Hoops Rumors Glossary

The NBA’s draft lottery, which takes place annually between the end of the regular season and the draft, is the league’s way of determining the draft order and disincentivizing second-half tanking. The lottery gives each of the 14 non-playoff teams – or whichever clubs hold those teams’ first-round picks – a chance to land one of the top four selections in the draft.

Although the top four picks of each draft are up for grabs via the lottery, the remaining order is determined by record, worst to best. The league’s worst team isn’t guaranteed a top-four spot in the draft, but is tied for the best chance to land the first overall pick and will receive the fifth overall selection at worst.

The first four picks are determined by a draw of ping-pong balls numbered 1 through 14. Four balls are drawn, resulting in a total of 1,001 possible outcomes. 1,000 of those outcomes are assigned to the 14-non playoff teams — for instance, if balls numbered 4, 7, 8, and 13 were chosen, that combination would belong to one of the 14 lottery teams. The 1,001st combination remains unassigned, and a re-draw would occur if it were ever selected.

The team whose combination is drawn first receives the number one overall pick, and the process is repeated to determine picks two, three, and four. The 14 teams involved in the draft lottery are all assigned a specific number of combinations, as follows (worst to best):

1. 140 combinations, 14.0% chance of receiving the first overall pick
2. 140 combinations, 14.0%
3. 140 combinations, 14.0%
4. 125 combinations, 12.5%
5. 105 combinations, 10.5%
6. 90 combinations, 9.0%
7. 75 combinations, 7.5%
8. 60 combinations, 6.0%
9. 45 combinations, 4.5%
10. 30 combinations, 3.0%
11. 20 combinations, 2.0%
12. 15 combinations, 1.5%
13. 10 combinations, 1.0%
14. 5 combinations, 0.5%

If two lottery teams finish the season with identical records, each team receives an equal chance at a top-four pick by averaging the total amount of outcomes for their two positions. For instance, if two teams tie for the league’s fourth-worst record, each club would receive 115 combinations and an 11.5% chance at the first overall pick — an average of the 125 and 105 combinations that the fourth- and fifth-worst teams receive.

If the average amount of combinations for two positions isn’t a whole number, a coin flip determines which team receives the extra combination. For example, if two clubs tied for the league’s third-worst record, the team that wins the coin flip would receive 133 of 1,000 chances at the first overall pick, while the loser would receive 132. The coin flip also determines which team will draft higher in the event that neither club earns a top-four pick.

The table below displays the odds for all 14 lottery teams. Each figure in the table represents a percentage rounded to one decimal place. Seeds are listed in the left column (the NBA’s worst team is the first seed), while the picks are noted along the top row.

The NBA’s lottery format was changed in 2019 and that year’s draft was the first one to use the new system. Previously, only the top three spots were determined via the lottery and the odds were weighted more heavily in favor of the league’s worst teams.

Beginning in 2021, the NBA’s lottery underwent another small change when the league introduced the play-in tournament. The lottery now includes the 10 teams that miss out on the playoffs and the play-in tournament, plus the four clubs that are eliminated in the play-in portion of the postseason.

That means a team can finish the regular season ranked seventh or eighth in its conference, but if that club is eliminated in the play-in tournament, it will be in the lottery. Conversely, a team that finishes ninth or 10th in its conference during the regular season and then wins a pair of play-in games to earn a playoff spot will be a non-lottery team.

Once the 14 lottery teams are determined, their lottery odds are still dictated by their regular season records, so the play-in losers won’t necessarily be the 11-14 “seeds” in the lottery. For example, in 2022, the 34-48 Spurs ended up with better lottery odds than the 37-45 Knicks or 35-47 Wizards, even though San Antonio participated in the Western Conference play-in tournament while New York and Washington didn’t qualify for the East’s play-in.

Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Information from Tankathon.com and Wikipedia was used in the creation of this post. Earlier versions of this post were published in past years.

The NBA’s rookie scale, which determines how much first-round picks earn during their first four NBA seasons, also dictates how much the qualifying offers will be worth for those players once they’re eligible for restricted free agency after year four. However, the value of those qualifying offers can fluctuate depending on whether or not a player has met the “starter criteria.”

Here’s how the starter criteria works:

A player who is eligible for restricted free agency is considered to have met the starter criteria if he plays at least 2,000 minutes or starts 41 games in the season before he reaches free agency.

A player can also meet the criteria if he averages either of those marks in the two seasons prior to his restricted free agency. For instance, if he makes 30 starts in his contract year after making 52 starts the season before, he would meet the starter criteria.

A player’s ability or inability to meet the starter criteria impacts the value of the qualifying offer he receives as a restricted free agent, as follows:

• A top-14 pick who does not meet the starter criteria will receive a qualifying offer equal to the amount the 15th overall pick would receive if he signed for 120% of the rookie scale.
  • Note: For the summer of 2024, the value of this QO will be $7,744,600.
  • Example: Pacers forward Obi Toppin (2020’s No. 8 overall pick) won’t meet the starter criteria this season. As a result, he’ll be eligible for a QO worth $7,744,600 instead of $9,170,460.
    
