2015/16 Salary Commitments: Lakers
With the NBA trade deadline passed, teams are focusing on locking down playoff spots or vying for a better chance in the draft lottery. Outside of the players who are added on 10-day deals, or those lucky enough to turn those auditions into long-term contracts, teams’ rosters are relatively set for the remainder of the season.
We at Hoops Rumors are in the process of taking a look ahead at each franchise’s salary cap situation heading into the summer, and the free agent frenzy that occurs every offseason. While the exact amount of the 2015/16 salary cap won’t be announced until July, the cap is projected to come in somewhere around $67.4MM, with the luxury tax threshold projected at approximately $81MM. This year’s $63.065MM cap represented an increase of 7.7% over 2013/14, which was well above the league’s projected annual increase of 4.5%.
We’ll continue onward by taking a look at the Lakers’ cap outlook for 2015/16…
Here are the players with guaranteed contracts:
- Kobe Bryant — $25MM
- Ryan Kelly — $1,724,250
- Julius Randle — $3,132,240
- Nick Young — $5,219,169
Here are the players with non-guaranteed contracts:
- Tarik Black — $845,059
- Jordan Clarkson — $845,059
- Robert Sacre — $981,348
Players with options:
- Ed Davis (Player Option) — $1,100,602
- Jordan Hill (Team Option) — $9MM
The Lakers’ Cap Summary for 2015/16:
- Guaranteed Salary: $35,075,659
- Options/Non-Guaranteed Salary: $12,772,068
- Total: $47,847,727
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
And-Ones: Mudiay, Thomas, Orton
Goran Dragic was a bit shocked that the Suns dealt his former teammate Isaiah Thomas to the Celtics at this season’s trade deadline, Ben Rohrbach of WEEI 93.7 FM writes. “If I’m honest, I was a little bit surprised, especially because I asked for the trade,” said Dragic. “But that’s how the NBA goes. It’s a business. Unfortunately, we had three point guards at the same position and only one ball, so it’s kind of hard to satisfy everybody.”
Presumably, Dragic was talking about his request that the Suns trade him, as they ultimately did when they sent him to the Heat, rather than suggesting that he asked the Suns to trade Thomas, though that’s not entirely clear. Here’s more from around the league:
- Metta World Peace‘s deal for the remainder of the season with Italy’s Pallacanestro Cantù is worth approximately $40K plus bonuses, Emiliano Carchia of Sportando reports.
- Projected 2015 lottery pick Emmanuel Mudiay has parted ways with agent Raymond Brothers, Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress reports (Twitter link). The guard will now be represented by Jason Martin and Dwon Clifton of Rival Sports Group, Givony adds. Mudiay is currently the No. 3 ranked prospect according to DraftExpress and ESPN.com.
- Daniel Orton, who appeared in 22 contest for the Sixers during the 2013/14 campaign, doesn’t look back at his time in Philadelphia fondly, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes. Orton discussed what it was like to go from the Thunder organization to the Sixers’, saying, “Leaving the Thunder, you see the greater side of the NBA. I went into Philly and a situation where it was the total opposite. You got a team just trying to rebuild basically from scratch and blowing up anytime you had something going good. So you definitely learn the business side of it.” Orton has played in China and the Philippines this season after attending training camp with the Wizards.
Western Notes: Anderson, Douglas, Barron
Ryan Anderson, who has been out of action since February with an MCL sprain in his right knee, could be making his return for the Pelicans next week, John Reid of The Times Picayune writes. ”We’re progressing each day and continue to ramp up to be ready,” Anderson said. ”We’ll do a little more on the court. There is a mental aspect where I got to get over the fact that my knee is stronger and OK. There is still some strengthening I need to build up. But we’re doing everything we can and it is frustrating and it’s tough being out.” In 52 games this season the big man has averaged 14.6 points and 5.1 rebounds in 28.6 minutes per night.
Here’s more out of the Western Conference:
- Earl Barron‘s deal with the Suns for the rest of the season is indeed just that, without any extra years tacked on, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
- Jordan Hamilton‘s latest Clippers contract is a two-year arrangement with non-guaranteed salary for next season, Pincus tweets.
- The Pelicans tacked a non-guaranteed minimum salary for next season onto their deal with Toney Douglas, Pincus relays (Twitter link). His 2015/16 pay becomes guaranteed if he remains under contract through August 1st, as Pincus shows on the Basketball Insiders Pelicans salary page.
- Bryce Cotton‘s multiyear deal with the Jazz covers both 2015/16 and 2016/17 with non-guaranteed salaries, as Pincus also reports (Twitter link).
