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Beginning on July 1st, fourth-year players on rookie scale contracts were eligible to sign contract extensions with their respective teams and forgo the chance to hit restricted free agency next summer. Most of the players to sign new deals didn't do so until the October 31st deadline approached, which means we saw a flurry of activity yesterday.

Here's a recap of the extension-eligible fourth-year players that signed contract extensions this offseason, removing themselves from 2013's free agent market:

• Blake Griffin (Clippers): Five years, maximum salary
• James Harden (Rockets): Five years, maximum salary
• Serge Ibaka (Thunder): Four years, $49MM*
• Ty Lawson (Nuggets): Four years, $48MM
• Stephen Curry (Warriors): Four years, $44MM
• Jrue Holiday (76ers): Four years, $41MM*
• DeMar DeRozan (Raptors): Four years, $38MM*
• Taj Gibson (Bulls): Four years, $32MM*

Here are the extension-eligible players that didn't sign new deals and will become free agents next summer:

• Rodrigue Beaubois (Mavericks)
• Omri Casspi (Cavaliers)
• Darren Collison (Mavericks)
• Austin Daye (Pistons)
• Toney Douglas (Rockets)
• Wayne Ellington (Grizzlies)
• Tyreke Evans (Kings)
• Tyler Hansbrough (Pacers)
• Gerald Henderson (Bobcats)
• Brandon Jennings (Bucks)
• James Johnson (Kings)
• Eric Maynor (Thunder)
• Byron Mullens (Bobcats)
• Jeff Teague (Hawks)

(* Incentives could increase the value of the deal)

If you haven't done so yet, be sure to check out Hoops Rumors' 2012 Free Agent Tracker. Using our tracker, you can quickly browse the offseason's contract agreements, sorting by team, position, contract length, total salary, and a handful of other variables.

For instance, if you want to see all the Celtics' summer signings, you can sort by team and find all of Boston's free agent additions listed here. If you're curious to see how many players signed five-year contracts, you can sort by contract length and bring up that list right here.

Contract amounts are based on what's been reported to date, and aren't necessarily fully guaranteed. This is especially true for players who signed summer contracts, most of whom were cut before earning their non-guaranteed salaries.

Now that the regular season is underway, we'll no longer be updating our Free Agent Tracker regularly, but it can still be accessed anytime on the right sidebar under "Hoops Rumors Features." All of the free agent contracts signed over the offseason can be found using the tracker. If you have any corrections, please let us know right here.

With the NBA's 2012/13 regular season just underway, Hoops Rumors' writing team has weighed in with predictions for the coming year. We've made our picks for the top eight seeds in each conference, the Conference and NBA Finals teams, and the winners of the league's major awards.

Click on the link below to see predictions from Luke Adams, Chuck Myron, Zach Links, Alex Lee, Ryan Raroque, Sean Highkin, Michael Pina, and Daniel Seco. And be sure to chime in below in the comments section with your own selections!

2012/13 Hoops Rumors Writer Predictions

Full-time NBA starters are usually fixtures who at least wind up in a rotation the next season, if not the starting lineup. In a few cases, though, starters wind up out of the league entirely, either because of retirement or declining skills. That was the case for three players who were among those who met the starter criteria as defined by the CBA. For last year's lockout-shortened season, that meant players who started at least 33 games or played at least 1,610 minutes, pro-rated figures of the usual 41 starts and 2,000 minutes over an 82-game season. 

Here are the three starters from last season who are no longer in the league, and an explanation why.

• Shelden Williams — Started 35 games for the Nets last season, but will spend this year playing in France after receiving interest from the Warriors over the summer.
• Anthony Parker — Started 51 games for the Cavaliers last season before retiring. He now works as a scout for the Magic.
• Derek Fisher — Started 43 games for the Lakers prior to his trade to the Rockets, who bought him out and allowed him to sign with the Thunder. He remains unsigned but continues to seek an NBA deal.

WEDNESDAY, 11:38am: The NBA has officially announced that the center has been removed from All-Star balloting, according to a press release from the league. Fans will now be allowed to vote for two guards and three frontcourt players.

TUESDAY, 10:32pm: The NBA will formally announce Wednesday that it will no longer have fans vote for starting centers and forwards for the All-Star Game, and instead have them choose three frontcourt players from each conference, TNT's David Aldridge reports on NBA.com.The change will appear on this year's ballot, which will be released on November 13th.

The league is making the change at the recommendation of its revamped competition committee.

"It makes sense," said Stu Jackson, the NBA's vice president of basketball operations. "It made sense to our Competition Committee. Having a center is the only specific position that was singled out on the ballot. It just seemed a little outdated and didn't represent the way our game has evolved. By the same token, it also affords the same opportunity, if you have two good centers in a given year, pick 'em both. They both can be selected. Which is impossible right now."

With more teams taking a small-ball approach, traditional centers have become less of a factor in the game. The shifting dynamics have caused some ballot issues in recent years. Aldridge cites the case of Tim Duncan, who has been listed as a power forward despite playing center for the Spurs.

