- Kent Bazemore‘s love of Atlanta and his charity work in the city were important factors in keeping him in a Hawks uniform, relays Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders. Several teams pursued Bazemore in free agency over the summer, but he opted to stay in Atlanta, where he operates a foundation that promotes health for underprivileged and distressed children and young adults. “I’ve always echoed you can be the greatest person you can be if you’re comfortable and I’m super comfortable in Atlanta,” Bazemore said. “My fiancé loves it and we’re starting to plant some roots there, my network is growing there, and it’s just a city of opportunity. It’s up and coming, and it’s a place I can see myself actually growing with, more so than going to other places where they may be too far behind or way ahead of the curve. This is a place where I can see myself being for the next 10 years maybe.”
- Hawks center Dwight Howard says he didn’t quite fit in during his time with the Lakers and Rockets, Scotto adds in the same story. Howard is an eight-time All-Star, but he was passed over for the game the past two seasons. After signing with Atlanta this summer, he wants to show he can get back to that level. “I know what I can do for a team and I know what kind of problems I can present for opposing teams every night,” Howard said. “It’s always about opportunities and systems. I don’t think I had the right opportunity or right system the last two places I was in and where I could be the most effective. I think with this system right here, I get an opportunity to be effective on both ends of the floor and I still have a lot left in the tank.”
The Hawks will be without Tiago Splitter for at least six more weeks after an MRI revealed a Grade 2 strain in his right calf, Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Injuries caused Splitter to miss 46 games last season and he has yet to suit up this year.
“There is nobody more disappointed than me,” Splitter said. “I’m tough. I’m tough. Maybe the first day I was sad but the next day I’m already positive and thinking about positive progress each day. That is the mindset you have to have when you are injured.”
The Spurs traded Splitter to the Hawks during the 2015 offseason in order to create the necessary cap space to offer LaMarcus Aldridge a max contract. Splitter has had trouble staying on the court during his career, missing at least 22 games in every season but one. He’ll make $8.5MM this year before becoming a free agent in July.
Hawks center Dwight Howard believes he can play for close to another decade, according to Michael Lee of The Vertical. Now in his 13th season, Howard seems to have overcome the back and knee problems that limited him in Houston. He played just 41 games two seasons ago, but has been healthy since arriving in Atlanta. “When I first came in the league, I thought I was going to play forever,” Howard said. “I still want to play until I’m 40, but I thought I was going to play basketball until I was 60. That’s what happens when you’re young. Once you get older, you realize there are lot of things that are important.” The contract Howard signed with the Hawks this summer runs through the 2018/19 season.
Tim Hardaway Jr. has developed into a productive bench scorer in his second season in Atlanta, writes Chris Vivlamore of The Journal Constitution. Acquired in a controversial trade with the Knicks on draft day in 2015, Hardway was little used during his first few months with the Hawks. He had two stints in the D-League last December and played just 51 games with the NBA club. Hardaway has became a dangerous scorer, ranking fourth on the team at 12.8 points per night and producing four 20-point games already. “We feel good about identifying Timmy,” said Hawks GM Wes Wilcox. “We were fortunate that the opportunity came up. … You always hope trades make sense for everybody. That’s what you hope because you hope it’s good for the player and the teams that are involved. It’s hard to evaluate stuff, but I’m happy for Tim, and I’m certainly happy for the Hawks.”
In a solid piece by Howard Megdal of Slam Magazine, the scribe examines the rise of Hawks swingman Kent Bazemore from an undrafted free agent to the player he is today. Discussing the success the team has enjoyed with Bazemore, coach/executive Mike Budenholzer said, “We knew when we signed Kent, and were able to add him to our program, that he was an elite defender, and an elite competitor. So I think defense and that competitiveness was there from day one. And we felt like he could grow and mature offensively. He’s been doing that. The first year was off the bench, the second year as a starter, and the third year, hopefully, he’ll continue to grow. He’s a great worker, he’s got a great heart. He’s the type of guy we want to work with.”
- Chris Mannix of The Vertical weighed in on how the offseason signing of Dwight Howard has made the Hawks a better team. The big man has Atlanta among the top five in the league in offensive rebounding after finishing the 2015/16 campaign dead last in that department, Mannix adds. A number of scouts around the NBA believe Howard is looking the best that he has since departing Orlando, Mannix notes. “He’s as active as I’ve seen him in years,” a scout told Mannix regarding Howard. “With him there, everyone is playing up and aggressive on the ball.”
The Hawks‘ ownership group is committed to putting a championship-caliber team on the floor and they are willing to spend what it takes to achieve that goal, Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes. The franchise has begun construction on a $50MM practice facility and it reached an agreement with the City of Atlanta on $192MM worth of renovations to Philips Arena. Vivlamore hears from several sources within the organization that additional initiatives are yet to come.
The Hawks appreciates the ongoing improvements. “I feel like I’ve been saying how excited we are about a lot of things the last couple weeks, months,” coach Mike Budenholzer said. “I continue to say how excited I am and I genuinely mean it. It’s kind of mind-boggling for us who have been here for three or four years and making these things a priority.”
- The Hawks are expected to get their own D-League affiliate , but they won’t likely have an team until the 2019/20 season after an arena is built. Matt Kempner of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the new arena, which will be located in College Park, will likely cost between $20MM and $40MM to construct.
