- The Blazers will need to remain patient with guard Luis Montero, who displayed solid playmaking ability during summer league play, but didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, Mike Richman of The Oregonian writes in his training camp preview of the player.
1:40pm: The Blazers have officially signed Stiemsma, the team announced today in a press release.
10:47am: The Trail Blazers have added another veteran free agent to their offseason roster, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, who reports (via Twitter) that the team is signing center Greg Stiemsma to a training camp deal.
Stiemsma, who will turn 31 later this month, has four years of NBA experience under his belt, having appeared in regular-season games for the Celtics, Timberwolves, Pelicans, and Raptors from 2011 to 2015. In 203 total games, the former Wisconsin big man has averaged 3.2 PPG, 3.3 RPG, and 1.1 BPG in a part-time role, shooting 50.9% from the field.
Last fall, Stiemsma participated in training camp with the Magic, but was ultimately waived during the team’s preseason roster cutdowns. The veteran center may face a similar fate this year in Portland, but the team does currently have at least one potential open roster spot. The Blazers have 14 guaranteed contracts on their books for 2016/17, with Grant Jerrett, Luis Montero, and Tim Quarterman on non-guaranteed or partially-guaranteed deals.
[RELATED: Portland Trail Blazers’ depth chart at RosterResource.com]
Exact deails on Stiemsma’s new pact aren’t known, but Wojnarowski describes it as a training camp contract. It will likely be a minimum-salary deal with little to no guaranteed money.
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 Blazers’ team page accessible here.
Here’s a breakdown of where the Blazers currently stand financially:
Guaranteed Salary
- Damian Lillard —$24,328,425
- Allen Crabbe —$18,500,000 [Contract contains 15% trade kicker]
- Evan Turner —$16,393,443
- Maurice Harkless —$9,488,764 [$500K in unlikely bonuses earned]
- Meyers Leonard —$9,213,484
- Al-Farouq Aminu —$7,680,965
- Festus Ezeli —$7,400,000
- Ed Davis —$6,666,667
- C.J. McCollum —$3,219,579
- Noah Vonleh —$2,751,360
- Anderson Varejao —$1,913,345 [Waived via Stretch Provision; $1,984,005 salary reduced by set-off]
- Jusuf Nurkic — $1,921,320
- Shabazz Napier —$1,350,120
- Pat Connaughton —$874,636
- Jake Layman —$600,000
- Tim Quarterman —$543,471
Total Guaranteed Salary= $112,845,579
Cash Sent Out Via Trade: $2,925,000. Sent $2,850,000 to Nuggets in Jusuf Nurkic trade. Sent $75,000 to Magic in Shabazz Napier trade. [Amount Remaining $575,000]
Cash Received Via Trade: $0 [Amount Remaining $3.5MM]
Payroll Exceptions Available
- Room Exception — $2,898,000
- Trade Exception — $407,210 (Mason Plumlee trade) — Expires on 2/13/18
Total Projected Payroll: $112,845,579
Salary Cap: $94,143,000
Estimated Available Cap Space: –$18,702,579
Luxury Tax Threshold: $113,287,000
Total Projected Payroll For Tax Purposes: $113,282,539
Amount Below Luxury Tax: $4,461
Last Updated: 4/15/17
The Basketball Insiders salary pages and The Vertical’s salary database were used in the creation of this post.
The NBA salary cap’s enormous, unprecedented jump from $70MM in 2015/16 to $94.143MM in 2016/17 has received a ton of attention this summer, as free agents signed massive contracts that reflected the league’s new financial reality. In addition to allowing teams extra flexibility to sign and acquire players, that cap jump also significantly increased the luxury tax threshold for NBA franchises.
A year ago, clubs exceeding $84.74MM in total team salary were subject to tax penalties, but this year, that threshold has increased by nearly $30MM, to $113.287MM. The result? It has become a little more difficult for teams to spend so much that they surpass that threshold and get into tax territory. Still, a few clubs have managed to do it so far, and several others are getting close.
Those teams over or near the luxury tax line will surely keep a careful eye on their spending going forward, since tax penalties under the league’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement can be severe, particularly for repeat offenders. Our glossary entry on the subject features details on the specifics.
Here’s the full breakdown on teams over the tax threshold, or close to it:
Teams currently in the tax:
- Total team salary: $116,494,181
- Total guaranteed salary: $114,628,849
- There are avenues for the Cavaliers to get out of tax territory if they really want to, but the team doesn’t yet have a full roster and still expects to re-sign J.R. Smith, so odds are Cleveland’s tax bills will only get larger as the club’s payroll gets even higher.
