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Primer For 2013/14 Trade Season

By | at December 17, 2013 3:33 pm

Now that December 15th has passed, most players in the NBA are eligible to be traded, meaning we should be in for a fun couple months up until the February 20th deadline. Big names like Derrick Williams and Rudy Gay have already been on the move so far, and other trade candidates like Omer Asik, Iman Shumpert, and Kyle Lowry have been the subject of numerous rumors in the season’s first few weeks. It all points to an active and eventful season of trading.

We’ll be following all of the latest trade rumors and news at Hoops Rumors over the next few days, weeks, and months, but we also have a number of tools that will make it easier to stay informed about potential deals. Here’s a round-up of a few links to consult or to keep an eye on as 2014’s trade deadline approaches:

  • Most NBA players became trade-eligible as of December 15th, if they weren’t already, but there are still several players who can’t be moved. You can find that full list right here. Any player that has signed with a team since that list was published won’t become eligible to be traded in time for February’s deadline.
  • We’ll be going in-depth on specific trade candidates as the deadline approaches, profiling why they might be moved, and where they may land. So far, our trade candidate series includes posts on Asik, Shumpert, and Luol Deng, among others.
  • Here’s our up-to-date list of outstanding traded player exceptions, which over-the-cap teams can use to acquire a player without sending out any salary.
  • If you fall behind on trade news, you can quickly catch up on any completed deals by checking out our log of 2013/14’s in-season trades.
  • Our glossary explains a number of CBA rules and concepts related to trades, including traded player exceptions, trade kickers, the poison pill provision, and the Ted Stepien rule. If you have any questions about those rules or others, don’t hesitate to ask them in the comment sections of the appropriate posts.
  • Earlier today, I went into more detail on the idea of trading future draft picks, using a few current examples to explain the rules.
  • If you want to follow the latest rumors on a specific player, we explain how to do so right here.
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Odds & Ends: Gobert, Pelicans, Gasol, Leonard

By | at December 16, 2013 3:40 pm

The Jazz sent Rudy Gobert and Ian Clark to their D-League affiliate for some badly needed playing time, writes Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune.  Both players impressed in their D-League debuts last night.  Gobert put up 16 points, 14 boards, and six blocks.  Clark had 14 points and six rebounds.  More from around the Association..

  • Some may have expected the Pelicans to fold in the wake of Anthony Davis‘ injury, but coach Monty Williams told Matt Moore of CBSSports.com that you won’t see that out of New Orleans.  “I don’t buy into this idea of tanking and teams who quit when things don’t go their way. To me, that’s what is bad about the NBA. Guys are still getting paid, guys are still getting shoe contract money, all those things are still in play. So when things don’t go your way, you can’t tuck tail and run. And we just don’t bring in guys who are susceptible to that,” the coach said.
  • Pau Gasol says that he’s accustomed to trade talk and isn’t letting the latest round of speculation get to him, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com.  The Lakers star has been on the pages of Hoops Rumors quite a bit ever since his reported dust-up with coach Mike D’Antoni.
  • Blazers big man Meyers Leonard shouldn’t be shipped to the D-League even though he’s struggling, writes CSNNW.com’s Dwight Jaynes.
  • Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld takes a quick look around the league at the teams that could be active in the trade market over the next few months.
0 comments Los Angeles Lakers New Orleans Pelicans Portland Trail Blazers Uncategorized Utah Jazz

Team Facebook/Twitter/RSS

By | at December 14, 2013 4:50 pm

If you want to keep tabs on all of Hoops Rumors’ stories and updates, you can follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or subscribe to our feed through your RSS reader of choice. However, if you prefer to only receive news about your favorite NBA team, we have you covered. Below are links to our Facebook, Twitter, and RSS pages and feeds for all 30 teams.

Atlantic

Central

Southeast

Southwest

Northwest

Pacific

Transactions only: Twitter / RSS

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Odds & Ends: Lakers, Pierce, Austin

By | at December 12, 2013 11:00 pm

Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak directly addressed questions about the team’s point guard situation and didn’t seem too confident about finding anyone on the free agent market who could play big rotation minutes immediately (Dave McMenamin of ESPN Los Angeles):

“I think for the time being we’re going to roll with what we’ve got…To find a player that doesn’t belong to somebody right now that can come in and play in front of (Kobe Bryant), in front of Xavier Henry), in front of (Jodie Meeks), it’s unlikely…But maybe there’s a player out there that we can take a look at…It’s a good time to perhaps look at a player, but I don’t think there’s somebody that we’re going to bring in and we’re going to start or is going to play big minutes.”