• A player picked between 10th and 30th who meets the criteria will receive a qualifying offer equal to the amount the ninth overall pick would receive if he signed for 120% of the rookie scale.
  • Note: For the summer of 2022, the value of this QO will be $8,486,620.
  • Example: Hawks forward Saddiq Bey (2018’s No. 19 overall pick) has met the starter criteria this season. As a result, he’ll be eligible for a QO worth $8,486,620 instead of $6,498,258.
• A second-round pick or undrafted player who meets the criteria will receive a qualifying offer equal to the amount the 21st overall pick would receive if he signed for 100% of the rookie scale.
  • Note: For the summer of 2022, the value of this QO will be $5,216,324.
    
  • Example: Pistons wing Simone Fontecchio (an undrafted free agent) has met the starter criteria this season. As a result, he’ll be eligible for a QO worth $5,216,324 instead of $3,806,090.
    
• For all other RFAs, the standard criteria determine the amounts of their qualifying offers.

Extending a qualifying offer to a player who is eligible for restricted free agency officially makes that player an RFA, ensuring that his team has the right of first refusal if he signs an offer sheet with another club. It also gives the player the option of signing that one-year QO.

Generally, the value of a restricted free agent’s qualifying offer isn’t hugely important, since very few RFAs accept those offers outright. There are exceptions though.

One notable example occurred in 2020 when Kris Dunn met the starter criteria, which ensured that his qualifying offer would have been worth $7,091,457 instead of $4,642,800. The Bulls opted not to extend that $7MM+ QO, making him an unrestricted free agent, and he ended up signing a two-year, $10MM contract with Atlanta.

If Dunn hadn’t met the starter criteria, Chicago likely would’ve been more comfortable issuing a $4.6MM qualifying offer, which would’ve significantly changed the way Dunn’s free agency played out.

Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Information from Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post. Earlier versions of this post were published in previous years.

The concept of proration is one used in variety of fields and professions, and isn’t specific to the NBA. The term, which shows up frequently in the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, refers to the practice of calculating a figure proportionately.

In the NBA, the most common examples of proration apply to players on non-guaranteed contracts who are waived before their salaries become guaranteed, or players who sign minimum-salary contracts partway through the season. In each instance, the player would receive a prorated portion of his salary based on the number of days he was under contract during the season.

For example, when Taj Gibson signed with the Pistons on March 16, he received a minimum-salary contract. For the 2023/24 season, the minimum salary for a player with Gibson’s years of NBA service (10+) is $3,196,448, though such a deal would only count against his team’s cap for $2,019,706, as we explain here. However, since Gibson wasn’t with the Pistons since the start of the season, he wasn’t entitled to that full minimum salary from the team.

The ’23/24 NBA season is 174 days long and Gibson signed his contract on the 145th day of the season, meaning his “one-year” contract will span 30 days. Due to proration, his minimum-salary deal is worth only 30/174ths of a full minimum salary. So instead of earning $3,196,448, he’ll make $551,112. And instead of counting for $2,019,706 on Detroit’s books, Gibson’s cap charge is 30/174ths of that amount: $348,225.

If the Pistons had signed Gibson using cap space or a cap exception, his salary wouldn’t necessarily have been prorated, but the minimum salary exception begins to prorate after the first day of the regular season.

The same principle of proration applied to a contract that Gibson signed earlier this season with the Knicks. Gibson finalized a non-guaranteed minimum-salary deal with New York on December 15, the 53rd day of the regular season. That deal was initially worth $2,241,188 (122/174ths of $3,196,448), but Gibson was waived on January 7 before it became fully guaranteed.

Gibson was officially under contract with the Knicks for 24 days, and the NBA also pays players for the two days they spend on waivers, so the veteran center was credited with 26 days of service. That means, due to proration, he was entitled to 26/174ths of a minimum salary — that amount worked out to $477,630.

A 10-day contract serves as another example of proration, with a player on a 10-day deal earning a salary that is prorated based on his full-season minimum salary — the player makes 10/174ths of the full-season amount. For instance, when Gibson signed a pair of 10-day contracts with the Knicks, he earned $183,704 on each deal (10/174ths of $3,196,448), with the team taking on a prorated cap hit of $116,075 in each instance (10/174ths of $2,019,706).

Situations like Gibson’s in Detroit and New York are the most frequent examples of the impact proration has on NBA finances, but there are many more instances where it pops up.

