Author: Chuck Myron

Team options outside of rookie scale contracts are rare in the NBA. Only nine new contracts from this summer feature a team option, aside from all of the new rookie scale deals, of course. Not surprisingly, the Sixers handed out a third of those new pacts with team options, and it would qualify as something of an upset if the four-year agreement that the Sixers reportedly struck today with Christian Wood doesn’t have a team option, too.

The three new team options already on the books for Philadelphia represent double options of sorts. That’s because the salaries in the option years are also non-guaranteed. It’s a quirk in the system, as options can only exist on the final year of a contract, but any season may be non-guaranteed. The term “team option” is often used to refer to a non-guaranteed season, but they’re not the same. Teams don’t have to decide on non-guaranteed seasons until January, or an earlier point specified in the contract if both sides agree. The deadline for team options is the June 29th before the season starts. That’s an advantage that non-guaranteed seasons offer for teams, but options can also be helpful. A team can turn down its option on a player with three or fewer years of experience and still make him a restricted free agent. Players with non-guaranteed seasons would become unrestricted free agents if they cleared waivers.

So, the Sixers have the best of both worlds with Richaun Holmes, Pierre Jackson and Scottie Wilbekin. The Pacers also added three new contracts with team options, but not all of them are truly for the benefit of the team. Lavoy Allen wouldn’t be eligible for restricted free agency if Indiana turns down his team option in two years, when he’ll ostensibly be a six-year veteran. So, it’s exclusively to Allen’s benefit that the salary is a team option instead of non-guaranteed. If the Pacers don’t want to keep him, Allen would become a free agent on July 1st in 2017, just as the market is at is busiest. Indiana could hang on to him for months longer if the contract featured non-guaranteed salary, and all the while, many opportunities for him to go elsewhere would likely dry up.

Here’s a look at each new team option from this offseason. The season the option is for is in parentheses, along with the value of the option.

• Lavoy Allen, Pacers (2017/18, $4MM)
• K.J. McDaniels, Rockets (2017/18, $3,476,873)
• Nikola Jokic, Nuggets (2018/19, $1,475,500)
• Jordan Mickey, Celtics (2018/19, $1,329,039)
• Rakeem Christmas, Pacers (2018/19, $1,142,974)
• Joseph Young, Pacers (2018/19, $1,142,974)
• Richaun Holmes, Sixers (2018/19, $1,088,038)
• Pierre Jackson, Sixers (2018/19, $1,088,038)
• Scottie Wilbekin, Sixers (2018/19, $1,088,038)

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

Seven of the 10 free agents in the final edition of the 2015 Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings signed maximum-salary deals, and nine of them were able to secure player options. None signed for as short a term as LeBron James, the No. 1 player in the rankings, but that’s no surprise, as he places a premium on flexibility and will have no trouble signing an even more lucrative max deal next year.

Training camps are three weeks away, and while Tristan Thompson and a few other notable 2015 free agents remain unsigned, the 10 most prominent long ago came off the board. So, with the first our 2016 Free Agent Power Rankings already compiled, we’ll look back on how the heavies from the 2015 class fared.