The selection of All-Star starters is a trivial matter in most cases, but it's one of the criteria used to determine the maximum salary for rookie-scale extensions in the new CBA. First-round picks who are voted to start the All-Star Game twice, named to two All-NBA teams, or win an MVP award in their first four seasons are eligible to receive 30% of the salary cap in their extensions, instead of 25%.

For most of the last few weeks, we've made reference to the end of October as a deadline by which a number of decisions must be made by NBA teams. Whether it's cutting rosters down to 15 players, exercising 2013/14 rookie contract options, or signing fourth-year players to extensions, teams have plenty of decisions to make by the end of the month. Here's a quick rundown of what to look for in the next week:

Monday, October 29th (Last day of offseason)

• Teams must reduce rosters to a maximum of 15 players. Players must be released by Saturday at 4:00pm CT in order to clear waivers by Monday.
• Last day for summer contracts to clear waivers without applying to team salary.
• Last day to complete sign-and-trade deals this season (for taxpaying teams, this will be the last day they can ever make a sign-and-trade deal, until they become a non-taxpayer).

Wednesday, October 31st

• Last day teams can sign players entering the final year of their rookie contracts to extensions.
• Last day teams can exercise 2013/14 team options for second-year and third-year players on rookie contracts.

While a number of decisions are due within the next week, not all of the important early-season deadlines occur in October. For instance, most non-guaranteed contracts don't become guaranteed for the rest of the season until January 10th, 2013, unless a different date was written into a player's contract (ie. DeJuan Blair's 2012/13 salary becomes guaranteed on November 1st).

Larry Coon's Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.

Hoops Rumors passes along the latest news and rumors on NBA player movement 365 days a year, but those aren't the only updates you'll see on the site. On our right sidebar, you'll find a number of additional features and featured posts. Here's a rundown of a few of them:

• Our Free Agent Tracker features up-to-date details on this summer's free agent signings, with data sortable by team, position, contract years, and contract amount.
• We also have free agent lists for both next summer, and the summer of 2014, which will continue to be modified as needed.
• Our tracker for 2013/14 rookie-contract options follows teams' decisions as they exercise options in advance of next Wednesday's deadline.
• Using our 10-day contract tracker, you can find any 10-day contract signed since 2007, sorting by player, team, year, and other variables.
• Every Thursday at 4:00pm CT, Luke Adams answers readers' questions in a live chat. You can check out transcripts of past chats here.
• Our list of outstanding traded player exceptions is updated whenever a trade exception is used or expires.
• We're also tracking teams' amnesty provisions — using our complete list, you can check to see which clubs have used the amnesty clause and which will carry it into next summer.
• The Hoops Rumors glossary helps explain some of the more complex concepts in the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement.
• Our ongoing Extension Candidate series provides a look at a handful of players that could have their contracts extended before the season begins.
• Zach Links rounds up the best of the blogosphere every Saturday in his weekly Hoops Links feature.
• If you're looking to catch up on a few days worth of content, our Week in Review posts round up the week's news and rumors, while our Hoops Rumors Originals posts recap the site's original content for the week. Both round-ups are published every Sunday.
• Be sure to check out the Featured Posts section on the right sidebar for more original pieces from the Hoops Rumors writing team. Recently, we listed the longest-tenured GMs in the NBA, examined the teams that have designated franchise players, and recapped all the trades made this offseason.

In the past week, the Cavaliers and Celtics waived players with partially or fully guaranteed contracts, and now that those guys have cleared waivers, the teams are obligated to pay them even though they won't be playing in Cleveland and Boston, respectively. It's a scenario that's likely to play out again between now and opening night of the regular season, when rosters must be trimmed to 15. Several teams have more players with guaranteed deals than they have roster space available, so unless they're able to work out a trade, they'll be on the hook for guys who won't be contributing this year.

Most, if not all, of the players who hit the waiver wire in the next week will have less than $1MM in guaranteed money, but sometimes teams are willing to let go of someone making much more. In the case of Rashard Lewis, whom the Hornets owe $13.7MM this year, the decision to waive him and pay his partially guaranteed amount saved the team an extra $9MM they would have had to shell out if they kept him around at the full amount left on his deal.

Teams can erase the guaranteed portions of a player's salary from their books using the amnesty provision, but they can only do so once, and only on players who signed prior to last year's lockout. We're keeping track of amnesty cuts here, but this list is for players who still count against a team's cap. This list doesn't include cap holds for free agents or unsigned first-round draft picks, all of which count against the cap as well. Otherwise, if you know anyone we've missed, let us know in the comments.

Updated 10-23-12

Hawks

• Jordan Farmar ($1.5MM) — The Hawks bought him out of the final season of his deal, originally worth $4.25, in July.
• Jordan Williams ($762K) — Waived in September, despite a full guarantee.

Celtics

• Keyon Dooling ($854K) — Dooling retired in September, but the team is still on the hook for his minimum-salary deal.
• Dionte Christmas ($237K) — Waived on October 16th despite a guarantee that covered half of his minimum-salary deal.
• Jamar Smith ($25K) — Waived on October 16th despite a partial guarantee.

