Jarrett Allen To Replace James Harden In All-Star Game
Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen has been named an All-Star replacement, the league announced today in a press release. Allen will sub in for Sixers guard James Harden, who will miss Sunday’s All-Star Game due to a left hamstring injury.
It’s a deserving honor for Allen, who is enjoying a career year in his first full season as a Cavalier after signing a new five-year contract with the team in the offseason. In addition to anchoring the Cavs’ defense, which ranks third in the NBA, the 23-year-old is averaging 16.2 points and 11.1 rebounds per game in 49 appearances (32.6 MPG). His 66.5% shooting percentage is the league’s second-best mark.
Allen is the second All-Star representative for a Cavaliers squad that ranks third in the Eastern Conference with a 35-22 record, joining teammate Darius Garland. Allen and Garland will play in their home arena on Sunday, as this year’s All-Star Game will take place in Cleveland.
Harden, the final player selected in last Thursday’s All-Star draft, was part of Team LeBron, so Allen will join LeBron James‘ roster for Sunday’s game.
Allen beat out other All-Star candidates such as Pascal Siakam, Jrue Holiday, and Jaylen Brown to take Harden’s place. It’s possible another replacement player will be necessary if Zach LaVine is forced to miss Sunday’s game due to his knee injury. If LaVine bows out, the replacement would again come from the Eastern Conference and would join Team Durant.
Western Notes: Thunder, Jazz, Kings, Iguodala, Finney-Smith
After mostly sitting out last week’s trade deadline – with the exception of a very minor deal involving KZ Okpala – the Thunder are still about $23MM below the $101.2MM salary cap floor for 2021/22, John Hollinger writes for The Athletic.
As Hollinger explains, the Thunder’s situation is a “very hot topic in the agent world,” since teams are required to either spend to the salary floor or pay the difference to their players. Assuming Oklahoma City doesn’t try to get to the floor by signing free agents to deals that include oversized first-year salaries, the team could end up paying about $1.5MM to each of its own players at season’s end.
Hollinger believes this latter scenario is more likely than the Thunder spending big on free agents in the next couple months. Recent European imports who have received big late-season free agent contracts, such as Gabriel Deck and Luca Vildoza, haven’t exactly worked out, and it’s not OKC will feel the need to be a major player on the buyout market.
More importantly, even if the team is required to pay its own players at the end of the season to reach the salary floor, those payments won’t count toward the cap. In other words, the Thunder could still take upwards of $31MM in cap room into draft night, giving them the ability to make trades in June that other clubs wouldn’t be able to accommodate.
Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- Howard Beck of SI.com is the latest reporter to suggest that the alleged tension between Jazz teammates Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell hasn’t exactly dissipated. “I think they’re in trouble, because this thing has run its course and we know there are some tensions that are in that locker room,” Beck said on The Crossover NBA Show podcast with Chris Mannix (hat tip to HoopsHype). “And I’ve been told recently that they might be a little worse than we’ve even been led to believe. And so if this doesn’t end well this postseason, and there’s no reason to think that it will… those ‘Donovan Mitchell wants out’ rumors are going to be starting, like, as soon as the season is over.”
- General manager Monte McNair felt that the players the Kings acquired at the deadline – including Domantas Sabonis, Donte DiVincenzo, and Justin Holiday – are good fits both on and off the court. “We want competitors, toughness,” McNair said over the weekend, per Chris Biderman of The Sacramento Bee. “We need to improve our rebounding and defense. And I think all these guys that we’ve brought are not just great players, good talents, all that type of stuff, but guys that are going to fit into that type of culture we’re trying to build here.”
- Warriors swingman Andre Iguodala, who has played just once since January 20, went through the team’s shootaround today, but will remain sidelined until after the All-Star break, per head coach Steve Kerr (Twitter link via Anthony Slater of The Athletic). Iguodala is dealing with lower back tightness.
- Dorian Finney-Smith‘s new four-year extension with the Mavericks is worth the maximum amount he was eligible for ($55,560,960) and includes a trade kicker of 5%, Hoops Rumors has learned.
Luka Doncic, DeMar DeRozan Named Players Of The Week
Mavericks guard Luka Doncic and Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan have been named the NBA’s Players of the Week for the Western Conference and Eastern Conference, respectively, the league announced today (via Twitter).