The concept of “dead money” on a salary cap isn’t as common in the NBA as it is in the NFL, but it essentially functions the same way in both leagues. Dead money refers to the salary remaining on a team’s cap for players that are no longer on the roster.
For NFL teams, taking on a certain amount of dead money is a common practice, since signing bonuses affect cap hits differently, and big-money players are more likely to be released before playing out their entire contracts. That practice is less common in the NBA.
Still, with the NBA’s salary cap on the rise, teams may be a little more willing to part ways with players on guaranteed salaries, since that increased cap gives clubs more flexibility than they used to have. Within the last month, we’ve seen players like Ronnie Price and Greivis Vasquez, who each had $4-5MM in guaranteed money left on their contracts, waived in order to clear room for newcomers.
Over the next few days, we’ll examine each of the NBA’s 30 teams, breaking them down by division, to figure out which teams are carrying the most dead money on the cap for 2016/17, and what that information might tell us about those teams. We’ve already examined the Central and Atlantic divisions. Today, we’ll turn our attention to the Southeast.
Here are the 2016/17 dead money figures for the Southeast teams:
1. Atlanta Hawks
Total dead money: $2,030,431
Full salary cap breakdown
The Hawks have a D-League franchise lined up to begin play in 2019/2020, but for now, the team can’t assign affiliate players to a D-League squad before the season, limiting the need for partial guarantees — Matt Costello‘s $50K guarantee was the only one handed out by the team. Still, Atlanta has been willing to waive a couple players on fully guaranteed salaries so far, after determining those guys weren’t in the plans. Edy Tavares ($1MM) and Jarrett Jack ($980K) both received their walking papers from the Hawks.
2. Washington Wizards
Total dead money: $1,008,334
Full salary cap breakdown
Interestingly, a handful of Wizards signees appeared to be merely camp invitees based on their contracts — Danuel House, Daniel Ochefu, and Sheldon McClellan all got guaranteed worth between $50-100K. However, all three players remain on the team. Instead, the Wizards’ dead-money total is made up of cap charges for one player who was waived last year – Martell Webster ($833K) – and one who wasn’t able to hang onto his roster spot in camp this year (Jarell Eddie — $175K).
Eddie’s deal originally didn’t feature any guaranteed money for the 2016/17 season, but the Wizards agreed to guarantee a portion of it in order to push his guarantee deadline back, allowing the team to get a look at him in camp. That move wasn’t particularly costly, but ultimately proved unnecessary.
3. Miami Heat
Total dead money: $602,989
Full salary cap breakdown
Most of the Heat’s modest dead-money charges are for camp invitees, including Stefan Jankovic ($100K), Okaro White ($100K), and Keith Benson ($75K). The team’s most interesting dead-money cap hit belongs to Briante Weber, who left a $328K charge on Miami’s books. Weber showed promise last year, and recorded a triple-double in his first game for the Heat’s D-League affiliate this season. If he rejoins the NBA team at some point, Miami would have to pay him a new salary on top of the dead money from his previous contract.
4. Charlotte Hornets
Total dead money: $75,000
Full salary cap breakdown
The Hornets have been careful to avoid taking on much dead money over the last couple seasons, and that trend has continued so far this year. With the exception of Mike Tobey ($75K), most of the club’s camp invitees who have since been assigned to Greensboro didn’t even receive a partial guarantee, and none of Charlotte’s veterans look like release candidates, so the team should be able to keep its books fairly clean for the rest of the season.
5. Orlando Magic
Total dead money: $0
Full salary cap breakdown
The Magic’s books are even cleaner than Charlotte’s, with no dead money tainting the team’s cap so far. While Orlando has done a good job to avoid waiving unwieldy veteran contracts, it might have might some sense for the team to invest a little money on its camp invitees. The Magic avoided undrafted rookies, instead focusing on guys who already had some professional experience, and may have sacrificed a little upside in the process.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.
- Hawks power forward Kris Humphries has re-signed with veteran agent Dan Fegan, Liz Mullen of the Sports Business Journal tweets. Humphries, who signed a one-year, $4MM contract with Atlanta this offseason, was being represented by Jason Renne and Josh Ketroser. Humphries fired Fegan, who works under the agency Independent Sports & Entertainment, in 2011. Fegan represents a number of NBA players, including DeMarcus Cousins and Chandler Parsons.
- Before signing with the Hawks, Dwight Howard told his mother he was going to sign with the Jazz and she didn’t take the fake news too well, as Koster Kennard of the Deseret News relays. “I played a prank on my mom,” Howard said to Doug Gottlieb of CBS Sports Radio. “I wanted to see her reaction, so I told her, I said, ‘Mom, I just got this big contract, $150 million.’ And she was like, ‘Oh my God, from who?’ I said, ‘Utah Jazz,’ and she started crying.”
- New Hawks center Dwight Howard says he already has a “great connection” with coach Mike Budenholzer, relays Chris Vivlamore of The Journal Constitution. Howard, who signed a three-year, $70.5MM deal to return to his hometown this summer, is averaging 15.2 points and 12.4 rebounds through the first nine games. “I love having him as a coach,” Howard said. “From the first time I met him until now, we’ve had a great connection. We want to continue that. I love how he holds me accountable every single day to be the guy for the team to lead them in the right direction. When I’m not doing the right things, he is on me. When I am doing the right things, he pushes me to do more. It’s just a great feeling.”