Here’s a quick breakdown of several of those other instances of proration:

• Mid-level and bi-annual exceptions: These exceptions begin to prorate on the day after the trade deadline. The exact amount of proration depends on how much of the exception was unused as of January 10 and how many total days there are in the regular season. If a team had $3MM of its mid-level left on January 10 and there are 174 days in that season, the MLE would decrease in value by $17,241 per day (1/174th of $3MM).
• Trade kickers: In the event a player with a trade kicker in his contract is traded during the season, the kicker only applies to his remaining (i.e. prorated) salary. If a player with an $8MM salary in his contract year has a 15% trade kicker and is dealt halfway through that season, his 15% kicker would only apply to the $4MM left on his deal, giving him a $600K bonus (15% of $4MM).
• Signing bonuses: If a team gives a player a signing bonus in a free agent contract, that bonus is prorated equally over the guaranteed seasons of the contract for cap purposes. For instance, a $4MM signing bonus on a four-year contract would add $1MM to the player’s cap charge for each of the four seasons.
• Salary floor calculations: When calculating a team’s payroll in relation to the league’s minimum salary floor, we count the salary that a team actually pays to a player, rather than the player’s cap hit. For example, if a team traded for a player on a $12MM contract halfway through the season and kept him the rest of the way, he would count for $6MM toward that team’s salary floor, rather than $12MM.
• Active games limits for two-way players: Typically, a player who signs a two-way contract is permitted to be active for up to 50 NBA games in a season, but that limit is prorated if the player signs after the regular season has begun. A two-way player who signs on the 100th day of a 174-day season could be active for up to 22 NBA games (75/174ths of the season multiplied by 50 games, then rounded to the nearest whole number).

Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.

Previous versions of this glossary entry were published in 2018 and 2022.

The Pacers have about $89MM in guaranteed money committed to player salaries for 2024/25 — or about $96MM if Tyrese Haliburton makes an All-NBA team. However, even though next season’s salary cap is expected to come in at $141MM, Indiana won’t begin the 2024 offseason with $45MM in cap room to spend.

In fact, the Pacers technically won’t open the new league year with any cap space at all. Each of Indiana’s own free agents will be assigned a free agent amount – or “cap hold” – until the player signs a new contract or the Pacers renounce his rights.

The general purpose of a cap hold is to prevent teams from using room under the cap to sign free agents before using Bird rights to re-sign their own free agents. If a team wants to take advantage of its cap space, it can renounce the rights to its own free agents, eliminating those cap holds. However, doing so means the team will no longer hold any form of Bird rights for those players — if the team wants to re-sign those free agents, it would have to use its cap room or another kind of cap exception.

The following criteria are used for determining the amount of a free agent’s cap hold:

• First-round pick coming off rookie contract: 300% of the player’s previous salary if prior salary was below league average; 250% of previous salary if prior salary was above league average.
• Bird player: 190% of previous salary (if below league average) or 150% (if above average).
• Early Bird player: 130% of previous salary.
• Non-Bird player: 120% of previous salary.
• Minimum-salary player: Two-year veteran’s minimum salary, unless the free agent only has one year of experience, in which case it’s the one-year veteran’s minimum.
• Two-way player: One-year veteran’s minimum salary.

A cap hold for a restricted free agent can vary based on his contract status. A restricted free agent’s cap hold is either his free agent amount as determined by the criteria mentioned above or the amount of his qualifying offer, whichever is greater.

No cap hold can exceed the maximum salary for which a player can sign. For example, the cap hold for a Bird player with a salary above the league average is generally 150% of his previous salary, as noted above. But for someone like Pacers forward Pascal Siakam, whose cap charge is $37,893,408 this season, 150% of his previous salary would be nearly $57MM, well beyond his projected maximum salary.

Instead, Siakam’s cap hold will be equivalent to the maximum salary for a player with between seven and nine years of NBA experience. If we assume a cap of $141MM, that figure works out to $42.3MM.

One unusual case involves players on rookie contracts whose third- or fourth-year options are declined. The amount of their declined option becomes their cap hold, and if the player’s team wants to re-sign him, his starting salary can’t exceed that amount.

For instance, the Hornets declined James Bouknight‘s 2024/25 fourth-year option last fall, then waived him in February. If Bouknight had remained on Charlotte’s roster, the team wouldn’t have been able to offer him a starting salary this offseason worth more than $6,064,496, the amount of that option. That figure would also have been his cap hold.

That rule is in place so a team can’t circumvent the rookie scale and decline its option in an effort to give the player a higher salary. It applies even if the player is traded after his option is declined, but only to the club the player is part of at season’s end. For instance, if Bouknight had been traded from the Hornets to the Pistons, Detroit would have been prohibited from offering him a starting salary greater than $6,064,496 as a free agent, but any other team could have exceeded that figure.

If a team holds the rights to fewer than 12 players, cap holds worth the rookie minimum salary are assigned to fill out the roster. So, even if a front office chooses to renounce its rights to all of its free agents and doesn’t have any players under contract, the team wouldn’t be able to fully clear its cap.

An incomplete roster charge in 2024/25 projects to be worth $1,160,544, meaning a team without any guaranteed salary or any other cap holds would have closer to $127MM in cap room than $141MM due to its 12 rookie minimum holds.

A player who has been selected in the draft but has not yet officially signed his rookie contract only has a cap hold if he was a first-round selection. A cap hold for a first-round pick is equivalent to 120% of his rookie scale amount, based on his draft position. An unsigned second-round pick doesn’t have a cap hold.

