Cuban: Losing Is Mavs’ ‘Best Option’ For Rest Of Season
With his team in a rebuilding phase, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has addressed the topic of tanking frequently during the last two seasons, and did so again during a recent appearance on Julius Erving’s House Call with Dr. J podcast. As detailed by The Dallas Morning News, Cuban admitted that he recently told the Mavs it would be in the team’s best long-term interest to keep piling up losses this season.
“I’m probably not supposed to say this, but I just had dinner with a bunch of our guys the other night and here we are, you know, we weren’t competing for the playoffs. I was like, ‘Look, losing is our best option,'” Cuban said. “[Commissioner] Adam [Silver] would hate hearing that, but I at least sat down and I explained it to them. And I explained what our plans were going to be this summer, that we’re not going to tank again, this was, like, a year-and-a-half tanking and that was too brutal for me. But being transparent, I think that’s the key to being kind of a players owner and having stability.”
One of six teams with an NBA-low 18 wins so far this season, the Mavericks are out of the playoff hunt and are currently engaged in a race for lottery positioning. A brief hot streak during the season’s final two months could ultimately drop Dallas by several spots in this year’s draft and cost the club a chance at a franchise player, so it makes sense that Cuban would make the case for the merits of losing.
Still, the Mavericks owner has indicated in the past that the idea of tanking leaves a bad taste in his mouth. After declaring early in the 2016/17 season that the Mavs had no interest in tanking, Cuban admitted at season’s end that his club had tanked down the stretch, once it was clear the playoffs were out of reach.
After the Mavs got off to a 2-10 start this season, Cuban expressed a similar sentiment, adamantly insisting that they wouldn’t tank — at least until they were out of contention for the postseason. At 18-40, Dallas hasn’t technically been eliminated yet, but the team has no real chance to catch the eighth-seeded Pelicans (31-26). So, while the players themselves won’t try to lose, we should expect to see the Mavs playing their veterans less and their youngsters more in the coming weeks.
The NBA will implement changes to the draft lottery in 2019 that will reduce the odds of the league’s three worst teams landing a top-three pick. In the new format, the NBA’s worst team will have a 14% chance to land the No. 1 pick, while the sixth-worst team will have a 9% chance. Under the current format, those odds are 25% and 6.3% respectively, so it will be interesting to see how that impacts the race to the bottom for the Mavs and the NBA’s other cellar-dwellers this spring.
Pacific Notes: Jordan, LeBron, Harris, Cauley-Stein
The lack of teams with ample salary-cap space this summer will present a tough choice for Clippers center DeAndre Jordan, as Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer explains. Jordan has a player option of $24.1MM this summer and multiple league executives told O’Connor he probably wouldn’t receive an annual salary approaching that on the open market. Some of the teams that will have cap room, such as the Nets, Hawks and Sixers, aren’t looking to add a veteran center at a high salary, O’Connor continues. It’s plausible that Jordan will opt in and take his chances on the open market in 2019, O’Connor adds.
Also around the Pacific Division:
- The lack of elite, established players on their current rosters will make it tough sell for the Lakers and Clippers to land LeBron James this summer, Marc Spears of The Undefeated opines. The Lakers could sign two major free agents this summer, but the Clippers don’t have that much cap room, Spears notes. The Clippers may have hurt their cause to sign a top free agent by trading away Blake Griffin in the first year of his long-term contract, Spears adds.
- Forward Tobias Harris has been traded three times during his career and he’s taken the latest one in stride, as he told Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders. Harris was the top player acquired by the Clippers in the Griffin blockbuster. “My first trade from Milwaukee to Orlando was a situation where I just wanted to prove myself to the league,” Harris said. “When I was traded from Orlando to Detroit, it was a situation where I wanted to help the team get to the playoffs, and that’s similar to this one here, too.”
- Willie Cauley-Stein establishing his market value is among the storylines surrounding the Kings the remainder of the season, according to James Ham of NBCSports.com. Cauley-Stein has to emerge as the defensive stopper he was in college and improve his rebounding to earn an extension this offseason, Ham continues. The development of the De’Aaron Fox–Bogdan Bogdanovic backcourt and the need for Buddy Hield to become a playmaker are some of the other things to watch, Ham adds.
Eastern Rumors: Afflalo, Thompson, Johnson, Wizards
Arron Afflalo could be a target for the Raptors if he reaches a buyout agreement with the Magic, Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports tweets. Afflalo played for the Nuggets when Raptors president Masai Ujiri was there, while current Magic president Jeff Weltman is Toronto’s former GM, Lewenberg notes. The career 38.6% 3-point shooter would give the Raptors some insurance at the wing, Lewenberg adds. Afflalo has appeared in 43 games with the Magic, averaging 3.2 PPG in 12.9 MPG. He signed with Orlando last summer on a one-year, veteran’s minimum deal.