- Total team salary: $114,740,032
- Total guaranteed salary: $114,740,032
- The Clippers have a full 15-man roster, so they shouldn’t have to add much more salary before the season — perhaps just modest partial guarantees for a few camp invitees. Assuming they stay within $2MM or so of the tax line, it will be interesting to see how the Clips approach the 2017 trade deadline. A cost-cutting deal or two could could the club out of the tax, but if L.A. is competing for a top spot in the West, it may be necessary to add a little salary to acquire another impact player.
Portland Trail Blazers
- Total team salary: $114,678,517
- Total guaranteed salary: $112,354,979
- No team has more money committed to its 2017/18 cap than Portland, which is on the hook for nearly $124MM in guaranteed money already. Since there’s a good chance the Trail Blazers will be over the tax threshold next year, the team may want to avoid that fate this year. The Blazers’ close proximity to the tax might be good news for someone like Tim Quarterman, who already has a partial guarantee on his contract and would be owed a very small rookie salary if he makes the team. Other back-of-the-roster players like Luis Montero and Grant Jerrett would have slightly larger cap hits and aren’t currently owed any guaranteed money, so those factors may improve Quarterman’s odds of earning Portland’s final roster spot.
- Note: The Blazers would sneak below the tax line by cutting Jerrett and Quarterman, or Jerrett and Montero. The team would remain in the tax if Montero and Quarterman are cut.
Teams currently near the tax line:
- Total team salary: $112,909,960
- Total guaranteed salary: $107,062,933
- Total team salary: $111,447,750
- Total guaranteed salary: $109,563,866
- Total team salary: $108,850,684
- Total guaranteed salary: $106,854,557
San Antonio Spurs
- Total team salary: $108,677,758
- Total guaranteed salary: $107,347,345
Toronto Raptors
- Total team salary: $108,151,883
- Total guaranteed salary: $106,077,999
For most of the teams in this group, there will be little chance of sneaking into tax territory with in-season free agent signings, so they should be safe unless they take on salary in a trade. However, clubs the Grizzlies and Mavericks – who are inching closer to that tax line – will have to be careful about in-season signings. If those franchises have to waive multiple players on guaranteed salaries due to injuries and then sign replacements for those players, their team salaries could start to approach the tax threshold.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.
Trail Blazers forward Noah Vonleh will be on the mend for at least the next three or four weeks, the team announced today in a press release. According to the Blazers, Vonleh underwent a procedure to remove a bone fragment from his right thigh musculature.
Vonleh, who turned 21 last Wednesday, is in an interesting spot this offseason. He started 56 games during his first year in Portland, but only averaged 15.1 minutes per contest, and posted underwhelming numbers (3.6 PPG, 3.9 RPG, .421 FG%). Vonleh is currently in the third year of his rookie contract, which means the Blazers will have to decide within the next two months whether they want to exercise their team option on the fourth year of his deal — it would pay him $3.505MM in 2017/18.
[RELATED: 2016 Rookie-Scale Team Option Decisions]
Portland reportedly intends to use Al-Farouq Aminu exclusively at power forward – instead of small forward – this year, which could mean further reducing Vonleh’s minutes. The team also has an NBA-high $123.708MM in guaranteed money on its books for 2017/18, so exercising Vonleh’s option would push that total even higher, potentially beyond the tax threshold.
The former top-10 pick will likely want to have a strong showing in training camp and the preseason this year to help convince the Blazers that he’s still a part of the team’s future plans. In the wake of today’s procedure, he’ll have to get healthy first.
While most teams with significant cap room this summer pursued outside free agents, the Trail Blazers focused most of their efforts on securing their own players. Portland did bring in Evan Turner and Festus Ezeli on pricey, multiyear deals, but the team’s other major investments were players who were already Blazers. Here’s a breakdown of the in-house players who got lucrative, long-term contracts from the team:
- C.J. McCollum: Four years, $106,633,450 (extension; goes into effect in 2017/18)
- Allen Crabbe: Four years, $74,832,500 (matched offer sheet)
- Meyers Leonard: Four years, $41,000,000
- Maurice Harkless: Four years, $40,000,000
Throw in the fact that Damian Lillard‘s new five-year, maximum-salary contract extension goes into effect for the 2016/17 season, and it’s no surprise that Portland has more guaranteed money on its cap in future years than any other NBA team.
As Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders details, the Blazers were able to do what some other teams haven’t been able to, ensuring that their top players will remain under contract for the long haul. But the club may have also painted itself into a corner to some extent, since its flexibility to make future additions will be limited. The Blazers’ long-term outlook may come down to how far Lillard and McCollum are capable of taking the team, writes Kennedy.
The Blazers are coming off an excellent season, in which they finished fifth in the West and won a playoff series before being knocked off by the 73-win Warriors in the second round. With at least one of the teams ahead of them in the West – the Thunder – expected to take a significant step back this season, the Blazers will be gunning for a top-four seed with a roster packed with young players on the rise.
Still, a skeptic could point to the fact that the Clippers squad beaten by Portland in the first round was decimated by injuries. It’s also fair to question whether or not the Blazers have enough frontcourt talent to complement their star guards.
That brings us to this morning’s poll question: Is the Blazers’ roster strong enough for the team to improve upon last year’s results? Barring a major trade or two, Portland’s core appears to be locked in for at least the next two or three years. Will the team take another step forward and become a championship contender during that time?
Weigh in with your vote, and feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts on the Blazers.
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
During the first few years of the NBA’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement, many teams had virtually no chance to open up cap room. The salary cap remained in the $58MM range for three straight seasons, making it tricky for teams to get under the cap unless they were in rebuilding mode and shed high-priced players. However, with the cap now up to $94MM+, and projected to blow past $100MM next summer, that’s no longer the case.
This year, 27 of 30 teams used cap room at some point to acquire players, leaving just three teams that never went under the cap. Plenty of those 27 teams have since used up all their space and gone well over the cap, but not many currently project to be over the cap in future seasons.
The NBA’s most recent estimate for the 2017/18 salary cap, released last month, was $102MM. At this point in the league year, cap estimates are usually on the conservative side, so we can probably expect a slightly higher figure next year, but that’s no lock — particularly since the NBA and the players’ union may make changes to the CBA by next July.
Still, even if we assume that the $102MM projection is accurate, there are currently only two teams whose guaranteed salaries for 2017/18 exceed that figure. Here are those teams:
Projected to be over the 2017/18 cap:
- Portland Trail Blazers: Incredibly, no NBA team has more guaranteed money on its 2017/18 books than the Blazers, whose $123.71MM blows away the competition. That total doesn’t include team options for Noah Vonleh and Shabazz Napier, a qualifying offer for Mason Plumlee, or Festus Ezeli‘s non-guaranteed salary. Throw in those figures, plus a few more non-guaranteed salaries, and Portland’s commitments total $140MM+. Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, Allen Crabbe, and Evan Turner combine to make $86.58MM in ’17/18.
- Cleveland Cavaliers: Even without a new contract for J.R. Smith, the Cavs already have more than $113MM in guaranteed salaries on their books for ’17/18. LeBron James‘ $33.29MM salary is the biggest number, but the team has four more eight-digit cap hits, ranging from about $10.34MM for Iman Shumpert to $22.64MM for Kevin Love.
While the Blazers and Cavs are the only two teams whose guaranteed salaries for next year exceed $102MM, there are a few more clubs joining them above that threshold when taking into account non-guaranteed salaries, options, and/or qualifying offers. Here are those teams:
Projected to potentially be over the 2017/18 cap:
- Washington Wizards: After locking up Bradley Beal and Ian Mahinmi to expensive long-term deals this summer, the Wizards have $94MM+ in guaranteed salaries on their books for 2017/18. The team will have to add another $2MM+ to that total for Kelly Oubre, and then may need to commit more than $12MM in total to qualifying offers for Otto Porter and Trey Burke, potential restricted free agents.
- Los Angeles Clippers: The Clippers have less than $60MM in guaranteed money on their ’17/18 cap, but that figure doesn’t include either Chris Paul or Blake Griffin, who have early termination options on their contracts. If both players stay in L.A. – either on their current deals or new ones – the Clippers will remain well over the cap.
- Detroit Pistons: This summer, the Pistons maxed out their cap room, then went over the cap to sign Andre Drummond to a max deal. Once the club exercises its 2017/18 option on Stanley Johnson, it will have about $95MM on the cap for next year. Detroit must also account for qualifying offers for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Bullock, along with Aron Baynes‘ $6.5MM player option, taking the team over the projected cap.