Cap holds aren’t removed from a team’s books until the player signs a new contract or has his rights renounced by the club. For example, the Warriors are still carrying cap holds on their books for retired players like David West and Matt Barnes, who never signed new contracts since playing for Golden State.

Keeping those cap holds allows teams some degree of cushion to help them remain above the cap and take advantage of the mid-level exception and trade exceptions, among other advantages afforded capped-out teams. If and when the Warriors want to maximize their cap room, they’ll renounce West and Barnes, but they’ve remained over the cap – and haven’t needed to remove those holds – since those players became free agents in 2017.

Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ and the Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

Earlier versions of this post were published in previous years by Luke Adams and Chuck Myron.

The NBA made it a priority in its latest Collective Bargaining Agreement to do all it could to reduce load management and to ensure that the game’s biggest stars suited up more often. That resulted in the league beefing up its existing Player Participation Policy and introducing a new requirement for players to qualify for end-of-season awards.

In order to be eligible for all of the NBA’s end-of-season awards, a player must appear in at least 65 games (out of 82) during the regular season. That means they can’t miss more than 17 regular season contests.

Sixers center Joel Embiid and Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell are among the players who were on track to be All-NBA locks but who won’t play in 65 games this season due to injuries and therefore won’t be eligible.

However, it’s not quite as simple as looking at a player’s games played total at the end of the season and seeing whether or not it’s at 65+. There are scenarios in which a player could still qualify for award consideration if he appears in fewer than 65 games and scenarios in which a player would not qualify for consideration even if he technically appears in more than 65 games.

The technicalities:

First, it’s important to clarify that for the purposes of this rule, a player is considered to have played in a game only if he logged at least 20 minutes in that game. That requirement was implemented so that a player couldn’t, say, start a game, check out after 30 seconds, and have it count toward his total.

A player is permitted to fall short of the 20-minute threshold twice and still have the game count toward his minimum as long as he logs at least 15 minutes in those games. So a player who plays 20 minutes in 63 games and 15 minutes in two more contests would reach the 65-game minimum. However, any outing of less than 15 minutes would not count toward the minimum.

Jamal Murray provides an excellent case study of how this rule operates in practice. If Murray plays in every Nuggets game for the rest of the 2023/24 regular season, he’ll technically have appeared in 66 contests. However, due to various injuries, Murray fell short of the 20-minute mark in three of those games, including two outings in which he logged fewer than 15 minutes.

As a result, Murray’s end-of-season game count may look like this:

• Games of 20+ minutes: 63
• Games of 15+ minutes: 1
• Games of fewer than 15 minutes: 2
• Total games: 66

In that scenario, he’d fall short of the minimum-game criteria despite appearing in 66 total games, since only 64 of them would qualify toward the required minimum.

The season-ending injury exception:

Rockets center Alperen Sengun, conversely, is an example of a player who may still qualify for end-of-season awards despite not reaching the 65-game benchmark.

A player retains his award eligibility if he logged 20+ minutes in at least 62 games (including 85% of his team’s games to that point), then suffers a season-ending injury.

The NBA defines a season-ending injury in this case as one that an independent physician (jointly selected by the league and players’ union) deems more likely than not to sideline the player through at least May 31.

Sengun played in 63 games for the Rockets, logging 20+ minutes in all of them, before suffering a severely sprained ankle and a bone bruise in his knee, an injury that could very well end his season. If an independent doctor determines the injury would likely keep him on the shelf through May 31, he’d be eligible for end-of-season awards, including Most Improved Player.

Grievances and challenges:

A player whose eligibility for awards could affect their next contract is permitted to file an “Award Eligibility Grievance” if he falls shy of the 65-game requirement. Such a grievance would be heard by a league arbitrator.

Murray would be eligible for a Designated Veteran (super-max) extension if he makes an All-NBA team this season, while Sengun could become eligible for a Rose Rule rookie scale extension if he’s named Most Valuable Player this season (this obviously won’t happen, but could in theory). As a result, both players would be eligible to file an Award Eligibility Grievance, if necessary.

However, the threshold for prevailing in a grievance of this sort is high. According to the CBA, the player must provide “clear and convincing evidence” that his team “willfully limited the player’s number of minutes played or games played during the regular season with the intention of depriving the player of (award) eligibility.” If Murray and Sengun fall shy of the requirements, it will be because of injuries, not because of any sort of underhanded tactics by Denver or Houston.

An Award Eligibility Grievance must be filed by 11:59 pm Eastern time on the day after the final day of the regular season, or within two days of the date on which it becomes mathematically impossible for the player to reach the 65-game minimum, whichever comes first. So Murray would have already had to file this grievance if he intended to do so.

A player who falls short of the 65-game minimum can also file an “Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge” in an effort to regain his award eligibility. In this case, the player must prove that if not for extraordinary circumstances, he would have met the 65-game requirement and that it would be “unjust” to exclude him from award consideration.

An Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge must be filed between 12:00 pm Eastern time on the final day of the regular season and 11:59 pm ET on the day after the last day of the regular season. The challenge would be heard by an “independent expert” jointly selected by the NBA and NBPA.

The CBA doesn’t define what sort of extraordinary circumstances would fall under this umbrella. Any sort of injury seems unlikely to qualify, but given that Murray may end up falling shy of award eligibility because he played 14:07 in one game instead of 15 minutes, perhaps his case will merit consideration.

Since we don’t yet have any precedents to refer to, we may have to see how situations like Murray’s play out to get a better sense of how this sort of challenge might – or might not – succeed.

The awards the 65-game rule does and doesn’t apply to:

Failing to meet the 65-game requirement doesn’t necessarily mean that a player is ineligible for every end-of-season award. The 65-game rule only applies to the following awards:

• Most Valuable Player
• Defensive Player of the Year
• Most Improved Player
• All-NBA teams
• All-Defensive teams

That means the following awards don’t require 65 games played:

• Rookie of the Year
• All-Rookie teams
• Sixth Man of the Year

Although the NBA offered no explanation for why 65+ games aren’t required for these specific awards, we can probably assume the league didn’t feel the need to impose extra requirements on awards that already only apply to a smaller group of players.

A player who made his NBA debut prior to 2023/24 won’t be eligible for Rookie of the Year or All-Rookie, and a player who starts more than half his games isn’t eligible for Sixth Man of the Year.

Being able to qualify for these awards despite not meeting the 65-game minimum does nothing for Murray, for example, since he’s not eligible for any of them anyway. However, the lack of a 65-game rule could come in handy for certain All-Rookie hopefuls who won’t reach that total this season, such as Mavericks center Dereck Lively II.

Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Players and teams have to meet certain criteria to earn Bird rights and Early Bird rights, but Non-Bird rights are practically a given.

They apply to a player who has spent a single season or less with his team, as long as he finishes the season on an NBA roster and is on a standard contract (rather than a hardship or 10-day deal). Even a player who signs a rest-of-season contract right before the regular season finale and spends just a single day with his club would have Non-Bird rights in the offseason.

Teams can also claim Non-Bird rights on Early Bird free agents if they renounce them. The primary motivator to do so would be to allow the team to sign the free agent to a one-year contract, a move that’s not permitted via Early Bird rights.

Teams are eligible to sign their own free agents using the Non-Bird exception for a salary starting at 120% of the player’s previous salary, 120% of the minimum salary, or the amount of a qualifying offer (if the player is a restricted free agent), whichever is greatest. Contracts can be for up to four years, with 5% annual raises.

The cap hold for a Non-Bird player is 120% of his previous salary, unless his previous salary was the minimum. In that case, the cap hold is equivalent to the two-year veteran’s minimum salary. If a Non-Bird free agent only has one year of NBA experience, his cap hold is equivalent to the one-year veteran’s minimum salary.

The salary limitations that apply to Non-Bird rights are more severe than those pertaining to Bird rights or Early Bird rights, so in many cases, the Non-Bird exception may not be enough to retain a well-regarded free agent. For instance, the Nuggets held Bruce Brown‘s Non-Bird rights last summer, but couldn’t have used them to match or exceed the offer the veteran wing received from the Pacers.

Because Brown had earned a relatively modest $6,479,000 salary in 2022/23, Denver’s ability to offer a raise using the Non-Bird exception was extremely limited — the Nuggets would have only been able to offer 120% of Brown’s previous salary using his Non-Bird rights, which worked out to $7,774,800. Indiana used its cap room to give Brown a $22MM starting salary, easily topping Denver’s maximum offer.

The Bucks may end up in a similar situation this offseason with Malik Beasley, who will only have Non-Bird rights after playing out a one-year, minimum-salary contract. Milwaukee almost certainly won’t have cap room, and the mid-level exception won’t be an option either as long as the team’s salary remains above the second tax apron. If they want to re-sign Beasley, the Bucks may have to hope he’ll accept an offer in the $3.6MM range via the Non-Bird exception.

Holding Non-Bird rights on a free agent didn’t help the Nuggets with Brown and may not be enough for the Bucks with Beasley, but there are cases in which the exception proves useful.

The Clippers, for instance, only had Non-Bird rights on Russell Westbrook last offseason, but that gave them the ability to offer a starting salary worth 20% more than the veteran’s minimum that another team might have offered. Since Westbrook wanted to remain in Los Angeles, the Non-Bird exception – which allowed for a starting salary of $3,835,738 – was enough to re-sign him. His minimum salary would have been $3,196,448.

After being traded from the Pacers to the Raptors earlier this season, Brown will have Non-Bird rights again this summer if Toronto opts to turn down his $23MM team option for 2024/25. However, in that scenario, the Raptors would have significantly more flexibility than Denver did to offer Brown a new contract, since he’ll be coming off a much higher salary this time around. Toronto could offer Brown a starting salary of up to $26.4MM (120% of $22MM) using the Non-Bird exception.