As it stands, the team doesn’t appear to have any immediate plans to add a point guard via trade, free agency, or D-League call up. Here’s more of tonight’s miscellaneous news and notes, including more from McMenamin’s piece:

  • Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee reports that mayor Kevin Johnson has launched a political campaign aimed at defeating a June ballot measure in Sacramento that would require voter approval of subsidies to sports arenas. The Kings are expected to play a role in the effort along with Johnson, although team president Chris Granger said the role hasn’t been decided yet.
  • When specifically asked about Leandro Barbosa, as well as former Lakers Darius Morris and Chris Duhon, Kupchak said that they’re “all on the list” of players being considered.
  • Whether or not the Lakers decide to make a move to address their backcourt issues, ESPN LA’s Ramona Shelburne gets the sense that they’ll look for the best available point guard and not necessarily put a priority on those with past familiarity of Mike D’Antoni’s system. She also makes note that the team still has luxury tax considerations to factor into their decision-making (All Twitter links).
  • Clippers coach Doc Rivers weighed in on the Nets, saying he was disappointed in how the situation between Jason Kidd and Lawrence Frank developed, endorsed the idea that Paul Pierce would be willing to come off the bench, and suggested that Pierce still has plenty of basketball left in the tank beyond this season (All Twitter links).
  • RealGM’s Jonathan Tjarks examines how Baylor center Isaiah Austin helped his draft stock after his 13-point/5-block performance against a highly touted Kentucky frontline that included Julius Randle, Willie Cauley-Stein, and Alex Poythress last week.
  • ESPN’s J.A. Adande and Israel Gutierrez discuss ideas on how to correct competitive imbalance in the NBA.
0 comments 2014 NBA Draft Los Angeles Lakers Sacramento Kings Uncategorized

Central Notes: Neal, Teague, Cavs

By | at December 12, 2013 5:37 pm

This past offseason, the Spurs extended then-restricted free agent Gary Neal a qualifying offer worth about $1.1MM, which was significantly below the two-year, $7.5MM agreement he eventually reached with the Bucks. According to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio-Express News, Neal believes he got a fair shake from Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford and understood that he wouldn’t be retained if he wanted more than what San Antonio was initially offering:

“I figured after three years, the Spurs benefitted me, and I benefitted the Spurs…But it’s a business. I kind of knew after Game 7 in the Finals, unless I signed a qualifying offer, I wouldn’t be back…I have no complaints…If (they didn’t give me the opportunity), they could have found another guy one of those summers to shoot 40 percent from three,..I thank Coach Pop a thousand times for that.”

Here’s more out of the Central Division:

  • The rest of the league is confused why the Bulls aren’t willing to give Marquis Teague more playing time, tweets Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun. Chicago reportedly dangled Teague in trade talks during the preseason.
  • The Cavaliers have recalled Carrick Felix, Sergey Karasev, and Henry Sims from the D-League, as per the team’s official website.
  • Pistons forward Gigi Datome is determined to play for the Italian national team next summer, whether it’d be during the FIBA World Cup or the Eurobasket Qualifying Round, reports Emiliano Carchia of Sportando (hat tip to Tuttosport).

Chuck Myron contributed to this post. 

1 comment Chicago Bulls Cleveland Cavaliers Detroit Pistons Milwaukee Bucks NBA G League San Antonio Spurs Uncategorized

Lakers Lead NBA In Expiring Contracts

By | at December 12, 2013 10:35 am

Expiring contracts aren’t quite as coveted in trades as they used to be, in part because the shorter deals called for in the latest collective bargaining agreement makes them a plentiful commodity. They’re nonetheless useful trade chips as teams look to clear cap room for a star-studded 2014 free agent class.

The Lakers seem focused on pursuing free agents this summer, but if they had a change of plans and wanted to use some of their expiring contracts to trade for a player who could help them down the stretch this year, they have plenty to offer. They’re the only NBA team with as many as 10 expiring deals this year. Pau Gasol‘s nearly $19.3MM salary is the only expiring deal they have above $4MM, but they could package several of their small contracts for a trade if they wish.

The Trail Blazers are on the opposite end of the list, with just a pair of ending deals, both of which are for the minimum salary. If they start to falter after their hot start, they can’t look to expiring contracts to help them trade for an experienced hand.

This list includes de facto non-guaranteed players — those whose contracts aren’t fully guaranteed past this season — as well as players on deals that aren’t fully guaranteed this year or in subsequent seasons. It doesn’t include players who can’t be traded because they signed after November 19th, putting them within three months of the trade deadline. Teams can’t trade any player they sign for three months after the contract is finalized. Not all of the players below are immediately eligible to be traded, but all of them will become so before the deadline.

