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Largest Free Agent Contracts Of 2012

There are still plenty of unsigned free agents on the market, but with respect to Carl Landry, Alonzo Gee, Brandon Rush, Leandro Barbosa, and the other top remaining options, we almost certainly won't see any more $30MM+ contracts signed this summer.

As Hoops Rumors' Free Agent Tracker shows, 15 free agents have signed multiyear contracts worth $30MM or more this offseason, based on reported salary figures. We're not 100% sure all the reported salaries are accurate, but these are the numbers we know so far, and should at the very least be in the neighborhood of the official figures.

So which players saw the biggest paydays this summer? Listed below are the 15 largest free agent contracts of the summer of 2012, from Deron Williams to Goran Dragic. Let us know in the comments section which players you feel are worthy of these massive contracts, and which ones might have been overpaid. Here's the complete list:

Note: Blake Griffin signed a five-year extension with the Clippers that would rank second on this list, but since he wasn't a free agent, he isn't included.

Hoops Rumors On Facebook/Twitter/RSS

With plenty of free agents still seeking new contracts, there are a number of different ways you can follow Hoops Rumors to keep tabs on the latest NBA news and rumors for the rest of the summer.

You can Like us on Facebook, and receive headlines and links for all our posts via your Facebook account. You can also follow us on Twitter to have all our posts and updates sent directly to your Twitter feed. And our RSS feed is located here, if you'd like to follow us using your RSS reader of choice.

If you prefer to receive updates only on roster moves such as signings, cuts, and trades, you can follow our transactions-only feeds via RSS and Twitter.

Value Of 2012/13 Cap Exceptions

Last season, under the first year of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the first-year values of the mid-level and bi-annual exceptions were relatively easy to remember — the mid-level for non-taxpaying teams started at $5MM, the taxpayer MLE began at $3MM, and the room exception for under-the-cap teams began at $2.5MM. The bi-annual exception, meanwhile, checked in at a first-year value of $1.9MM.

However, the CBA dictates that these exceptions are set to grow in value annually. Besides the non-taxpayer mid-level, which doesn't increase until next summer, each of the aforementioned exceptions grew by 3% this year. The new first-year numbers are a little harder to remember — $3.09MM for the taxpayer MLE, $2.575MM for the room exception, and $1.957MM for the BAE.

To avoid having to recall those figures and constantly calculate the new second- and third-year values of contracts that use full exceptions, we've put together a chart for quick reference. Here are the maximum contracts, in both years and dollars, that teams can hand out using these four salary cap exceptions (click for full size):

Exceptions

For complete explanations of how these and other cap exceptions work, be sure to check out Hoops Rumors' glossary.

Top Remaining Free Agents By PER

Player Efficiency Rating isn't the be-all, end-all statistic by which to measure NBA players, but it does provide an easy way to at least get an idea of a player's productivity. While the stat is not without its issues, it manages to neatly level the playing field when comparing, for instance, a point guard and a center.

So, with many of this year's top free agents off the board. Let's check in on the remaining available players, sorting them by their 2011/12 PER. Players must have played at least 500 minutes last season to be listed here. Restricted free agents are marked with an asterisk, while the player's PER is in parentheses. Here's the top five at each position:

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2012 Amnesty Period Ends

10:35pm: A league official has corrected the earlier information sent out, tweets ESPN.com's Marc Stein. The amnesty deadline for this season is actually at 11:00pm central time today, rather than at 4:00pm CT. That allowed the Nuggets to amnesty Chris Andersen, and gives teams about 25 more minutes to cut players using the amnesty provision. The lists below will be updated to reflect any last-minute decisions.

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Team Facebook/Twitter/RSS

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.

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Free Agents Receiving Maximum Years

Under the league's new Collective Bargaining Agreement, free agents can be offered up to five years by a team holding their Bird Rights, or four years by any other team. It's not often that we see a free agent receive that maximum number of years, as long-term deals are generally reserved for elite or near-elite players. However, so far in July 2012, we've seen nine free agents signed for as many years as possible. Let's check out the list, with the help of Hoops Rumors' Free Agent Tracker….

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NBA Salary Cap Set For 2012/13 Season

The NBA announced that the salary cap for the 2012/13 season will be $58.044MM, according to an official release from the league. The tax level for next season has been set at $70.307MM, which means teams will pay a one dollar tax for each dollar in excess of the tax level. Both the salary cap and tax level remain the same from the 2011/12 season.

The non-taxpayer mid-level for the upcoming season is $5MM, the taxpayer mid-level is $3.09MM and the mid-level for a team with room under the salary cap is $2.575MM. The league also announced the minimum team salary, which is 85 percent of the salary cap, will also stay the same at $49.337MM.

Amnesty Provision Tracker

When the NBA introduced the amnesty clause in the 2005 Collective Bargaining Agreement, it could only be used in the summer of ’05. However, when the league and players’ union reached an agreement on the new CBA in 2011, the amnesty provision was modified to allow teams to use it in any of the next five offseasons.

You can read more about how the amnesty provision works in our Hoops Rumors glossary entry, but the purpose of this post is to track which teams have used the amnesty clause to date, and which teams still have it in their back pockets. You can find this tracker at any time on the right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features.”

Here’s how the amnesty landscape currently looks:

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Players Who’ve Signed Qualifying Offers

When the Sixers’ new two-year, $13.1MM deal with Spencer Hawes becomes official, it will make NBA history. Hawes will be the first player ever to re-sign with a team after accepting a qualifying offer from the same team the year before. Hawes is already in select company as one of only 14 players ever to accept a qualifying offer, the one-year tender teams must make to players coming off their rookie contracts in order to retain the right to match offers from other teams. Usually, qualifying offers are merely the starting point for negotiations, if that.

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