Finally, it’s worth noting that a player who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year deal (or a two-year deal that includes a second-year option) and will have Early Bird or Bird rights at the end of that contract would surrender those rights if he consents to a trade. In that scenario, he’d only finish the season with Non-Bird rights.

No players in this position consented to a trade this year, but it was a factor in Miles Bridges‘ decision to tell the Hornets he wouldn’t approve a deal.

If Charlotte had traded him to a new team, Bridges would have only had Non-Bird rights, meaning his new team wouldn’t have been able to offer him a starting salary higher than $9,505,560 (120% of his $7,921,300 salary for 2023/24) without using cap room or another exception. By remaining with the Hornets, Bridges hung onto his Bird rights, giving him more pathways to a significant payday, either by re-signing in Charlotte or via a sign-and-trade.

Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.

Earlier versions of this post were published in previous years by Luke Adams and Chuck Myron.

Bird rights offer teams the chance to sign their own free agents without regard to the salary cap, but they don’t apply to every player. Other salary cap exceptions are available for teams to keep players who don’t qualify for Bird rights. One such exception is the Early Bird, which applies to players formally known as Early Qualifying Veteran Free Agents.

While the Bird exception is for players who have spent three seasons with one club without changing teams as a free agent, Early Bird rights are earned after just two such seasons. Virtually all of the same rules that apply to Bird rights apply to Early Bird rights, with the requirements condensed to two years rather than three.

Players still see their Bird clocks restart by changing teams via free agency, being claimed in an expansion draft, or having their rights renounced. A player who is traded can also have his Bird clock reset if he approves a move after having re-signed with his previous team on a one-year contract (or a one-year contract with a second-year option) earlier in the league year.

As is the case with Bird rights, a player’s clock stops when he’s released by a team and clears waivers, but it would pick up where it left off if he re-signs with that same team down the road without joining another club in the interim. For instance, James Johnson will have Early Bird rights this offseason because – even though he was waived in January – he’s on track to finish a second consecutive season with the Pacers and didn’t join another team between his stints in Indiana.

The crucial difference between Bird rights and Early Bird rights involves the limitations on contract offers. Bird players can receive maximum-salary deals for up to five years, while the most a team can offer an Early Bird free agent without using cap space is 175% of his previous salary (up to the max) or 105% of the league-average salary in the previous season, whichever is greater.

These offers are also capped at four years rather than five, and the new contracts must run for at least two years — the second season can be non-guaranteed, but can’t be a team or player option.

Besides Johnson, some of the more notable free agents who will have Early Bird rights during the 2024 offseason include Malik Monk (Kings), Isaiah Hartenstein (Knicks), Kyle Anderson (Timberwolves), and Andre Drummond (Bulls).

In some instances, teams can benefit from having Early Bird rights instead of full Bird rights if they’re trying to preserve cap space. The cap hold for an Early Bird player is 130% of his previous salary, significantly less than most Bird players, whose cap holds range from 150-300% of their previous salaries.

However, having a player’s Early Bird rights instead of his full Bird rights puts a team at a disadvantage in other cases. For example, when Christian Wood reached free agency in 2020, his Early Bird rights only allowed the Pistons to offer a starting salary of up to about $10.05MM, a figure the Rockets topped in their three-year, $41MM offer.

In order to match or exceed that number, Detroit would have had to use cap room — having Wood’s full Bird rights would’ve allowed the Pistons to make a far more substantial offer without requiring cap space.

Meanwhile, some players with limited NBA experience are subject to a special wrinkle involving Early Bird rights, called the Gilbert Arenas Provision, which applies to players who have only been in the league for one or two years. We cover the Arenas Provision in a separate glossary entry, so you can read up on the details there.

Essentially, the Arenas Provision protects teams from a situation like the ones the Pistons found themselves in with Wood, allowing them to match offer sheets on their restricted free agents without necessarily using Bird rights or cap room to do so. Last offseason, Lakers guard Austin Reaves and Pelicans forward Herbert Jones were both Arenas free agents. The provision would apply this coming offseason to a player like Pistons wing Simone Fontecchio.

Finally, one more distinction between Bird rights and Early Bird rights applies to waivers. Players who are claimed off waivers retain their Early Bird rights, just as they would if they were traded. Those who had Bird rights instead see those reduced to Early Bird rights if they’re claimed off waivers.

This rule stems from a 2012 settlement between the league and the union in which J.J. Hickson was given a special exception and retained his full Bird rights for the summer of 2012 even though he had been claimed off waivers that March.

Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.

Earlier versions of this post were published in previous years by Luke Adams and Chuck Myron.

The Bird exception, named after Larry Bird, is a rule included in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement that allows teams to go over the salary cap to re-sign their own players. A player who qualifies for the Bird exception, formally referred to as a Qualifying Veteran Free Agent, is said to have “Bird rights.”