In other developments around the Eastern Conference:
- The Knicks are an unlikely destination for Klay Thompson during free agency in 2019, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News relays though an Adrian Wojnarowski podcast. The Warriors shooting guard wants to continue to play in a warm weather city, he told Wojnarowski. “It’d be weird leaving the Bay Area. I believe I’m going to be there for a very long time.,” he said. “I can say that truthfully. But a lot can happen the next two years. It’s going to be hard to leave California when it’s sunny like this.”
- The Heat are expected to seek offers for combo guard Tyler Johnson as early as this summer but his contract provisions will make that difficult, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald explains. Johnson will make $19.2MM in each of the final two years of the backloaded deal, plus Miami would have to pay a $3.2MM trade kicker, Jackson continues. Any team trading for Johnson this offseason would have to take on the additional $1.6MM cap hit in each of the next two seasons. Miami matched the Nets’ offer sheet for Johnson during the summer of 2016.
- The Wizards need to do a better job of communicating with each other to avoid locker room controversies, Chase Hughes of NBCSports.com writes. The team does not have any unresolvable issues, according to Hughes, but problems like the tension between John Wall and his teammates need to be addressed privately rather than through the media or social media channels, Hughes adds.
Knicks Interested In Signing Troy Williams
The Knicks are interested in signing forward Troy Williams, Ian Begley of ESPN tweets. They are one of several teams looking at the former Rockets forward and he’s expected to make a decision soon, Begley adds.
New York has an open roster spot, so it wouldn’t have to shed a contract to add Williams. He was the odd man out when Houston decided to add veteran swingman Joe Johnson during its stretch run.
Williams, 23, began his NBA career with the Grizzlies last season before being waived a little over a year ago. The 6’7” forward finished the 2016/17 campaign with the Rockets, then signed a new three-year contract with Houston but only the first year was fully guaranteed.
In 34 total NBA games, Williams has averaged 5.6 PPG and 2.1 RPG. He was placed on waivers on February 14th and officially became a free agent on February 16th, according to RealGM.com’s transactions list.
Central Notes: Oladipo, Pistons Rotation, Griffin
Victor Oladipo knew a breakout season was possible after speaking with Pacers GM Kevin Pritchard on the team’s private plane prior to his introductory press conference last summer, as Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated divulges in a feature story. Pritchard assured Oladipo that the club truly coveted his services, rather than just matching up salaries to facilitate the Paul George blockbuster with the Thunder. Indiana wanted to play faster this season. “This wasn’t a dump. We targeted you,” Pritchard told Oladipo, according to Jenkins. The All-Star shooting guard is averaging a career-high 24.4 PPG for the surprising Pacers. “It was the first time in my career I felt like a team really believed in me,” Oladipo told Jenkins. “I was just thinking, Don’t mess this up.”
In other nuggets involving the Central Division:
- Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy will likely go with a 10-man rotation once Reggie Jackson returns from his Grade 3 ankle sprain, according to Ansar Khan of MLive.com. Jackson would join a starting unit of Andre Drummond, Blake Griffin, Stanley Johnson and Reggie Bullock. Ish Smith would return to his usual role as leader of the second unit with center Eric Moreland and forwards Anthony Tolliver and James Ennis getting steady minutes, Khan speculates. Luke Kennard and Langston Galloway would split time as the backup shooting guard, Khan adds.
- Pistons owner Tom Gores invited Griffin and his business partners over to his California home immediately after the blockbuster deal with the Clippers, as Keith Langlois of Pistons.com details. Gores wanted to assure Griffin how badly the Pistons wanted him and address any concerns the five-time All-Star power forward might have, Langlois continues. The Pistons are 5-3 since Griffin joined their lineup. “We were very quickly on the same page with the same view of what we want to achieve and the approach to get there,” Gores told Langlois. “He’s definitely hit the ground running. It’s been great to see how his teammates, the whole organization and the fans have embraced him.”
Poll: Which Team Will Earn No. 1 Seed In West?
Before the All-Star break began last week, the Rockets won their 10th straight game while the Warriors lost for the fourth time in their last eight contests. Houston’s hot streak, combined with Golden State’s (relative) cold streak, moved the 44-13 Rockets into the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference by a half-game over the 44-14 Warriors.
It’s not the first time the Rockets have sat atop the West this season. Houston opened the season on a 25-4 run and had a leg up on Golden State until about Christmas Day. Now, Mike D’Antoni‘s squad has reclaimed the No. 1 seed.