Surprisingly, it’s the first time this season that Doncic has been named a Player of the Week. He left no doubt that he deserved the honor, averaging an eye-popping 43.0 PPG in three games between February 7-13. He put up a shooting line of .532/.500/.707 in those three contests, chipping in 10.3 RPG and 8.3 APG.
Doncic scored an incredible 96 points in two games vs. the Clippers, though Dallas couldn’t pull out a win on Saturday vs. Los Angeles despite his 45 points and 15 rebounds. The Mavericks had a 2-1 week.
DeRozan, meanwhile, became the first player in either conference to win a Player of the Week award for a third time in 2021/22. He led the Bulls to a 3-1 week, averaging 36.8 PPG, 5.5 RPG, and 4.8 APG on .598/.429/.829 shooting in 37.8 MPG. Chicago’s only loss of the week was a nail-biter against Phoenix last Monday.
Devin Booker, Chris Paul, Donovan Mitchell, Ja Morant, Dejounte Murray, and Anfernee Simons were the other Western Conference nominees for this week’s award. In the East, DeRozan beat out fellow nominees Bam Adebayo, Jarrett Allen, Joel Embiid, LaMelo Ball, Pascal Siakam, and Jayson Tatum (Twitter link).
NBA Teams With Open Roster Spots
Several NBA teams typically end up with newly-opened roster spots following the trade deadline. This happens for a variety of reasons. Some teams make two-for-one or three-for-one trades; some acquire players in cap-related deals and immediately cut them; others buy out or release players they weren’t able to move at the deadline.
Whatever the reason may be, there are plenty of available roster spots around the NBA, and it’s a good bet that most of them will be filled before the end of the regular season. Contending teams will want to fortify their depth for the playoffs, while lottery-bound clubs will take fliers on prospects willing to accept multiyear deals that aren’t fully guaranteed beyond this season.
Here, with the help of our roster counts page, is a look at the teams that have open roster spots as of February 14:
Teams with open 15-man roster spots:
- Atlanta Hawks
- Boston Celtics (3)
- Charlotte Hornets
- Denver Nuggets *
- Detroit Pistons
- Houston Rockets
- Miami Heat (2)
- Milwaukee Bucks (3) *
- Minnesota Timberwolves
- New Orleans Pelicans
- Orlando Magic
- Philadelphia 76ers
- Toronto Raptors
- Utah Jazz
- Washington Wizards
* The Nuggets (DeMarcus Cousins) and Bucks (Greg Monroe) each have a player on a 10-day contract. We’re counting those roster spots as “open” because Cousins’ and Monroe’s deals will expire this week.
If we count the Nuggets, exactly half of the NBA’s 30 teams have at least one 15-man roster spot available. Twelve of those clubs have a single open roster spot, while the Celtics, Heat, and Bucks have multiple openings.
Since teams are only permitted to dip below 14 players on standard contracts for up to two weeks at a time, Boston, Miami, and Milwaukee will all have to get back to that league-mandated minimum before the end of the month.
The other teams on this list aren’t under immediate pressure to add a 15th man, and some may hold off for a little while for financial reasons — or just to wait to see who else becomes available on the buyout market in the next couple weeks.
Some of these clubs – including the Heat with Caleb Martin, the Pelicans with Jose Alvarado, and the Raptors with Justin Champagnie – might use their open roster spot to promote a player on a two-way contract who has earned regular minutes.
Teams with open two-way spots:
- Boston Celtics
- Dallas Mavericks
- Oklahoma City Thunder
- Phoenix Suns
- Utah Jazz
The Celtics (Sam Hauser) and Thunder (Aaron Wiggins) have each promoted a two-way player to the 15-man roster since the trade deadline. The other three teams on this list released a two-way player in January, creating an opening.
In the past, teams haven’t been able to sign players to two-way contracts after January 15, but that restriction doesn’t exist this season, so I expect we’ll see some – if not all – of these teams fill their open two-way slots sooner or later.
Southwest Notes: Mavs, Rockets, Brooks, McCollum, Murray
The Mavericks project to go well into the luxury tax in 2022/23 if they re-sign point guard Jalen Brunson, but team owner Mark Cuban sounds prepared for that scenario.
“We’re going to be in luxury tax hell next year, but that’s OK; it frees up the year after that,” Cuban said after the trade deadline, per Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News.
The Mavericks have several contracts on their books that expire in 2023, including Dwight Powell‘s and Maxi Kleber‘s. Additionally, Spencer Dinwiddie and Reggie Bullock only have partial guarantees for 2023/24 on their respective deals.