1. LeBron James — As expected, James re-signed with the Cavaliers on a two-year deal for the maximum salary, which works out to a total value of $46,974,673 for the 12-year veteran. It seems unlikely he’ll exercise the $24,004,173 player option for 2016/17 and will instead become a free agent next summer, if the pattern holds to form. It would be the most lucrative path for him, since the projected 2016/17 maximum for a player with his experience is $29.3MM.
2. Kawhi Leonard — The only mystery in Leonard’s free agency surrounded the terms of his new deal, not whether he would end up back with the Spurs. The reigning Defensive Player of the Year made it a five-year max deal with a player option on the final season. That works out to a total of $94,343,129.
3. LaMarcus Aldridge — The Spurs scored their second top-three free agent when they held off the Suns and a pack of other suitors to sign Aldridge to a four-year, maximum-salary contract with a player option after year three. He’ll make $84,072,030 if he lets the deal run to term.
4. Marc Gasol — Big Spain was careful not to make his intentions too obvious, but Gasol didn’t meet with any team other than the Grizzlies, with whom he re-signed for five years at the max, with a fifth-year player option. The total value of the contract is $113,211,750, more than the five-year max that Leonard signed based on Gasol’s greater amount of service time.
5. Kevin Love — Rumors of Love’s imminent departure from the Cavaliers persisted for months, despite Love’s insistence otherwise, and Love finally put an end to them when he re-signed with the Cavaliers for a five-year, maximum-salary deal with a player option on the final season. It’s identical in value to Gasol’s, at $113,211,750.
6. Jimmy Butler — The Most Improved Player of the Year from this past season was reportedly set to consider short-term offer sheets, but when Chicago put a maximum qualifying offer of five years at the max on the table, he apparently put off meetings with other teams. The maximum qualifying offer, by definition, includes no option seasons, and Butler wound up taking slightly less than the max, presumably so he could secure a player option after year four. The total value of his five-year deal is $92,339,878, or about $2MM less than what the max would have been.
7. Greg Monroe — Monroe said at one point this spring that the Pistons had the “upper hand” to re-sign him, but he looked far more likely to end up with the Knicks. Instead, it was the darkhorse Bucks who signed him to a three-year max deal with a player option after year two. That comes to a total of $51,437,514.
8. DeAndre Jordan — No one’s free agency was a wilder ride than Jordan’s, as he committed to the Mavericks before changing his mind and re-signing on a four-year max deal with the Clippers. It carries a player option on that last year, just like his four-year max with the Mavs was to have, but he’ll make somewhat more with the Clippers, who are eligible to give him 7.5% raises instead of the 4.5% to which Dallas was limited. Thus, the full value of Jordan’s new Clippers contract is $87,616,050.
9. Draymond Green — Like Leonard, this defensive stalwart on the upswing never appeared destined for anywhere but Golden State. Unlike Leonard, he wound up with less than the max. The Warriors gave Green a five-year deal worth precisely $82MM, more than $14MM less than the max over the life of the contract. The deal contains no option years.
10. Goran Dragic — Dragic, too, long appeared bound to stay with his incumbent team and wound up taking less than the max to do so. The point guard re-signed with the Heat on a five-year deal worth $85,002,250. That’s more than $28.2MM less than the maximum that he was eligible for, but he did receive a player option after the fourth year.

Did the value of any of these deals take you by surprise? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

Most NBA teams carry the maximum-allowed 15 players during the regular season, but many leave roster spots open, even for opening night. The minimum is 13 players, so it’s not a given that teams with fewer than 15 fully guaranteed contracts truly have opening night jobs up for grabs as training camp approaches.

The first night of this past season saw several more players under contract than in the recent past. Only three teams had fewer than 15 men, and not one of them dared to dip down to 13 as the 2014/15 season got underway. That was in sharp contrast to the previous season, when nine teams had fewer than 15 players to start the season, including two that only had 13. Coming out of the lockout in 2011, jobs were even more scarce, as 14 teams, nearly half the league, were under the 15-man maximum on opening night in 2011, and seven of them were at 13 players.

The number of teams with fewer than 15 players has decreased each opening night since then. Still, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel earlier today raised the specter of the Heat leaving a spot open when they first tip off next month. It would be uncharacteristic for the Heat to do so, since the last time they didn’t start the season with 15 players was 2003/04, when rookies Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem were two of only 14 guys who made it out of training camp. Still, it’s not off-base to suggest that the Heat will have only 14 on opening night this year, given that the team is over the tax line and faces repeat-offender tax penalties if that doesn’t change by the final day of the regular season.

