled his recent basketball camp in the Twin Cities had he already completely written off Minnesota as a long-term home.
- After struggling on-court to adjust to a new role and new teammates at the beginning of last season and coping off-court with the death of his mother from cancer, Jae Crowder finally feels at home with the Jazz, writes Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t difficult,” Crowder told The Tribune. “It was hard being thrown into the fire. But, from Day One, the locker room and my teammates [in Utah] were great. The coaching staff was great. … It helped build toughness.”
8:53pm: The trade is official, according to press releases from the Thunder and Celtics.
8:11pm: The Thunder will acquire swingman Abdel Nader from the Celtics, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports tweets. Nader, who was on a partially guaranteed contract, was expected to be waived before Oklahoma City came calling, Charania adds. The Thunder will also receive cash considerations, Charania adds in another tweet.
Recently acquired guard Rodney Purvis will go to Boston and be waived, according to Keith Smith of RealGM (Twitter link). Purvis has a non-guaranteed contract. Purvis was traded from the Magic to the Thunder last week.
The 6’7” Nader is due to make $1,378,242 next season, which included a $450,000K guarantee. He’s signed for two additional years, though the second year is non-guaranteed and the third year is a team option.
Nader was chosen by Boston with the 58th overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft and spent a season with the Maine Red Claws, the Celtics’ G League affiliate, before signing an NBA contract with the Celtics last summer.
Nader, 24, averaged 3.0 PPG and 1.5 RPG in 48 contests last season. He’ll likely play the small forward spot and fight for playing time behind starting forwards Paul George and Jerami Grant.
- The agreement between Jerami Grant and the Thunder is worth just shy of $27.4MM, with a player option valued at approximately $9.3MM for the 2020/21 season.
6:41pm: It’s official, according to a Thunder press release.
3:51pm: The Thunder and Magic have agreed to a trade that will send Dakari Johnson to Orlando and Rodney Purvis to Oklahoma City, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter links). The Magic are also expected to receive cash considerations in the swap, Charania adds (via Twitter).
Both Johnson and Purvis are on the books for identical $1,378,242 salaries in 2018/19. However, Johnson’s contract was guaranteed, while Purvis’ is non-guaranteed, creating a little more flexibility for Oklahoma City.
The Thunder will still have to fill that roster spot if they waive Purvis, so the trade isn’t a major cost-cutting move. However, releasing Purvis and signing a 2018 second-rounder like Hamidou Diallo, Devon Hall, or Kevin Hervey in his place would allow OKC to replace Johnson on the roster with a slightly cheaper – and potentially more useful – player.
Johnson, 22, was selected by the Thunder with the 48th overall pick of the 2015 draft but didn’t sign his first standard NBA contract until 2017. The seven-footer appeared in 31 games last season for Oklahoma City, averaging 1.8 PPG and 1.1 RPG in just 5.2 minutes per contest.
Purvis, 24, joined the Magic down the stretch last season, parlaying a pair of 10-day contracts into a rest-of-season deal. The 6’4″ shooting guard posted 6.0 PPG, 1.7 RPG, and 1.1 APG in 16 games (18.1 MPG).
The three-team trade that will send Carmelo Anthony to the Hawks (briefly), Dennis Schroder to the Thunder, and Mike Muscala to the Sixers may not be officially completed for several days, according to reports from Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter links).
As Vivlamore notes, the Hawks will almost certainly waive Antonius Cleveland and his non-guaranteed salary in order to create the cap room necessary to make the deal work, but that shouldn’t hold things up much. Pompey hears from one source that the delay may be the result of the 76ers working on another move.
While it’s not clear what that Sixers move might be, the club does have a tiny sliver of cap room still available. It’s not enough space to be useful at this point, but perhaps Philadelphia wants to explore all its options before officially going over the cap and closing certain doors.
Whether the trade is ultimately finalized today, this weekend, or next week sometime, Anthony looks like a strong bet to eventually land in Houston once he’s acquired and then waived by Atlanta. Anthony has reportedly considered both the Rockets and Heat, but Houston has been viewed as the strong frontrunner for the last week or two.
David Aldridge of TNT provides more evidence in favor of Anthony joining up with James Harden and Chris Paul in Houston, citing a source who says that Carmelo has been telling people for over a week that he’ll wind up with the Rockets (Twitter link).
When the deal becomes official, the Hawks will use up their remaining cap room, leaving the Kings as the only NBA team with any meaningful space available. Sacramento still has more than $20MM in open cap room.
Five years removed from being drafted No. 6 overall in the 2013 NBA Draft, newly-acquired Thunder big man Nerlens Noel is looking to rehabilitate both his game and reputation in Oklahoma City, writes Brett Dawson of The Oklahoman.
The Thunder are ready for that too, which is why head coach Billy Donovan and All-Stars Russell Westbrook and Paul George all made recruiting pitches to Noel on the first night of free agency.