The most basic way for a player to earn Bird rights is to play for the same team for at least three seasons, either on a long-term deal or on separate one- or two-year contracts. Still, there are other criteria. A player retains his Bird rights in the following scenarios:

1. He changes teams via trade.

For instance, the Thunder will hold Gordon Hayward‘s Bird rights when he reaches free agency this offseason, despite just acquiring him in February. His Bird clock didn’t reset when he was traded from Charlotte to Oklahoma City.

2. He finishes a third season with a team after having only signed for a partial season with the club in the first year.

The Heat signed Haywood Highsmith during the second half of the 2021/22 season, adding him to their roster in March 2022. When his contract expires this offseason, Highsmith will have Bird rights despite not spending three full seasons with Miami, because that partial season in ’21/22 started his Bird clock.

3. He signed a full-season contract (ie. not a 10-day deal) in year one or two but the team waived him; he cleared waivers and didn’t sign with another team before re-signing with the club and ultimately remaining under contract through a third season.

This one’s a little confusing, but let’s use former Raptors big man Christian Koloko as an example. After spending the 2022/23 season with Toronto and opening the ’23/24 season on the roster, Koloko was waived by the team in January. If the Raptors were to re-sign him in July without him joining a new team in the interim, his Bird clock would pick up where it left off. He’d have full Bird rights in the summer of 2025, since he would’ve spent part or all of each of the previous three seasons with Toronto, without changing teams in between.

It’s worth noting that while the Raptors could restart Koloko’s Bird clock by re-signing him, they wouldn’t be able to use any form of Bird rights to add him to their roster this offseason — they would have to use cap room or another exception to do so. His Bird clock would only resume once he’s back under contract.

This rule also applies to players who are waived after they already have Bird rights. For example, let’s say the Warriors were to waive Chris Paul this offseason before his $30MM salary for 2024/25 becomes guaranteed.

Golden State, which doesn’t project to have cap room this summer, would have no means to re-sign Paul except via the minimum salary exception or perhaps the mid-level exception, since waiving him would mean losing his Bird rights. But if they did find a way to re-add him on a one-year contract after waiving him, the Warriors would regain Paul’s full Bird rights in 2025.

A player sees the clock on his Bird rights reset to zero in the following scenarios:

1. He changes teams via free agency.
2. He is waived and is not claimed on waivers (except as in scenario No. 3 above).
3. His rights are renounced by his team. However, as in scenario No. 3 above, a player’s Bird clock picks up where it left off if he re-signs with that team renounced without having signed with another NBA team. For example, Boban Marjanovic had Bird rights last offseason, then had those rights renounced by the Rockets as they freed up extra cap room. Since Marjanovic eventually signed a new deal with Houston, he’ll retain his full Bird rights this summer — that wouldn’t have been the case if he had signed with a new team.
4. He is selected in an expansion draft.

Players on two-way contracts accumulate Bird rights in the same way that players on standard contracts do. Magic forward Admiral Schofield has been under contract with Orlando on various two-way and standard deals in each of the past three seasons, so if he remains on his current two-way deal through the end of 2023/24, he’ll have full Bird rights this summer.

If a player who would have been in line for Bird rights at the end of the season is waived and claimed off waivers, he would retain only Early Bird rights.

It’s also worth noting that there’s one specific scenario in which a player with Bird rights can lose them in a trade. A player who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year contract (or a one-year deal with a second-year option) would have his Bird clock reset if he’s traded later that season. As such, he receives the ability to veto trades so he can avoid that scenario.

[RELATED: Players who had the ability to veto trades in 2023/24]

The Bird exception was designed to allow teams to keep their best players, even when those teams don’t have the cap room necessary to do so.

When a player earns Bird rights, he’s eligible to re-sign with his team for up to five years and for any price up to his maximum salary (with 8% annual raises) when he becomes a free agent, no matter how much cap space the team has — or doesn’t have.

The maximum salary varies from player to player depending on how long he has been in the league, but regardless of the precise amount, a team can exceed the salary cap to re-sign a player with Bird rights.

A team with a Bird free agent is assigned a “free agent amount” – also called a cap hold – worth either 190% of his previous salary (for a player with a below-average salary) or 150% of his previous salary (for an above-average salary), up to the maximum salary amount. For players coming off rookie scale contracts, the amounts of those cap holds are 300% and 250%, respectively.

The Sixers, for instance, will have a cap hold worth $13,031,760 for Tyrese Maxey on their books this offseason — 300% of his $4,343,920 salary for 2023/24. Philadelphia could renounce Maxey and generate an extra $13MM+ in cap flexibility, but doing so would cost the Sixers the ability to re-sign him using Bird rights, which would force them to use either cap room or a different cap exception to re-sign him. As such, we can count on Philadelphia keeping Maxey’s cap hold on the books until his free agency is resolved.

Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.

Earlier versions of this post were published in previous years by Luke Adams and Chuck Myron.

The mid-level exception is the most common tool used by over-the-cap teams to sign free agents from other teams to contracts worth more than the veteran’s minimum. But that’s not the only exception those clubs have to squeeze an extra player onto the payroll. The bi-annual exception is a way for a team to sign a player who may command more than the minimum salary, but less than the mid-level.