By contrast, it will be somewhat surprising if the Bulls don’t have fewer than 15 players to start the season. They opened with 14 last year, the first time since 2008/09 that they had more than 13. Chicago has 13 fully guaranteed contracts. Cameron Bairstow is around on a partially guaranteed deal, and it isn’t clear what sort of guarantees free agent signee Cristiano Felicio has. Both would appear to be in danger of a training camp cut.

Here’s a look at the teams that have carried fewer than 15 players on opening night for the past four seasons. The size of the opening night rosters for the teams listed is assumed to be 14 unless otherwise noted.

2014/15

• Chicago Bulls
• Memphis Grizzlies
• Sacramento Kings

2013/14

• Boston Celtics
• Chicago Bulls (13)
• Golden State Warriors
• Indiana Pacers
• L.A. Clippers
• Memphis Grizzlies (13)
• Oklahoma City Thunder
• Phoenix Suns
• San Antonio Spurs

2012/13

• Atlanta Hawks
• Charlotte Hornets (then known as the Bobcats)
• Chicago Bulls (13)
• L.A. Clippers
• Memphis Grizzlies (13)
• New Orleans Pelicans
• Oklahoma City Thunder
• Philadelphia 76ers
• Sacramento Kings
• San Antonio Spurs

2011/12

• Boston Celtics
• Charlotte Hornets (then known as the Bobcats)
• Chicago Bulls (13)
• Dallas Mavericks
• Detroit Pistons (13)
• Golden State Warriors
• Indiana Pacers (13)
• L.A. Clippers (13)
• New York Knicks
• Philadelphia 76ers
• Phoenix Suns (13)
• Sacramento Kings
• San Antonio Spurs (13)
• Utah Jazz (13)

RealGM was used in the creation of this post.

Only 13 players born in Brazil have ever played in an NBA regular season game. This season, barring training camp cuts, nine natives of Brazil are in line to see action.

The host nation for the 2016 Olympics has increasingly made its presence felt in professional basketball. Brazil’s initial forays into the NBA didn’t cause much of a ripple, as Rolando Ferreira, the first Brazilian to play in the league, made his way into only 12 career games, all of them for the Trail Blazers in 1988/89, even though he was the 26th overall pick in the 1988 draft. Joao Vianna, the next to follow Ferreira’s path from Brazil to the NBA in 1991/92, made just one appearance for the Mavericks. Oscar Schmidt made the Hall of Fame for his legendary overseas career, but he never played in the NBA.

The real breakthrough has come in the past decade. Leandro Barbosa, aka The Brazilian Blur, and Anderson Varejao have played key roles on contending teams off and on for the past decade. Nene overcame serious injuries to score a five-year, $65MM deal that he’s still playing on. Tiago Splitter started at center for the title-winning Spurs in 2013/14 before moving on to the Hawks in a trade this summer.

Still, the Brazilian NBB league lags far behind Europe in terms of notoriety. That’s one reason why it was such a shock when the Raptors drafted Brazilian native Bruno Caboclo, a forward for Pinheiros, with the 20th overall pick in 2014. Caboclo started only five games for Pinheiros the previous season, so his talent went under the radar to all but a few plugged-in NBA scouts and executives. Whether he was worth the gamble is still to be determined, since he made it into only eight games as an NBA rookie this past season, two more than fellow Raptors first-year player Lucas Nogueira, who also hails from Brazil.

Brazilian Raul Neto is in line for more frequent action in his first season with the Jazz this year, particularly if the team doesn’t bring in another point guard to replace the injured Dante Exum. The draft-and-stash signee is one of three new Brazilians poised to enter the NBA, along with Marcelo Huertas of the Lakers and Cristiano Felicio of the Bulls. Felicio is the only one of the three who played professionally in Brazil last season. Neto and Huertas come from Spain, the country that funneled more players through its professional ranks to the NBA than any other this offseason.

Another Brazilian has a chance to make his NBA debut this year. Center Rafael Hettsheimeir reportedly worked out for the Spurs late last month. Others stand poised to enter the league in the near future. George Lucas, aka George de Paula, declared for the draft and had predraft workouts with a handful of NBA teams before withdrawing his name, and he’s No. 40 in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress 2016 mock. Three other Brazilians also entered the draft before withdrawing.