ShamSports was used in the creation of this post.

4 comments Los Angeles Lakers Portland Trail Blazers Uncategorized

How Raptors/Kings Trade Works Financially

By | at December 10, 2013 10:58 am

NBA trades are rarely simple exchanges of players. Teams exercise flexibility when they swap their players for another team’s, as the Kings and Raptors did Monday, and they also often gain even more flexibility as a result. That’s indeed the case for Toronto and Sacramento, as their seven-player trade allowed both teams to acquire trade exceptions. Raptors can create an exception worth $4,583,432, while the Kings can make one for $2,316,429. The teams can use these exceptions in later trades to take on players in transactions that wouldn’t otherwise work, since they’re both above the salary cap.

Toronto can accomplish this by structuring the swap as two separate trades. The first would be Patrick Patterson ($3,105,301) and Greivis Vasquez ($2,150,188) for Aaron Gray ($2,690,875) and Quincy Acy ($788,872). The Raptors don’t get an exception from this part of the deal, since only non-simultaneous trades bear exceptions, and teams can’t surrender more than one player in a non-simultaneous trade. This four-player swap just barely fits within the the salary-matching framework for simultaneous deals involving less than $9.8MM in outgoing money. A team’s incoming salary must be no more than 150%, plus $100K, greater than what the other team gives up. Toronto’s incoming salary comes to $5,255,489. That’s above 150% more than Sacramento’s side, but within that $100K cushion.

Placing those four players in a simultaneous trade allows the Raptors to put together the part of the deal that yields the exception. Rudy Gay and his $17,888,932 salary would go in a single, non-simultaneous transaction in exchange for John Salmons ($7,583,000) and Chuck Hayes ($5,722,500). The difference between Gay’s salary and the combined pay for Salmons and Hayes is $4,583,432, which is the amount of Toronto’s exception.

Sacramento’s best strategy appears to involve breaking the deal into three parts. The Kings could make the same exchange of Gay for Salmons and Hayes, though from Sacramento’s perspective, that’s a simultaneous trade, since the Kings are giving up more than one player. It fits the salary-matching requirements for a simultaneous trade in which a club gives up between $9.8MM and $19.6MM in salary, since Gay’s salary is less than $5MM more than what Salmons and Hayes make.

The Kings can also line up Vasquez and Gray as a single, simultaneous transaction. Sacramento is giving up only one player, but the Kings would take back slightly more money, so there wouldn’t be an exception for them if it were a non-simultaneous trade. Their salaries are within the salary-matching framework of 150% plus $100K for deals of this size. That wouldn’t be the case if the Kings made Acy a part of this swap. Usually, players on minimum-salary contracts, like Acy, wouldn’t count toward incoming salary in a simultaneous trade, but Acy’s on a three-year deal. That means he wasn’t signed using the minimum-salary exception, and therefore, he can’t be acquired using the minimum-salary exception. In other words, his salary needs to be taken into account, pushing a theoretical three-player deal involving him, Gray and Vasquez over the salary-matching limit.

So, Acy goes into the non-simultaneous trade from which Sacramento can draw its exception. The Kings net $2,316,429 by subtracting Acy’s salary from Patterson’s. Taking on Acy’s salary in another part of the trade would allow Sacramento to collect an exception worth Patterson’s entire salary, but there doesn’t appear to be a way to make that happen.

Teams aren’t obligated to structure their transactions in a way that creates the largest possible trade exceptions, but it’s usually to their advantage to do so. The exception the Raptors created via this summer’s Andrea Bargnani trade was too small to accommodate any of the players from this week’s deal. Teams have one year from the date of the trade to use the exceptions, and many times they simply expire. For now, the exceptions the Kings and Raptors created with their trade this week gives each team an additional weapon, with the trade deadline looming in a little more than two months.

ShamSports was used in the creation of this post.

2 comments Sacramento Kings Toronto Raptors Uncategorized

Acquisitions Who’ve Yet To Debut In 2013/14

By | at December 7, 2013 2:03 pm

Kobe Bryant‘s scheduled season debut tomorrow is receiving most of the headlines, but he’s not the only player hitting the floor for the first time in 2013/14. Otto Porter, the No. 3 overall pick this past June, made his first appearance for the Wizards last night, hours before Ray McCallum, the 36th overall pick, finally got in a game for the Kings.