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Jazz Ink Chris Johnson To Multiyear Deal
7:01pm: The deal is official, the team announced. The signing is a multiyear contract, though the exact length has not been announced by the Jazz.
6:32pm: The Jazz intend to ink Chris Johnson for the remainder of the season, Shams Charania of RealGM reports (Twitter link). Johnson’s second 10-day deal with the Bucks expired today and the Milwaukee chose not to sign the forward for the remainder of this campaign. Utah currently has 14 players on its roster, including Jack Cooley, who was signed to a multiyear deal earlier today. The team has waived Ian Clark to accommodate the addition of Johnson. The player was with Utah earlier this season on a single 10-day deal, appearing in two contests.
Milwaukee coach Jason Kidd says the team has no plans to fill Johnson’s vacant roster spot for the time being, Charles F. Gardner of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets. The 24-year-old forward appeared in eight contests for Milwaukee, averaging 3.9 points and 1.4 rebounds in 16.0 minutes per game.
Johnson went undrafted out of Dayton back in 2012. He has appeared in a total of 67 NBA games for the Bucks, Grizzlies, Celtics, Sixers, and Jazz. Johnson’s career stats are 5.6 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 0.7 assists. His slash line is .391/.325/.836.
Clark, 24, was earning $816,482 for the year, which Utah will be on the hook for the remainder of. His contract was set to expire at season’s end. The guard appeared in 23 contests for the Jazz this season, averaging 1.9 points in 7.0 minutes per game.
2015/16 Salary Commitments: Clippers
With the NBA trade deadline passed, teams are focusing on locking down playoff spots or vying for a better chance in the draft lottery. Outside of the players who are added on 10-day deals, or those lucky enough to turn those auditions into long-term contracts, teams’ rosters are relatively set for the remainder of the season.
We at Hoops Rumors are in the process of taking a look ahead at each franchise’s salary cap situation heading into the summer, and the free agent frenzy that occurs every offseason. While the exact amount of the 2015/16 salary cap won’t be announced until July, the cap is projected to come in somewhere around $67.4MM, with the luxury tax threshold projected at approximately $81MM. This year’s $63.065MM cap represented an increase of 7.7% over 2013/14, which was well above the league’s projected annual increase of 4.5%.
We’ll continue onward by taking a look at the Clippers’ cap outlook for 2015/16…
Here are the players with guaranteed contracts:
- Carlos Delfino (Stretch Provision) — $650K
- Jordan Farmar (Stretch Provision) — $510,922
- Blake Griffin — $18,907,725
- Spencer Hawes — $5,543,725
- Chris Paul — $21,468,696
- Miroslav Raduljica (Stretch Provision) — $252,042
- J.J. Redick — $7,085,000
- C.J. Wilcox — $1,159,680
Here are the players with non-guaranteed contracts:
- Matt Barnes — $3,542,500 ($1MM Guaranteed)
- Jamal Crawford — $5,675,000 ($1.5MM Guaranteed)
- Jordan Hamilton — $1,015,421
Players with options:
- None
The Clippers’ Cap Summary for 2015/16:
- Guaranteed Salary: $58,077,790
- Options/Non-Guaranteed Salary: $7,732,921
- Total: $65,810,711
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Southeast Notes: O’Quinn, Beasley, Payton
Kyle O’Quinn‘s future is up in the air as his minutes continue to decrease with the Magic, Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel writes. The big man has spent his entire three year career in Orlando, so he doesn’t know what the free agent process will hold for him, Robbins adds. “It’s my first free agency, so I really don’t know what to expect, to be honest,” O’Quinn said. “My agent [Andy Miller], obviously, he’s been through free agency before with other players. He can give me his analysis and his assumption and his prediction as much as he wants, but I’m the one that has to go to bed at night not knowing where I’ll be next year.” O’Quinn will become an unrestricted free agent this summer if the Magic don’t make him a $1.2MM qualifying offer, or a restricted free agent if the Magic extend the qualifying offer.
Here’s more from the Southeast Division:
- Both Michael Beasley‘s and Henry Walker‘s deals with the Heat are two year, minimum salary arrangements, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter links). Beasley’s contract includes a team option for 2015/16 that needs to be decided on before July, Pincus notes.
- Walker’s deal includes partial guarantees of $100K if he is still on the Heat‘s roster after August 1st, $300K after November 3rd, and another $500K if Walker is still with Miami after December 1st, Pincus tweets.