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- Rockets general manager Rafael Stone explained after the trade deadline that the decision to move Daniel Theis was related in part to the emergence of rookie Alperen Sengun. “Positionally, it makes sense for us,” Stone said, according to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. “It’s not a secret that Alperen has been really good, really early. It has been since his first practice a priority to play him. That made it challenging to play Daniel Theis the amount we wanted, he wanted, that he should be playing. He’s a really, really good established NBA player.” Stone added that the team is excited about acquiring Dennis Schröder and has liked him for “a long time,” suggesting a buyout probably isn’t in the cards for the veteran point guard.
- A handful of teams have inquired on Armoni Brooks, who cleared waivers over the weekend after being waived by the Rockets, tweets Kelly Iko of The Athletic. Iko adds that the door remains open for Brooks to return to Houston. The team will have an open spot on its 15-man roster once Enes Freedom is officially waived.
- CJ McCollum did plenty of research on the Pelicans before signing off on the trade sending him to New Orleans. According to Will Guillory of The Athletic, McCollum spoke to Chris Paul about Pelicans head coach Willie Green, talked to J.J. Redick about his experience with the franchise, and got intel about the roster from current Pelicans wing Garrett Temple. McCollum didn’t have a no-trade clause, but told reporters last week that Portland involved him in the trade process.
- Spurs guard Dejounte Murray was initially shocked that the team traded away his backcourt partner, but by the time he spoke to reporters about the Derrick White trade, he had come to terms with it, writes Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. “You start to realize you’re a player and not the GM or the front office,” Murray said. “You realize, just be a player and focus on that.”
James Harden Won’t Make Sixers Debut Until After All-Star Break
James Harden won’t make his debut with the Sixers until after the All-Star break, the team announced today.
As Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice.com relays (via Twitter), Harden will continue to rehab a minor left hamstring injury, receiving treatment and participating in on-court training. The 76ers will provide an update on the star guard’s status following the break.
After being acquired from Brooklyn last Thursday in the biggest trade of the NBA season, Harden sat out the Sixers’ home games vs. Oklahoma City on Friday and Cleveland on Saturday. He’ll also miss Tuesday’s game vs. Boston and Thursday’s contest in Milwaukee. The earliest he could suit up for the 76ers would be February 25 in Minnesota.
Harden’s ongoing absence means he’ll also miss this Sunday’s All-Star Game in Cleveland, so commissioner Adam Silver will have to name a second Eastern Conference replacement. Previously, LaMelo Ball was selected to replace Kevin Durant.
There are a number of good candidates to take Harden’s spot, including Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen, Raptors forward Pascal Siakam, Bucks guard Jrue Holiday, and Celtics forward Jaylen Brown. I think Allen is the favorite to get the nod, but it’s possible an additional replacement will be required for Zach LaVine, who is seeing a specialist about his knee injury.
The Nets haven’t issued an update on Ben Simmons‘ status, but he also appears unlikely to play this week. That means we probably won’t see either of the two stars involved in last Thursday’s blockbuster between Philadelphia and Brooklyn suit up with their new teams until at least late February.
Celtics Notes: Theis, Schröder, Roster Openings, TPEs
New Celtics center Daniel Theis waived his 15% trade kicker as part of the trade that sent him from Houston back to Boston, reports Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Theis gave up $3MM+ as a result of that decision, since the bonus would’ve been worth 15% of the amount of guaranteed money left on his contract. At the time of the trade, the big man was still owed $20MM+ in guaranteed money over the next two-and-a-half seasons.
It’s unclear if Boston would’ve moved forward with the acquisition of Theis if he hadn’t been willing to waive his trade kicker. The Celtics will be able to fill out their 15-man roster while remaining slightly under the luxury tax, but those efforts would’ve been complicated if they’d had to account for a higher cap hit for Theis due to his trade bonus.
Here’s more on the C’s:
- Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com hears that the Lakers were offering the Celtics “a couple of second-round picks and some minimum contracts” for Dennis Schröder before Boston sent him to Houston in a package for Theis. Los Angeles would’ve had to trade three minimum-salary players to match Schröder’s salary.