 Cavaliers

• Kelenna Azubuike ($1.07M) — Waived on October 14th despite a full guarantee.

Pistons

• Richard Hamilton ($6.07MM) — Agreed to a buyout in 2011.

Rockets

• *Derek Fisher ($644K) — It's unclear whether he remains on Houston's books. It was widely believed that Fisher had exercised his player option for 2012/13 before he agreed to a buyout from the Rockets in March, but Marc Stein of ESPN.com recently heard that Fisher did not opt in. 

Pacers

• Blake Ahearn ($25K) — Waived October 22nd despite a partial guarantee.
• Sundiata Gaines ($25K) — Waived October 22nd despite a partial guarantee.

Heat

• James Jones ($1.757MM) — Though Jones is with the Heat, he's still receiving money from a contract he signed in 2008 in addition to his current deal. Miami waived Jones in June 2010, on the final day they could do so before the partial guarantees on the three years remaining on his original deal became full guarantees. The move freed up cap space for the team to sign LeBron James, Chris Bosh and others that offseason, and Jones rejoined the team on a smaller deal later that summer.

Timberwolves

• Martell Webster ($600K) — Waived in July despite a partial guarantee.

Hornets

• Rashard Lewis ($13.7MM) — Waived in June despite a partial guarantee for 2012/13.

Knicks

• Renaldo Balkman ($1.675MM) — Waived in February despite a full guarantee for 2012/13.

Magic

• Christian Eyenga ($1.174MM) — Waived October 23rd despite a full guarantee.

Suns

• Brad Miller ($848K) — Waived in August despite a partial guarantee.

Trail Blazers

• Shawne Williams ($2.6MM) — The Blazers bought him out of the final year of his contract, originally worth $3.135MM, in July. 

Storytellers Contracts and ShamSports were used in the creation of this post.

Our list of non-guaranteed contracts for 2012/13 is fairly detailed, including not only players whose deals are fully non-guaranteed, but also those who have a partial guarantee on their contracts. If those players are waived by their respective teams, they'll still receive a portion of their salaries, though the club won't have to pay the entire amount.

To save you from sifting through our list of non-guaranteed deals, we've taken all the players believed to have partial guarantees on their contracts and listed them below. In many cases, these players will have the edge over non-guaranteed camp invitees when it comes to landing the final spot or two on their team's roster, since the club will have to pay them either way.

Based on the contract details reported to date, with a major assist from ShamSports, here are the players with partial guarantees, along with the amount of that guarantee. These players are assumed to be on minimum-salary contracts unless otherwise indicated:

• 76ers: Maalik Wayns ($75K)
• Bulls: Nate Robinson ($400K)
• Cavaliers: Micheal Eric ($300K), Daniel Gibson ($2.49MM; $4.79MM total salary), Kevin Jones ($50K), Samardo Samuels ($200K)
• Hawks: Kyle Korver ($500K; $5MM total salary)
• Hornets: Brian Roberts ($100K)
• Jazz: Kevin Murphy ($200K)
• Knicks: John Shurna ($50K), Henry Sims ($50K)
• Magic: E'Twaun Moore ($90K)
• Nuggets: Julyan Stone ($100K)
• Pacers: Blake Ahearn ($25K), Sundiata Gaines ($25K), Sam Young ($25K)
• Raptors: Jamaal Magloire (unknown amount), Dominic McGuire (unknown amount)
• Rockets: Shaun Livingston ($1MM; $3.5MM total salary), Scott Machado ($237K), Greg Smith ($381K)
• Suns: P.J. Tucker ($150K)
• Thunder: DeAndre Liggins ($25K), Daniel Orton ($100K), Andy Rautins ($25K), Hollis Thompson ($75K)
• Timberwolves: Will Conroy ($100K)
• Warriors: Kent Bazemore ($25K)
• Wizards: Shelvin Mack ($300K buyout), Jannero Pargo (unknown amount)

ShamSports was used in the creation of this list.

As we've outlined before, there are a number of different ways to follow Hoops Rumors via Facebook, Twitter, and RSS. If you don't want to follow all the site's updates, you can follow team-specific or transaction-only Facebook, Twitter, and RSS feeds. Although we don't have Facebook pages or Twitter feeds for specific players, you can also easily follow all our updates on your favorite player.

If, for instance, you want to keep track of all the latest news and rumors on Jrue Holiday as he and the 76ers attempt to work out a contract extension, you can visit this page. If you're interested in whether the Rockets may consider trading Kevin Martin to your favorite team, all Martin-related updates are located here.

Every player we've written about has his own rumors page. You can find your player of choice by using our search box (located in the right sidebar); by clicking his tag at the bottom of a post where he's discussed; or, by simply typing his name in your address bar after hoopsrumors.com, substituting dashes for spaces. For example, Martin's page is located at hoopsrumors.com/kevin-martin.

In addition to players and teams, there are a number of other subjects you can track by clicking on the tags we use at the bottom of posts. Early updates on the 2013 NBA draft, for instance, can be found on its rumors page. If you want to check out updates on Chris Hansen's quest to bring the NBA back to Seattle, those are all available here.