- Toronto Raptors: The Raptors’ current guaranteed and non-guaranteed commitments for 2017/18 total about $104MM, and the team figures to pare down that figure to below $102MM before the season begins. Still, if the club intends to keep Kyle Lowry beyond next season, he’ll likely require a big raise on his current $12MM player option, meaning Toronto’s remaining cap space will be chewed up quickly.
There are some other NBA teams that may not be involved in free agency because they’ll need any cap room they may have to re-sign their own players. Despite only currently having $37.3MM in guarantees on their 2017/18 cap, the Warriors may very well fit into this category, since Stephen Curry will be getting a huge raise, and the team will want to retain Kevin Durant and Andre Iguodala as well.
Of course, these outlooks could change between now and next July, depending on in-season trades, draft-day deals, and potential CBA changes. For now though, the teams listed above appear to be the least likely candidates to go below the cap next offseason.
Information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.
- On the other end of the spectrum, the Trail Blazers sent just $75K to the Magic to acquire Shabazz Napier in July, per Pincus (Twitter link). Orlando no longer had use for Napier, so the team was willing to move him in exchange for the minimum amount of cash a team can receive a deal — $75K.
As our list of 2016 offseason trades shows, five of the deals agreed upon on draft night this year featured one team sending cash to the other. The NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement allows clubs to include cash payments, but only up to a certain amount.
In the 2016/17 league year, teams are allowed to receive a total of $3.5MM in trades, and can also send out $3.5MM in trades. Those limits are separate, so a team that sends $3.5MM in a deal and then later receives $3.5MM doesn’t get a fresh, new slate — that club is capped out for the league year. In 2014/15, the limit for cash sent and received in trades was $3.4MM.
Since the league year ends on June 30, teams that hadn’t taken advantage of those cash allowances earlier in the season will often use remaining cash during the draft to move up or to snag an extra pick. Many of the cash details on those draft-day deals for 2016 were previously reported. For instance, we already knew about the following payments:
- Warriors sent $2.4MM to Bucks to acquire No. 38 overall pick (Patrick McCaw).
- Trail Blazers sent $1.2MM (and a 2019 second-round pick) to Magic to acquire No. 47 overall pick (Jake Layman).
- Cavaliers sent approximately $2.5MM to Hawks to acquire No. 54 overall pick (Kay Felder).
Based on those numbers, it appears the Warriors got a much better deal from the Bucks than the Cavaliers did from the Hawks. Of course, if the Cavs badly wanted Felder, the cost to move into the draft was hardly exorbitant — Atlanta likely asked the Cavs for the maximum amount of money they could send, since Cleveland used over $900K in a separate trade earlier in the year.
In addition to those three swaps, two other draft-night deals featured money changing hands, and Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders has the details on those payments, along with several others from the 2015/16 league year. According to Pincus, these are the details on the other two draft trades involving cash:
- Nets sent $3MM (and the No. 55 overall pick) to Jazz to acquire No. 42 overall pick (Isaiah Whitehead).
- Thunder sent $730K to Nuggets to acquire No. 56 overall pick (Daniel Hamilton).
Once again, one of these deals looks far more favorable than the other, with the Thunder paying a fraction of what the Nets did for a second-round pick. But again, the available players and interested teams essentially set the market for these cash payments.
In the case of the Nets/Jazz deal, Brooklyn clearly wanted to make sure not to miss out on Whitehead, and the team was willing to pay a relatively significant amount to secure him. The Thunder, meanwhile, offered all their available remaining cash to the Nuggets for the 56th pick, and Denver likely had no better offer and no player targeted at that spot — so the Nuggets took what they could get.
Be sure to check out Pincus’ piece at Basketball Insiders for more thorough details of how teams spent and received cash in trades during the 2015/16 league year.
The Trail Blazers announced today that Festus Ezeli will be sidelined for six weeks. The center had his left knee injected with a bone marrow aspirate concentrate and Orthovisc today in Chicago. The treatment is designed to alleviate pain and improve function in the joint, per the announcement. If his recovery goes as planned, Ezeli should be available for the start of the regular season on October 25th.
Ezeli’s deal with Portland was for less money than expected because of concerns about his knees, which is looking like a smart move given this latest setback. The former Warriors center signed a two-year, $16MM contract with Portland, with a team option for the second season. Ezeli underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee back in February, and according to a July report by Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated, a number of teams passed on signing the big man because they were worried about his durability.
The 26-year-old appeared in 46 games for the Warriors during the 2015/16 campaign, with Ezeli notching averages of 7.0 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 16.7 minutes per outing. His slash line on the season was .548/.000/.530.