Week In Review: 11/25/13 – 12/1/13
Iman Shumpert has dominated Hoops Rumors for the last month, but we could have another notable name on the trade block. The Cavs are said to be shopping guard Dion Waiters as the team struggles early on in the season. Shumpert, Luol Deng, and Evan Turner are said to be among the club’s targets. More from the week that was..
- Kobe Bryant and the Lakers agreed to a two-year, $48MM extension. The deal will ensure that the injured superstar remains the highest paid player in the NBA through 2015/16.
- It’s official: Derrick Rose is done for the year.
- The Kings acquired Derrick Williams from the T’Wolves for Luc Mbah a Moute. Sacramento might not be done yet.
- The Clippers may have competition for Lamar Odom. It was previously reported that the Clippers are the only club Odom will play for.
- The Cavs kicked the tires on Omer Asik at some point.
- The Rockets want two first rounders for Asik. A rival GM described the Rockets’ asking price for the center as “delusional.” I couldn’t agree more.
- Waiters may be available, but don’t expect to see him in a Knicks uniform.
- League execs expect the Mavs to go after Chris Bosh next summer.
- The Lakers said goodbye to Elias Harris.
- Metta World Peace seriously considered the Clippers after he was amenstied.
- LaMarcus Aldridge appears to be content in Portland.
- Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is confident Dirk Nowitzki won’t seek too much money from the team in contract negotiations this summer. Dirk won’t ink an in-season extension like Kobe.
- Former Pelicans power forward Arinze Onuaku signed with the D-League’s Canton Charge.
- Kendall Marshall is headed to the D-League.
- Kobe defended himself against criticism of his lucrative new contract. Meanwhile, he says the two-year pact will “probably” be his last deal.
- Jabari Parker is giving some thought to staying at Duke for another season to team up with former AAU teammate Jahlil Okafor, but it’s not likely.
Rockets Want For Two First Rounders For Asik
We’ve heard that the Rockets’ asking price for center Omer Asik is high, but Houston may be looking for more than anyone expected. General Manager Daryl Morey & Co. are seeking two first-round selections in exchange for the disgruntled big man, according to Alan Hahn of MSG Network (Sulia link).
Of course, that request makes it nearly impossible for the Knicks to land Asik as they cannot trade a first-round pick in any draft before 2018. The Blazers have engaged the Rockets in talks for Asik, but the Bulls apparently aren’t interested in breaking the bank for him. The Pelicans and Hawks are also among the clubs that could have interest.
Southwest Notes: Hollins, Roberts, Spurs
Former Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins reportedly spoke with Pistons coach Maurice Cheeks about joining his staff as assistant, and Hollins confirms to Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com that he was offered the job. He turned it down, however, intent on seeking out another NBA head coaching gig. Here’s more out of the Southwest Division..
- Pelicans point guard Brian Roberts is on a fully guaranteed minimum-salary contract, but he’s fallen out of the rotation, and that might put his roster spot in jeopardy, as Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune examines.
- The Spurs announced that they have assigned center Aron Baynes and guard Nando De Colo to the D-League’s Austin Toros. Baynes has appeared in ten games for the Spurs this season, averaging 1.5 points and 2.2 rebounds in 8.1 minutes. De Colo has seen action in six contests this season for the Silver and Black, averaging 2.7 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 9.0 minutes. To keep track of all of this year’s D-League assignments, check out Hoops Rumors’ running list.
- Jeff McDonald of the Express News (on Twitter) wouldn’t be surprised to see Baynes and De Colo back in San Antonio tomorrow.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Clippers Unlikely To Sign Lamar Odom This Week
The Clippers got a bad piece of news today when they learned guard J.J. Redick will be sidelined six-to-eight weeks with a fracture in the small bone (pisiform) of his right hand and a tear of his right ulnar collateral ligament (UCL). Despite that setback, the Clippers are unlikely to sign Lamar Odom before their long road trip ends in mid-December, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (on Twitter).
A report last month indicated that Odom only wanted to sign with the Clippers, but last week, coach Doc Rivers indicated that there was competition for his services. For what it’s worth, Rivers says he’s more comfortable with the idea of signing the 14-year veteran after speaking with Phil Jackson and Vinny Del Negro, both of whom have coached Odom.
Trade Kickers
The collective bargaining agreement limits the flexibility teams have to sweeten their offers to free agents. Trade kickers are one of the few tools that clubs have at their disposal, and they’re often written into contracts. Formally known as trade bonuses, they represent extra cash that players receive in case their teams trade them.
One rule regarding trade kickers changed in the 2011 CBA. For contracts signed since the new CBA took effect, the bonus must be paid by the team that trades the player, rather than the acquiring team. Sometimes the kicker is a fixed amount, but usually it’s based on a percentage of the remaining value of the contract. So, a player who has a 10% trade kicker is given 10% of the amount of money he’s yet to collect on his deal.