- Brian Robb of MassLive.com evaluates the Celtics’ decision to trade for Theis rather than accepting the rumored Lakers offer, which he speculates might’ve included expendable veterans like DeAndre Jordan, Kent Bazemore, and Wayne Ellington. As Robb writes, president of basketball operations Brad Stevens was looking for help in both the present and future, making Theis a better fit than those Lakers vets. Stevens also valued roster flexibility, per Robb — completing a one-for-three trade instead of a three-for-one deal would’ve meant the Celtics came out of the deadline with just one open roster spot instead of five.
- The Celtics have already filled two of their five roster openings, and Stevens talked after the deadline about using one or two more of those open spots on young players, with an eye toward the future, as Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston relays. “We’ve got to look at a couple of young prospects that we can hopefully develop and make part of our long-term future and can find a great niche and fit within our team,” Stevens said. “I think a great example of that is a place like Miami that’s done that really well. They’ve found guys that other people passed on or missed on and have created a team that has really, really good players making a lot of money, and really, really good players that are just starting out in their career, but have found the perfect fit.”
- The Celtics decided not to use their $17MM+ Evan Fournier trade exception to absorb Derrick White‘s incoming salary last Thursday, according to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. If they’d gone that route, the Celtics could’ve created a new $11.6MM trade exception (using Josh Richardson‘s outgoing salary), which wouldn’t have expired until the 2023 trade deadline. Instead, the team opted to keep the bigger exception, which will expire during the 2022 offseason.
No NBA Players Currently In Health And Safety Protocols
Wizards center Daniel Gafford won’t be available for Monday’s game against Detroit, but he’s listed as out due to return to competition reconditioning, meaning he has exited the NBA’s health and safety protocols, tweets Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington.
That news is notable because Gafford had been the lone player remaining in the league’s COVID-19 protocols after Pelicans big man Willy Hernangomez was cleared last week. Now that Gafford has been cleared too, none of the 30 teams have a single player in the protocols.
It’s a stark contrast to where the league was at just six weeks ago. At the end of December and the start of January, there were well over 100 players in the health and safety protocols. Most teams needed to sign multiple replacements to 10-day contracts to withstand COVID-19 outbreaks, and even then, several games had to be postponed.
Of course, just because there are no players in the protocols right now doesn’t mean there won’t be more players affected going forward. It’s safe to assume individuals will continue to enter the protocols here and there, and there’s no guarantee there won’t be more team-wide outbreaks before the end of the season. But we’re hopeful that the worst of those outbreaks are behind us for the 2021/22 campaign.
We set up a tracker in December to keep tabs on which players were entering and exiting the health and safety protocols, and we’ve updated it daily since then. However, we’re putting that tracker on ice for now and will only resume updating it if the number of players affected starts climbing rapidly again at some point in the coming days, weeks, or months.
Updated NBA Maximum Salary Projections For 2022/23
The maximum salaries for a given NBA season aren’t determined until the salary cap for that league year has been set, which typically happens just before free agency begins. So even though several players have already signed maximum-salary contract extensions that will begin in 2022/23, we won’t know the exact amount of those contracts until the summer.
[RELATED: 2021/22 NBA Contract Extension Tracker]
However, we can ballpark next season’s maximum salaries based on the NBA’s salary cap projections. Last August, we provided maximum salary projections for 2022/23 based on an estimated $119MM cap, but the NBA has since updated its cap projection for ’22/23 to $123,655,000. We’re updating our maximum salary projections today based on that new cap estimate.
Listed below are the maximum salary projections for 2022/23. The first chart shows the maximum salaries for a player re-signing with his own team — a player’s previous club can offer five years instead of four, and 8% annual raises instead of 5% raises. The second chart shows the maximum salaries for a player signing with a new team.
A player’s maximum salary is generally determined by his years of NBA experience, so there’s a wide gap between potential earnings for younger and older players. Unless they qualify for a more lucrative extension by meeting certain performance criteria, players with no more than six years of NBA experience are limited to a starting salary worth up to 25% of the cap. For players with seven to nine years of experience, that number is 30%. For players with 10 or more years of experience, it’s 35%.