The Rockets and Warriors have each been about as successful on the road as they’ve been at home, so the two teams may not go all-out down the stretch to claim the No. 1 seed. Still, with the Warriors looking to come out of the West for a fourth consecutive season, the Rockets appear to be the biggest threat to knock them off since Kevin Durant arrived in the Bay Area. If the Western Conference Finals come down to these two clubs, home-court advantage could be a factor.
No other Western Conference team is within nine games of either the Rockets or Warriors in the standings, so this looks like a two-team race, and we want to know what you think.
Will the Warriors, who haven’t lost more than 15 games in a regular season since 2013/14, finish the season on a hot streak and claim the No. 1 seed? Or will, the Rockets, who are 28-1 when James Harden, Chris Paul, and Clint Capela are all in their lineup, hang onto their lead in the West and grab the top spot heading into the postseason?
Vote below in our poll and jump into the comment section to share your thoughts — including whether or not home-court advantage will make a difference for these two clubs.
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
Pro Hockey Rumors: Your Source For NHL Trade Deadline Coverage
There’s just one week remaining until the February 26th NHL Trade Deadline, and our sister site Pro Hockey Rumors is the best place to stay up to date on the latest news. The Chicago Blackhawks started selling off their expiring contracts today—will it continue? Are the Anaheim Ducks a good fit for Thomas Vanek? Which prospects will the New York Rangers be able to acquire?
Visit Pro Hockey Rumors today and be sure to follow us @prohockeyrumors on Twitter!
Hoops Rumors Glossary: Gilbert Arenas Provision
Gilbert Arenas hasn’t played in the NBA since 2012, but his legacy lives on in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. The NBA introduced the Gilbert Arenas provision in the 2005 CBA as a way to help teams retain their restricted free agents who aren’t coming off standard rookie scale contracts.
While Arenas isn’t specifically named in the CBA, the rule colloquially known as the Arenas provision stems from his own restricted free agency in 2003. At the time, the Warriors only had Early Bird rights on Arenas, who signed an offer sheet with the Wizards starting at about $8.5MM. Because Golden State didn’t have $8.5MM in cap room and could only offer Arenas a first-year salary of about $4.9MM using the Early Bird exception, the Warriors were unable to match the offer sheet and lost Arenas to Washington.
The Arenas provision limits the first-year salary that rival suitors can offer restricted free agents who have only been in the league for one or two years. The starting salary for an offer sheet can’t exceed the amount of the non-taxpayer’s mid-level exception, which allows the player’s original team to use either the mid-level exception or the Early Bird exception to match it. Otherwise, a team without the necessary cap space would be powerless to keep its player, like the Warriors were with Arenas.
An offer sheet from another team can still have an average annual salary that exceeds the non-taxpayer’s mid-level, however. The annual raises are limited to 5% between years one and two, and 4.5% between years three and four, but a team can include a significant raise between the second and third years of the offer.
As long as the first two years of a team’s offer sheet are for the highest salary possible, the offer is fully guaranteed, and there are no incentives included, the third-year salary of the offer sheet can be worth up to what the player’s third-year maximum salary would have been if not for the Arenas restrictions.
Based on a projected $101MM cap for 2018/19, here’s the maximum offer sheet a first- or second-year RFA could receive this coming summer:
| Year | Salary | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 2017/18 | $8,567,770 | Value of non-taxpayer’s mid-level exception. |
| 2018/19 | $8,996,159 | 5% raise on first-year salary. |
| 2019/20 | $27,775,000 | Maximum third-year salary for a player with 1-2 years in NBA. |
| 2020/21 | $29,024,875 | 4.5% raise on third-year salary. |
| Total | $74,363,804 | Average annual salary of $18,590,951. |
In order to make the sort of offer outlined above, a team must have enough cap room to accommodate the average annual value of the contract. So a team with $19MM in cap space could extend this offer sheet to a first- or second-year RFA. But a team with only $15MM in cap space would have to reduce the third- and fourth-year salaries in its offer sheet to get the overall average salary of the offer down to $15MM per year.
The application of the Arenas provision is infrequent, since first- and second-year players who reach free agency rarely warrant such lucrative contract offers. First-round picks sign four-year rookie deals when they enter the NBA, so the Arenas provision generally applies to second-round picks or undrafted free agents whose first NBA contracts were only for one or two years.
One notable recent example of the Arenas provision at work was Tyler Johnson‘s restricted free agency in 2016. The Heat had Early Bird rights on Johnson, who had only been in the NBA for two seasons. The Nets attempted to pry him away with an aggressive offer sheet that featured salaries of $5,628,000, $5,881,260, $19,245,370, and $19,245,370. It wasn’t the maximum that Brooklyn could have offered Johnson, but the massive third-year raise was a tough pill for Miami to swallow.