A decent chance exists that Brazil will boast a double-digit number of players on NBA rosters when the Olympic games begin in Rio in 2016. Many will no doubt will be playing for the Brazilian national team, an automatic qualifier for the Olympic basketball tournament. Time will tell if the influx of Brazilians to the NBA is a temporary phenomenon or the beginnings of a lasting pipeline of talent. For now, the NBA dances with increasing frequency to a samba beat.

List of Brazilian natives currently on NBA contracts: 

• Leandro Barbosa, Warriors
• Bruno Caboclo, Raptors
• Cristiano Felicio, Bulls (rookie)
• Marcelo Huertas, Lakers (rookie)
• Nene, Wizards
• Raul Neto, Jazz (rookie)
• Lucas Nogueira, Raptors
• Tiago Splitter, Hawks
• Anderson Varejao, Cavaliers

Who do you think is the greatest Brazilian player of all time? Leave a comment to let us know.

We’ll be taking in-depth looks at several players eligible for extensions to their rookie scale contracts this fall, but whether to extend isn’t the only decision that teams face with recent first-round picks. The final two seasons of four-year rookie scale deals are team option years, but unlike other options, the deadline for either exercising or declining them is almost a full year before the option season begins. Traditionally, the deadline is the October 31st before the option season, but because that date falls on a Saturday this year, it’s November 2nd this time around.

The options that clubs are debating this fall are for the 2016/17 season. Complicating matters is that if a team declines a player’s rookie scale option, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent next summer, instead of a restricted free agent, as would be the case if the team allowed the contract to run to term. Any team that declines a rookie scale team option can’t re-sign that player for more than the option amount, a rule in place to prevent teams from circumventing the salary cap to funnel higher paydays to star young players after two or three seasons. That restriction even applies to any team that would acquire such a player via trade this season. That team still wouldn’t be able to exceed the value of the option in a new deal, just as the Clippers weren’t able to do so with Austin Rivers after the Pelicans declined his rookie scale team option last fall.

In many cases, rookie scale deals are bargains and there’s no thinking required when it comes to picking up the options. The Bucks, for instance, aren’t going to give up a year of Giannis Antetokounmpo at less than $3MM.

Of course, few find instant success like Antetokounmpo has. Often, a former first-round pick may be struggling to find playing time or live up to his promise, but the team still has confidence that he can develop, and the front office is willing to assume his relatively small cap hit for another season. Then, there are those who aren’t panning out at all, making even a cheap rookie deal seem like an outsized expense.

I’ve listed each player eligible to have his rookie scale option picked up before the November 2nd deadline and grouped them into categories based on the likelihood that their respective teams will exercise the options. I’ve noted whether each is third- or fourth-year option along with the monetary value in parentheses.

Slam dunks — These players are already stars, and it’s inconceivable that their options wouldn’t be exercised.

• Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks (fourth year, $2,995,421) — exercised
• Rudy Gobert, Jazz (fourth year, $2,121,287) — exercised
• Jabari Parker, Bucks (third year, $5,374,320) — exercised
• Andrew Wiggins, Timberwolves (third year, $6,006,600) — exercised

Highly likely — These players are non-stars, but it’s just about as unfathomable that their respective teams would opt out.