The value of a trade kicker declines each passing day during the season, since the amount the player gets for the current year of his deal is prorated. In a hypothetical scenario, let’s say the Cavaliers trade Anderson Varejao today. There are 137 days left in the 170-day season, including today. The commensurate amount left on Varejao’s $9,036,364 salary this year is $7,282,246. Added to the $4MM in guaranteed salary he’s set to make next season, Varejao’s 5% trade kicker would net him an extra $564,112.
Regardless of whether the trade kicker is set at a fixed amount or a percentage, the bonus can’t exceed 15% of the remaining value of the contract. That means that if a set amount of $1MM would equal more than 15% of what the player is owed, the kicker would pay out less than $1MM in the event of a trade.
Trade kickers don’t do much to help the most well-compensated players. The bonus can’t push a player’s salary above the maximum salary, even if the player is already making more than the max. Pau Gasol has a 15% kicker in his deal, but his $19,285,850 salary this season is already more than the $19,181,750 maximum for a player with 10 or more years of experience, as he has. That means the trade kicker is void, and Gasol wouldn’t receive any extra money if the Lakers dealt him away.
Similarly, players on rookie-scale contracts can’t make more than 120% of the scale amount, so if a first-round pick negotiates a trade kicker into his rookie deal, he can’t wind up making more than 120% of the value assigned to his draft slot. This rarely happens, though, since first-round picks generally wind up with contracts worth 120% of the slot value anyway.
The amount of the kicker that’s applied to a team’s cap is spread out equally over the remaining years of the contract. So, if a player with two seasons left on his deal were due a kicker worth $1M, the team obligated to pay it would take a cap hit worth $500K in both of those seasons, regardless of whether the player’s salary is different in each of the two years left on the deal.
However, if a player has years on the deal that are partially guaranteed or non-guaranteed, the cap hit is apportioned based on the guaranteed money in the deal, excluding all option years. So, if a two-year contract is fully guaranteed this year and 50% guaranteed next season, two-thirds of the kicker would apply to this year’s cap and one-third of it would be on next year’s cap. If the contract is non-guaranteed next season, the entire trade kicker would hit this year’s cap.
Other notes on trade kickers:
- Player and team option years don’t count toward the value of a kicker, unless the option has already been exercised.
- Years following early-termination options do count toward how much the player receives via the kicker, even though they don’t count toward the team’s cap hit.
- Incentive clauses don’t figure into the value of a kicker, which is calculated using a player’s base compensation only.
- Players may waive any amount up to the full value of the trade kicker to facilitate a swap, if they wish. However, players can’t change the amount of their trade kickers to allow a deal that would otherwise put a hard-capped team over the tax apron, even if everyone involved in the deal wants that to happen. Such a trade is simply illegal.
- For salary-matching purposes in trades, the kicker counts for the team absorbing the player, but not for the team that trades him away.
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 ShamSports were used in the creation of this post.
This post was initially published on December 9th, 2012.
Eastern Rumors: Marquis Teague, Beasley, Bosh
The Bulls and Heat were perhaps the strongest Eastern Conference title contenders to start the season, but they’ve taken divergent paths, thanks to Derrick Rose‘s injury. The Bulls probably won’t win the title this year, while the Heat appear only to have the Pacers in their way as they try for their fourth straight conference title. Here’s more from Chicago and Miami:
- There were four teams interested in trading for Marquis Teague at the start of the season, according to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. The Wolves and Jazz were reportedly two of them, but it’s not clear who the other teams were or if any clubs maintain their interest. The Bulls have hoped that Teague would improve this year, with Kirk Hinrich set to hit free agency.
- Michael Beasley‘s has assumed a “significant” role on the Heat, coach Erik Spoelstra says. It’s Spoelstra’s strongest endorsement of Beasley this year, observes Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald, who examines how the team’s minimum-salary gamble is paying dividends so far. Beasley’s deal remains non-guaranteed.
- The Heat might be able to find a better bargain on the free agent market in the summer, but Chris Bosh‘s slow start has done nothing to affect his value to the Heat this season, as Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel writes in his mailbag column.
Trade Candidate: Jameer Nelson
Dwight Howard is long gone from Orlando, but the hangover from the team’s run to the Finals in 2009 remains. GM Rob Hennigan took an aggressive step toward complete overhaul of the roster a few months after he took the job last summer with the Howard trade, but he’s otherwise embarked on a slow rebuild. One of his most curious moves was re-signing Jameer Nelson in the summer of 2012 to a three-year, $25.2MM contract.