Overall, the deal was worth $50MM for four years. If the Heat had declined to match it, the Nets would have flattened out those annual cap hits to $12.5MM per year, the average annual value of the deal. However, due to the Arenas provision, Miami was able to match Brooklyn’s offer sheet with the Early Bird exception, even though the Heat wouldn’t have been able to offer Johnson a four-year, $50MM contract using the Early Bird exception outright.
When a team matches an Arenas-provision offer sheet, it also has the option of flattening those cap charges. However, that option is only available if the team has the cap room necessary to accommodate the average annual value of the deal. Otherwise, the club has to keep the unbalanced cap charges on its books. That’s why Johnson’s cap hit for the Heat will jump from $5,881,260 this season to an eye-popping $19,245,370 in 2018/19.
This coming summer, there aren’t many restricted free agents who will be candidates for an Arenas-provision offer sheet. Top RFAs like Aaron Gordon and Clint Capela have four years of experience, so the rule won’t apply to them. Patrick McCaw looked like a potential Arenas-provision candidate coming into the season, but he has struggled and his value has declined. The best candidate for an Arenas-provision offer sheet may be Raptors guard Fred VanVleet, who has played a key role for Toronto’s excellent second unit. Still, I’d be pretty surprised if VanVleet gets an offer worth more than the standard non-taxpayer’s MLE.
Finally, just because a club is given the opportunity to use the Arenas provision to keep its restricted free agent doesn’t mean it will necessarily have the means. Here are a few situations in which the Arenas provision wouldn’t help a team keep its restricted free agent:
- If the team only had the taxpayer mid-level exception or room exception available, it would be unable to match an offer sheet for a Non-Bird free agent if the starting salary exceeded the taxpayer mid-level or room exception amount.
- A team would be unable to match an offer sheet for a Non-Bird free agent if it used its mid-level exception on another player, including another one of its own Non-Bird free agents. A team could use Early Bird rights to match if those rights are available, however.
- If the player is a Non-Bird or Early Bird free agent with three years of NBA experience, the Arenas provision would not apply — only players with one or two years in the league are eligible.
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 2012 and 2015 by Luke Adams and Chuck Myron.
Damjan Rudez To Play In Monaco
Former NBA forward Damjan Rudez has signed with AS Monaco Basket, a team that plays in LNB Pro A in France, the club announced today (via Twitter).
Rudez, 31, began his professional career in Europe, playing for a variety of clubs in Belgium, Slovenia, Spain, and his home country of Croatia before making the jump to the NBA in 2014. The 6’8″ forward appeared in 68 games for the Pacers during the 2014/15 season, averaging 4.8 PPG and shooting 40.6% on three-pointers in a part-time role for the club.
However, following his single season in Indiana, Rudez struggled to find regular minutes for the Timberwolves in 2015/16 and for the Magic in 2016/17. After being invited to camp with Orlando again this past fall, the veteran forward was cut from the Magic’s preseason roster, prompting him to head back overseas, where he signed with Spanish team Valencia Basket.
Rudez’ stint with Valencia was unspectacular — he averaged just 2.9 PPG in 21 total contests (10.3 MPG). Having signed a three-month contract with the club, Rudez was let go when that deal expired near the end of January.
NBA Players Weigh In On 2018 Free Agency
With a big offeason looming once the 2017/18 NBA regular season comes to an end, several ESPN writers spoke to NBA players to get their predictions on where they expect some of this summer’s top free agents to land. In total, 48 players weighed in. Here are some highlights from the results of ESPN’s survey:
- LeBron James is considered likely to return to the Cavaliers, with 59% of the respondents picking Cleveland as his free agency destination, while 22% chose the Lakers. “He won’t leave after all the moves they made last week,” one Eastern Conference forward said of LeBron, referring to the Cavs’ trade-deadline deals. Asked where James should sign, even more respondents (66%) voted for Cleveland.
- If James does decide he wants to join the Lakers, the LaVar Ball show won’t be a deterrent, according to 89% of the players surveyed. “If LeBron comes to L.A., then it’s the LeBron show. Not the Ball show,” said one Eastern Conference center.
- Most of the survey respondents (80%) believe DeMarcus Cousins will re-sign with the Pelicans.
- Only 33% of the players surveyed expect Paul George to be in the Thunder‘s opening-night lineup for 2018/19.
- The respondents are slightly in favor (59%) of maximum salary contracts existing in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. “LeBron, Steph and KD, all those guys bring a lot more than what they’re getting paid,” said one Western Conference guard. “But being a lower-tier salary guy myself, if you pay those guys even more, the lower guys on the totem pole don’t really get anything.”
- Asked which teams make the best pitches to free agents, players chose the Celtics (27%), Heat (15%), Lakers (12%), and Warriors (9%), with nine other clubs receiving votes. One Eastern Conference guard on Boston: “If you bring Tom Brady? That’s pretty damn cool.”