• Steven Adams, Thunder (fourth year, $3,140,517) — exercised
• Trey Burke, Jazz (fourth year, $3,386,598) — exercised
• Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Pistons (fourth year, $3,678,319) — exercised
• Michael Carter-Williams, Bucks (fourth year, $3,183,526) — exercised
• Gorgui Dieng, Timberwolves (fourth year, $2,348,783) — exercised
• Dante Exum, Jazz (third year, $3,940,320) — exercised
• Aaron Gordon, Magic (third year, $4,351,320) — exercised
• Tim Hardaway, Hawks (fourth year, $2,281,605) — exercised
• Nerlens Noel, Sixers (fourth year, $4,384,490) — exercised
• Jusuf Nurkic, Nuggets (third year, $1,921,320) — exercised
• Elfrid Payton, Magic (third year, $2,613,600) — exercised
• Mason Plumlee, Trail Blazers (fourth year, $2,328,530) — exercised
• Victor Oladipo, Magic (fourth year, $6,552,960) — exercised
• Julius Randle, Lakers (third year, $3,267,120) — exercised
• Dennis Schröder, Hawks (fourth year, $2,708,582) — exercised
• Marcus Smart, Celtics (third year, $3,578,880) — exercised

Generally likely — It wouldn’t count as a shock if a few names in this largest class have their options declined, but it’s still more likely than not that their teams will pick up the options.

• Jordan Adams, Grizzlies (third year, $1,465,080) — exercised
• Kyle Anderson, Spurs (third year, $1,192,080) — exercised
• Reggie Bullock, Pistons (fourth year, $2,255,644) — exercised
• Bruno Caboclo, Raptors (third year, $1,589,640) — exercised
• Clint Capela, Rockets (third year, $1,296,240) — exercised
• Tyler Ennis, Bucks (third year, $1,733,880) — exercised
• Joel Embiid, Sixers (third year, $4,826,160) — exercised
• Archie Goodwin, Suns (fourth year, $2,094,089) — exercised
• P.J. Hairston, Hornets (third year, $1,253,160) — declined
• Gary Harris, Nuggets (third year, $1,655,880) — exercised
• Solomon Hill, Pacers (fourth year, $2,306,019) — declined
• Rodney Hood, Jazz (third year, $1,406,520) — exercised
• Sergey Karasev, Nets (fourth year, $2,463,754) — declined
• Zach LaVine, Timberwolves (third year, $2,240,880) — exercised
• Alex Len, Suns (fourth year, $4,823,621) — exercised
• C.J. McCollum, Trail Blazers (fourth year, $3,219,579) — exercised
• Doug McDermott, Bulls (third year, $2,483,040) — exercised
• Mitch McGary, Thunder (third year, $1,526,040) — exercised
• Ben McLemore, Kings (fourth year, $4,008,882) — exercised
• Shabazz Muhammad, Timberwolves (fourth year, $3,046,299) — exercised
• Shabazz Napier, Magic (third year, $1,350,120) — exercised
• Lucas Nogueira, Raptors (third year, $1,921,320) — exercised
• Adreian Payne, Timberwolves (third year, $2,022,240) — exercised
• Otto Porter, Wizards (fourth year, $5,893,981) — exercised
• Andre Roberson, Thunder (fourth year, $2,183,072) — exercised
• Tony Snell, Bulls (fourth year, $2,368,327) — exercised
• Nik Stauskas, Sixers (third year, $2,993,040) — exercised
• Kelly Olynyk, Celtics (fourth year, $3,094,013) — exercised
• Noah Vonleh, Trail Blazers (third year, $2,751,360) — exercised
• T.J. Warren, Suns (third year, $2,128,920) — exercised
• C.J. Wilcox, Clippers (third year, $1,209,600) — exercised
• James Young, Celtics (third year, $1,825,200) — exercised
• Cody Zeller, Hornets (fourth year, $5,318,313) — exercised

In doubt — Bennett is in a class by himself, in large measure because having been the No. 1 overall pick in 2013 means he has one of the most lucrative rookie scale contracts in the league. He certainly hasn’t lived up to his draft position, and it’s questionable whether it’s worth the investment of more than $7.3MM for another year.

• Anthony Bennett, Timberwolves (fourth year, $7,318,289) — waived (declined by default)

Aside from Bennett, which player on this list do you think is least likely to have his rookie scale team option picked up? Leave a comment to tell us.

The Basketball Insiders Salary Pages were used in the creation of this post.