One of the major story lines last year was Andrew Bynum‘s lost season with the Sixers, who had acquired him via trade the previous summer. There’s fear the Sixers might be stuck with another new player who’ll miss his first season in Philadelphia, as Nerlens Noel continues to recover from a torn left ACL.

Noel is among several players who either signed a contract or were traded this past offseason and have yet to make their 2013/14 debuts. Not all of them are missing time due to injury, as we detail here:

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Players On De Facto Expiring Contracts

By | at December 4, 2013 3:45 pm

As we enter the NBA’s trade season, players on expiring contracts become coveted commodities, allowing teams to acquire talent without sacrificing future cap flexibility. Most avid NBA fans can probably list a few notable trade candidates on expiring deals without even looking up the player’s contract status — Luol Deng, Danny Granger, and Kyle Lowry are a few names that immediately come to mind.

In addition to those players in the last year of their contracts, there are plenty of guys around the league who are on de facto expiring deals. In other words, their contracts extend past this year, but at this point, they’re owed little or no guaranteed money beyond this season.

One example in Jameer Nelson in Orlando. The veteran point guard is under contract for $8MM in 2014/15, but only $2MM of that amount is currently guaranteed. So if a team were to acquire Nelson this season, it could do so with the knowledge that it wouldn’t necessarily have a big impact on next year’s books. Nelson would earn just $2MM if he’s released before July 15th, 2014, and will only earn his full $8MM salary if he remains under contract beyond that date.

Listed below are the guys on these unofficial expiring contracts this season, separated by those who are owed partial guarantees and those who aren’t owed any guaranteed salary. The following players are not listed:

  • Players with player options or early termination options in 2014/15. In these cases, the team has little to no agency in deciding whether or not to keep a player under contract, which makes it hard to treat that contract as expiring. Rudy Gay represents a prime example of this case, since his ’14/15 player option significantly complicates his trade value.
  • Players on non-guaranteed contracts for 2013/14. If they’re already on non-guaranteed deals, it’s safe to say they aren’t owed guaranteed money beyond this season.
  • Recent signees. We can probably assume that in-season additions like Malcolm Thomas (Spurs), Elliot Williams (76ers) and Lorenzo Brown (76ers) signed non-guaranteed deals, meaning they also won’t have guarantees for 2014/15 and beyond.

Here’s the full list:

Non-guaranteed for 2014/15:

Partially guaranteed for 2014/15:

ShamSports was used in the creation of this post.

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Players With Trade Kickers

By | at December 3, 2013 7:34 pm

Trade kickers are contractual clauses that pay players a bonus when they’re traded, and they represent one of the tools teams have to differentiate their free agent offers from the deals competing clubs put on the table, as I explained this weekend. They’re often used to woo stars, like Chris Paul and Dwight Howard, both of whom have trade kickers worth the maximum 15% of their new deals. It seems unlikely that either of them will be traded anytime soon, but their kickers offer further deterrence against a trade as well as the possibility that their maximum-salary contracts will become even more lucrative than they already are.

Trade kickers aren’t the exclusive purview of the NBA’s most well-paid players. The agents for Nazr Mohammed, Beno Udrih and Nick Young and all negotiated trade kickers into the minimum-salary deals those players signed this past offseason. The Lakers may well have felt compelled to agree to the kicker to entice Young to sign for below market value, while Mohammed wields the double hammer of a trade kicker and the ability to veto trades, making it highly improbable he gets moved this season.

Sometimes a trade kicker is included in an offer sheet that a team makes to a restricted free agent in hopes that the bonus will dissuade the player’s original team from matching. That appears to have been the case with Jeff Teague, who signed an offer sheet with the Bucks that included a trade kicker. In Teague’s case, the ploy didn’t work, as the Hawks matched anyway.

Teague’s trade kicker is unusual, since it stipulates that in the event of a trade, he’ll receive either a set amount ($600K) or 15% of the value of his contract, whichever is less. Most trade kickers call for the player to get a simple percentage of whatever’s left on the his deal, but Teague is one of a few guys with more complex terms in his contract. Tyreke Evans and Tyson Chandler have similarly structured deals. Trade kickers can also simply call for the player to receive a set amount, though no current players have one like that in their contracts.

Three players with trade kickers were involved in swaps over the summer, so Jason Terry, Andrea Bargnani and Robin Lopez are all on slightly more expensive deals than they were last season. They can be traded again, but they won’t receive any extra money if that happens. Here’s a list of every NBA player with an active trade kicker, listed alphabetically, with the details of the kickers in parentheses. Players who signed deals this past offseason are marked with an asterisk.

ShamSports was used in the creation of this post.

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