Here are the the maximum salary projections for 2022/23:
A player re-signing with his own team (8% annual raises, up to five years):
| Year | 6 years or less | 7-9 years | 10+ years |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | $30,913,750 | $37,096,500 | $43,279,250 |
| 2023/24 | $33,386,850 | $40,064,220 | $46,741,590 |
| 2024/25 | $35,859,950 | $43,031,940 | $50,203,930 |
| 2025/26 | $38,333,050 | $45,999,660 | $53,666,270 |
| 2026/27 | $40,806,150 | $48,967,380 | $57,128,610 |
| Total | $179,299,750 | $215,159,700 | $251,019,650 |
The “6 years or less” column here is what the new extension for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will look like in 2022. This is also the maximum amount that a free-agent-to-be like Deandre Ayton would be eligible for this offseason.
Players like Luka Doncic and Trae Young met the Rose Rule criteria, so the 30% max column reflects the projected value of their new extensions.
The third column (35%) represents the projected salaries a veteran star like Bradley Beal would receive if he signs a new maximum-salary contract as a free agent this summer. Beal has a 2022/23 player option on his current contract, but would have to decline that option to have a shot at $251MM+ over the next five years.
A player signing with a new team (5% annual raises, up to four years):
| Year | 6 years or less | 7-9 years | 10+ years |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | $30,913,750 | $37,096,500 | $43,279,250 |
| 2023/24 | $32,459,438 | $38,951,325 | $45,443,213 |
| 2024/25 | $34,005,126 | $40,806,150 | $47,607,176 |
| 2025/26 | $35,550,814 | $42,660,975 | $49,771,139 |
| Total | $132,929,128 | $159,514,950 | $186,100,778 |
If a player changes teams as a free agent, he doesn’t have access to a fifth year or 8% raises. So if Ayton were to sign an offer sheet with a new team this summer, he’d be limited to a four-year deal projected to be worth nearly $133MM.
If Zach LaVine – or another veteran with between seven and nine years of NBA experience – wants to change teams this offseason, he would be able to sign a four-year contract worth up to a projected $159.5MM.
Beal or another veteran with 10+ years of experience would be limited to about $186.1MM across four years if he changes teams as a free agent in 2022.
One exception in this last group is James Harden — he’s already earning more than the maximum salary, since the raises on his current contract have outpaced the NBA’s annual salary cap increases. If Harden becomes a free agent this summer, he’d be eligible for a 5% raise on his current $44.3MM salary, rather than having to take a pay cut to the league-wide maximum.
Raptors Notes: Porzingis, Trade Talks, Young, Ujiri
Before Dallas agreed to trade Kristaps Porzingis to Washington last Thursday, one report suggested that the Mavericks and Raptors may be having discussions about the big man.
Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter link) and Marc Stein (Substack link) have since confirmed that Toronto had some interest in Porzingis. However, Grange says the Raptors never got close to making a deal for the former lottery pick, while league sources tell Stein that Toronto “stepped away” from those discussions due to concerns about Porzingis’ long-term health.
Porzingis was eventually traded to the Wizards along with a protected second-round pick in exchange for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans.
Here’s more on the Raptors:
- Grange adds (via Twitter) that last week’s three-team trade talks involving the Raptors, Lakers, and Knicks reached an impasse in part due to L.A.’s luxury tax concerns. Presumably, the framework that was discussed would’ve required the Lakers to take on extra salary, increasing the projected luxury tax bill for a team that doesn’t currently hold a top-eight spot in the West.
- Discussing the Raptors’ decision to acquire Thaddeus Young at the trade deadline, president Masai Ujiri explained that the forward checked multiple boxes for the team: “We wanted a veteran-type player, a Bird rights-type player, that came and bridged (a gap) helping our young guys both in the locker room and on the court” (link via Mike Ganter of The Toronto Sun). For his part, Young told reporters he’s excited to be in Toronto because the team’s energy and style matches how he plays (Twitter link via Eric Koreen of The Athletic).
- Ujiri admitted during his post-deadline press conference that he doesn’t love the trade deadline, since he views the offseason as a better time to make moves that reshape the roster (Twitter link via Koreen).
- The Raptors’ roster – which is heavy on length and 6’8″ forwards – reflects Ujiri’s refusal to subscribe to team-building orthodoxy, Koreen writes in a story for The Athletic. “We’re in a copycat league. Everybody wants to do what another person is doing,” Ujiri said. “‘Go play like Golden State.’ Well, we don’t have those types of players. You know, it’s hard to find those types of players. So, for me, we have to create ways where we think we’re going to win in this league, because it’s about winning. And I feel strongly that we can create our own style of play and bring these types of players and figure out a way to do it. Look, will it succeed? I pray it does. I’m hoping it does. And I think it will.”