Ivan Johnson

Pincus On NBA Spending Power

We've gone over team spending here on Hoops Rumors before, but today, Hoopsworld.com's Eric Pincus broke down the remaining cap space that teams have across the league, including how much they've already spent and their current situation with regards to various exception levels. Some interesting notes from his piece:

  • Before their reported agreement with Martell Webster, the Wizards were the only team left with their full $5MM mid-level exception. The Bucks have nearly all to spend, but fall just short with $4.35MM.
  • Despite what appears to be a never ending spending spree that's lasted the entire summer, the Lakers still have $1.59MM left on their mini mid-level exception. They're also nearly $30MM over the tax line. 
  • The Hawks still have their Bi-Annual Exception, but should they choose to re-sign Ivan Johnson, will need to spend it on him. 
  • The Celtics, Nets, Knicks, Grizzlies, Clippers, and Heat are unable to add any players unless it's through a trade or signing someone to the veteran's minimum.
  • The Rockets have 20 players on their current roster, but could get between $6 and 7MM underneath the cap after waiving a few non-guaranteed players, as they recently did with Josh Harrellson. (The limit is 15 players by opening night.)
  • The Cavaliers boast $11.1MM of cap space, the most in the league. 

Decisions On Non-Guaranteed Contracts

February 10th marks the day that all players on non-guaranteed contracts will have their deals guaranteed for the remainder of the season. However, if a team wants to meet that Friday deadline, it will need to make its decisions today, allowing its player(s) to pass through waivers in time.

Some non-guaranteed players, such as DeJuan Blair and Jeremy Lin, are in no danger of being waived. However, with a few dozen players on non-guaranteed deals across the league, there will be plenty of cuts before the day is out. Some of those players will sign 10-day contracts shortly after being cut, while others could join the D-League or find a place on our list of current unrestricted free agents.

We'll track all the day's decisions on non-guaranteed contracts right here, with the latest news up top:

Zach Links contributed to this post.