- Cody Taylor of Basketball Insiders looked at Elfrid Payton‘s rookie season with the Magic and the point guard’s case to win the Rookie of the Year award. The 21-year-old Payton has appeared in 73 games this season, including 54 as a starter. He is averaging 8.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 6.2 assists in 29.5 minutes per contest.
The Beat: Dan Woike On The Clippers
Nobody knows NBA teams better than beat writers, save for those who draw paychecks with an NBA owner’s signature on them. The reporters who are with the teams they cover every day gain an intimate knowledge of the players, coaches and executives they write about and develop sources who help them break news and stay on top of rumors.
We at Hoops Rumors will be chatting with beat writers from around the league and sharing their responses to give you a better perspective on how and why teams make some of their most significant moves. We’ll tip off the series with Dan Woike of the Orange County Register, who covers the Clippers. You can follow Dan on Twitter at @DanWoikeSports and click here to check out his stories for the Register.
Hoops Rumors: How is Doc Rivers handling the dual role of coach and executive? How heavily does he lean on the other basketball operations execs, and has the dynamic evolved during his time there?
- Dan Woike: I think he still views himself as a coach first. He’s not taking time from his daily coaching duties to review scouting reports from D-League games or draft candidates. His priority is the team he has today. I think he leans on guys like [GM] Dave Wohl to handle that stuff for him. Like any job, I think he’ll get better handling the two roles. What’s interesting to me is how, at times, they should pull him in different directions. As a coach, his priority has to be to win now. But as an executive, you have to be trying to figure out how to win in five years. The great ones figure out ways to accomplish both, and I think that’s what he’s trying to do.
Hoops Rumors: What’s been the most substantial change around the organization since Steve Ballmer replaced Donald Sterling as owner?
- Dan Woike: There was always a sense that another shoe would drop with Donald Sterling, that he’d do or say something that would embarrass the organization. Now that he’s gone, there isn’t that worry. They show the owner on the scoreboard now and people cheer. They didn’t put Sterling up there because they knew how people would react. They’ve invested in things like 3-D court displays, analytics stuff for fans and better in-game promotions to better the fan experience. There’s still room to grow on that end, but people seem happier.
Hoops Rumors: It’s been really quiet on the Sterling front since Ballmer officially took over. Do you get the sense that everyone there, players included, has put Sterling behind them?
- Dan Woike: Players were ready to move on as soon as he was banned for life. The sale cemented that. They don’t spend a lot of time thinking about him, I can promise.
Hoops Rumors: Was there any hesitancy at all among the players when it became clear the team was in talks to trade for Austin Rivers? How has Doc’s son been received by his teammates?
- Dan Woike: I talked to some former Clipper players at that time, and they expressed some concerns about how a team would handle something like this. Would players still be free to vent their frustrations? Would they need to watch what they said? I think everyone involved worked hard to make it clear that it wouldn’t be an issue, and the fact Austin has come in with a good attitude and a willingness to play defense, I think it’s helped. The fact that they’re winning certainly doesn’t hurt, either.
Hoops Rumors: DeAndre Jordan spoke about this summer’s free agency recently and has done so from time to time. Is there any sense of anxiety around the rest of the team when he brings that up?
- Dan Woike: I think it’s on DJ to decide what he wants to do. The Clippers have been open and clear about their intents. Doc Rivers has said they’ll do anything they can to keep him. The question becomes, does DJ want to stay? I think they know there’s not much more they can do to convince him than what they’ve already done.
Hoops Rumors: Do you think that Doc would still make the Eric Bledsoe/J.J. Redick deal if he had a chance to do that 2013 offseason over again?
- Dan Woike: This is a great question. At the time, people really liked that trade because it seemed like they were adding two starters. Injuries kept Jared Dudley from becoming the player the Clippers hoped, but Redick has been such a key for their offense. Could the Clippers have just signed Redick outright without trading Bledsoe? I don’t know. Could they have maybe gotten a little more? They certainly could’ve used a young asset back in that deal to help them improve down the road. I think if they were faced with the exact same offer today, knowing how good Redick has been, they’d make the deal. Maybe. Haha.
Southeast Notes: Harris, Jefferson, Heat, Wittman
The Lakers, Knicks, Sixers and Hawks have been linked to soon-to-be restricted free agent Tobias Harris, but the belief is that the Magic would match just about any offer of less than $13MM a year, according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, who looks at Harris and other top free agents. It’s unclear whether those four non-Orlando teams are interested, Harris is interested in them, or both, though the Knicks are reportedly planning a pursuit amid conflicting reports about whether he’s eager to play for them. Kyler wrote earlier this month that there’s a sense that the Sixers will make a play for Harris, too. Here’s more from around the Southeast Division:
- It’s likely that Al Jefferson will turn down his $13.5MM player option for next season, Kyler writes in the same piece, adding that while the belief is that he’d like to remain with the Hornets, there’s also a sense that the 30-year-old will go to the highest bidder in free agency.
- Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel wonders whether the Heat will sign a big man to help a thin frontcourt rotation in the wake of Hassan Whiteside‘s injury. Whiteside is out at least a few more days with a hand laceration that will probably take two weeks to heal completely, as Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post relays. The Heat were reportedly among the teams with interest in signing JaVale McGee earlier this month.
- Coaches rarely last in the NBA, but SB Nation’s Tom Ziller argues that the Wizards have been too patient with Randy Wittman.
Jazz Sign Jack Cooley To Multiyear Deal
The Jazz have signed big man Jack Cooley to a deal that covers the rest of the season and beyond, the team announced. Cooley’s second 10-day contract with the team expired overnight. It’s not immediately clear whether the former Notre Dame standout’s latest deal includes any guaranteed salary beyond this season, or just how many years it covers.
Cooley has seen a total of just 26 minutes with the Jazz across six games this season, though he also spent time with the team during the preseason, with the Jazz floating him a $65K partial guarantee that he took with him even though Utah cut him before opening night. The 23-year-old, who turns 24 next month, spent most of 2014/15 with Utah’s D-League affiliate. The Jazz waited a while to sign him to his second 10-day deal after his first one expired, using the roster spot to sign Jerrelle Benimon to a 10-day pact of his own in between, as I noted Wednesday.
The new deal with Cooley, an Adam Pensack client, gives Utah 15 players signed through at least the end of the season, which limits the team’s flexibility to make another move in the season’s final three weeks. He’s the third Jazz player this year to go from a 10-day contract to a longer-term arrangement, as our 10-Day Contract Tracker shows.
Mavs Want New Deal With Amar’e Stoudemire
Mark Cuban signaled that he’d like to keep Amar’e Stoudemire beyond the rest-of-season deal he signed with the team following his buyout with the Knicks, as Cuban told reporters, including Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News and Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. Stoudemire’s choice of the Mavs over the Suns, a team in which he had an “extremely high” level of interest in joining, and other suitors indicates that he’ll again consider signing with Dallas this summer, MacMahon figures, though it doesn’t appear an open-and-shut case. Stoudemire called the summer ahead a chance for him to choose a team that has confidence in him and understands that he’s eager to play at a high level for years to come, as Sefko relays, and MacMahon believes he’ll prioritize winning, playing time, and money.
“I love Amar’e — love, love, love the guy,” Cuban said. “There’s not enough superlatives. He’s just a great guy on the court and off. I just love his physicality. He just wants to win and is a great guy.”
Cuban makes a habit of saying he wants to keep his teams intact only to shuffle the roster, Sefko points out. Still, the owner isn’t upset about Stoudemire’s criticism of his new teammates, citing the 13-year veteran’s experience as reason to let him speak his mind, Sefko notes. Dallas will probably offer Stoudemire a “significant” portion of the mid-level exception this summer, MacMahon believes. The non-taxpayer’s mid-level will be $5.464MM and the taxpayer’s amount will be $3.376MM, though if the Mavs dip below the cap, they’ll instead have the $2.814MM room exception.
MacMahon envisions Stoudemire asking for a multiyear deal, which jibes with the 32-year-old’s intent to maintain his performance well into the future. Stoudemire said he believes he can play another five or six years if he keeps his body in tune, as Sefko and MacMahon relay. The strong reputation of Mavs athletic trainer Casey Smith helped persuade the big man to sign with Dallas, as MacMahon wrote last month, but Phoenix’s training staff is as well-regarded as any in sports, and Stoudemire would reportedly welcome a return to the Suns this summer. In any case, Stoudemire said “there’s no way” he’s retiring this summer, according to Sefko.
Reports linked Stoudemire to the Blazers, Grizzlies, Spurs, Clippers, Raptors and Warriors while he was considering where he would play following his Knicks buyout, and that suggests there will be plenty of teams in the mix for him again this summer. In any case, he assuredly won’t be making the salary of almost $20.911MM the Knicks are shelling out for him this year, an amount that was to have been even greater before he gave up $2.5MM in the buyout. His deal with the Mavs gives him a prorated minimum salary, and Dallas would have to use cap room or an exception to give him more than 120% of the minimum next season, since they have only Non-Bird rights to him. The Mavs have about $28MM in guaranteed salary for next season, but several members of the team are set to hit free agency.