The deal came before the Howard trade, so it’s possible that Hennigan brought Nelson back with aspirations of remaining a title contender. It seems more plausible that the Magic simply wanted him around to mentor their young players, since they’re fond of the point guard’s off-court leadership. Regardless, the Magic are stuck with another veteran they’d like to swap for a younger player and Nelson, who turned down a lucrative player option to sign his three-year deal in the hopes he wouldn’t become a trade candidate, finds himself in that very position.
Nelson wants to remain with the Magic for the rest of his career, but he also wants to have a significant role. He has reportedly been upset with his lack of fourth-quarter playing time this season, though his amount of minutes per game is consistent with the level he’s seen ever since taking over as the Magic’s starting point guard back in 2005/06. Orlando has no in-house candidates to replace him in that role, barring its experiment with Victor Oladipo as a point guard, so it’s not as if his presence in the lineup impedes the development of a younger player.
The Magic instead hope to acquire a prospect in return for Nelson, as they’re reportedly seeking a first-round pick in trade talks involving him. That won’t be an easy ransom to extract, considering how highly NBA executives have come to value first-rounders, especially for the prized class of 2014. Nelson’s contract wouldn’t do much to clog another team’s cap beyond this season, since his $8MM salary for next year is only guaranteed for $2MM, but expiring deals aren’t the trade chips they used to be. The shorter contracts brought about by the latest collective bargaining agreement allow more teams to clear cap room every summer without having to give up assets to acquire deals like Nelson’s.
His performance this season could depress his value even further. His PER is at a career-low 12.0, thanks in large measure to his 37.3% shooting, also the worst mark of his career. His three-point shot is off, and he’s also making less than 50% of his shots at the rim for the first time, per NBA.com. It’s just a month into the season, so there’s a chance those numbers could improve over time. Still, it’s been seven years since his assists-to-turnover ratio, currently at 6.1-to-2.9, has been as low as it is, so his struggles aren’t confined to his shot.
The Magic give up nearly seven more points per 100 possessions when he’s on the floor compared to when he’s on the bench, according to NBA.com. That’s an astoudingly high number, but it’s not nearly as impressive as the nine point jump in points per 100 possessions Orlando experiences when Nelson is playing. The net effect is that the team has been better off when Nelson is in the lineup, but it should be, considering that E’Twaun Moore, Ronnie Price and Oladipo, a rookie playing out of position, are his backups.
Nelson is nursing a sprained foot, but that minor injury shouldn’t have any significant impact on his trade value. The Magic don’t appear to be in a hurry to get a deal done, and they shouldn’t be, considering his poor start. Hennigan has higher priorities for now as he oversees a roster with other misplaced veterans like Nelson. Arron Afflalo and Glen Davis are trade candidates as well, and the Magic have a little more than a month left to find a taker for Hedo Turkoglu before they’d have to eat the $6MM guarantee on his contract.
Perhaps an another Eastern Conference team sensing an opportunity to steal a high playoff seed among a weak field of contenders will grab Nelson at the trade deadline. Maybe an injury to a point guard on a team with legitimate title hopes prompts a call to Hennigan. Other teams will likely drive the market for Nelson, so the Magic would be wise to see what the market bears and choose the best offer come February.
I don’t think any team will be desperate enough to give up a first-rounder, unless it’s one that’s destined to fall at the very end of the round, but perhaps Hennigan will find an intriguing young player who hasn’t had the chance for much playing time, as he did with Tobias Harris last year. Nelson’s partially guaranteed contract for next year means the Magic probably won’t have to keep him around much longer if they don’t want to, even if they can’t find a trade partner. His leadership ability means he holds value to the Magic’s rebuilding project, so there’s really no need to trade Nelson short of an offer that’s clearly in Orlando’s favor.
Atlantic Notes: Knicks, Garnett, Rondo, Young
The Celtics are just 7-12, but they could have moved into first place in the Atlantic Division with a win last night. Instead, they lost to the Bucks, the worst team in the woeful Eastern Conference. That leaves the Raptors on top of the Atlantic at 6-9. Here’s more on the four teams chasing Toronto:
- Knicks management has scolded coach Mike Woodson for his public criticism of trade candidate Iman Shumpert, notes Marc Berman of the New York Post.
- Kevin Garnett looked all of his 37 years at the start of the season, but more recently he’s shown why the Nets traded for him this summer, fellow Post scribe Tim Bontemps observes.
- Rajon Rondo is a long way from the end of his playing career, but he’s spoken to Brad Stevens about getting involved in coaching some day, as Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald examines.
- In a piece for Philly.com, SB Nation’s Michael Levin tries to peg Thaddeus Young‘s trade value, opining that his contract won’t discourage other teams from taking him on. Young’s deal runs through 2015/16 and has $28.2MM left on it, including this year.