As its name suggests, the bi-annual exception can only be used every other season. Even if a team uses only a portion of the exception, it’s off-limits during the following league year.

During the 2023/24 league year, two teams – the Heat and Sixers – were ineligible to use the bi-annual exception at all, since they used it in 2022/23.

Three teams have used the BAE in ’23/24, with the Lakers signing Taurean Prince, the Cavaliers signing Ty Jerome, and the Raptors signing Jalen McDaniels. Those three clubs won’t have the exception at their disposal during the 2024/25 league year.

The bi-annual exception is available only to a limited number of clubs, even among those that didn’t use the exception during the previous season. Teams that create and use cap space forfeit their bi-annual exception. Additionally, teams lose access to the bi-annual exception when they operate over the first “tax apron,” a figure approximately $7MM above the tax line this season. So, only teams over the cap and under the first apron can use the BAE.

If a team uses all or part of the bi-annual exception, the first tax apron becomes the club’s hard cap for that season. Teams that sign a player using the BAE can later go under the cap, but can’t go over the first apron at any time during the season once the contract is signed.

[RELATED: NBA Teams With Hard Caps In 2023/24]

Although a team with a salary exceeding the first tax apron isn’t permitted to use the bi-annual exception, that team could gain access to the BAE by shedding salary. As long as the team’s salary would be below the first tax apron after completing the bi-annual signing – and remains below that threshold for the rest of the season – that club is permitted to use the BAE, no matter how high its salary might have been earlier in the league year.

Under the NBA’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement, the value of the bi-annual exception in future league years is tied to the value of the salary cap. The BAE comes in at 3.32% of that season’s cap and is rounded to the nearest thousand.

For instance, this season’s cap is $136,021,000; 3.32% of that amount is $4,515,897.20. Rounding to the nearest thousand gets us to $4,516,000, which is the maximum starting salary for a bi-annual signing in 2023/24. The starting salary for the BAE in 2024/25 currently projects to be worth $4,681,000, based on a $141MM cap projection.

A player who signs a contract using the bi-annual exception is eligible for a one- or two-year deal, with a 5% raise for the second season. For a player signed using the BAE in 2023/24, the maximum value of a two-year contract is $9,257,800.

Teams also have the option of splitting the bi-annual exception among multiple players, though that happens much less frequently than it does with the mid-level exception, since a split bi-annual deal may not even be worth more than a veteran’s minimum salary.

The bi-annual exception begins to prorate downward on January 10 each year, decreasing in value by 1/174th each day until the end of the regular season. However, a team that uses its BAE between Jan. 10 and the trade deadline wouldn’t be subject to that proration and could use the full amount it has left on the exception.

Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.

Earlier versions of this post were published in previous years by Luke Adams and Chuck Myron.

Once the NBA trade deadline passes, the league’s buyout season unofficially begins. What exactly are buyouts, and how do they work? Today’s Hoops Rumors glossary entry will answer those questions. Let’s dive in…

What is a buyout?

Although the term “buyout” is often applied colloquially when any veteran is released after the trade deadline, it applies specifically to a player who gives up a portion of his salary to accommodate his release.

Rather than waiving a player outright, a team will negotiate the terms of the player’s release. Then, once the player clears waivers, his guaranteed salary with his previous team will be reduced or eliminated altogether.

So far this season, we’ve seen three point guards – Ricky Rubio, Kyle Lowry, and Delon Wright – and big man Daniel Theis agree to buyouts, surrendering a portion of the guaranteed money left on their respective contracts.

What’s the motivation for a buyout?

The most common form of buyout involves a veteran player on a non-contending team being granted his release during the final year of his contract to join a playoff club down the stretch.

It typically happens after the trade deadline because by that point there’s no other way for a player to change teams. It’s even more frequent if the player was traded at the deadline for salary-matching purposes to a team that doesn’t view him as part of its plans.

Lowry and Wright each fit this bill. The Hornets and Wizards aren’t going to make the playoffs this season and are more focused on developing their young players. Buyouts for those two veterans gave them a chance to join teams with grander short-term aspirations in Philadelphia and Miami, respectively.

For Theis, the motivating factor for pursuing a buyout was playing time — he was buried on the depth chart with the Pacers, prompting him to agree to a buyout and join another playoff team with whom he’d have a larger role.

For the player, the motivating factor is generally the desire to play for a winning team rather than a chance to earn the most money possible. Many players who are bought out give up roughly the amount of money they’ll make on new prorated minimum-salary contracts, meaning they don’t necessarily come out ahead financially — they just get a chance to play in the postseason before returning to free agency in the summer.

As for the team, there’s little downside to letting a veteran go, since the player is usually in the final year of his contract and the club completing the buyout is rarely in contention for a playoff spot. Buying out that veteran can save the team some money, earn some goodwill with a player and an agent, and open up a roster spot and/or minutes for a younger player to take over.

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