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Author: Chuck Myron

2014/15 NBA Reverse Standings

By | at March 18, 2015 9:58 am

The 2014/15 regular season has only four weeks to go, and as the playoffs near for some teams, many scouts and executives around the league are already drawing a sharp focus on the 2015 NBA draft. They’re no doubt cognizant of the place in the order where their respective teams are slated to pick, and with the Hoops Rumors Reverse Standings, which list the NBA’s 30 teams from worst to first, you can easily follow along, too. We update these standings daily to reflect the outcomes of the games that took place the night before.

The Reverse Standings take into account playoff teams in each conference, so they’re essentially a reflection of what the 2015 first-round order would look like if the lottery goes according to the odds. Traded picks are indicated via footnotes. For instance, the note attached to the Thunder’s pick shows that they’ll send it to the Sixers if it falls outside the top 18 selections. The final four weeks of the season determine the pick’s fate, since the Thunder are in 14th place in the Reverse Standings as the non-playoff team with the best record, but they’re only there because they would lose a tiebreaker for the last postseason berth to Pelicans, who occupy the 18th spot.

The existence of the lottery means there’s no guarantee that teams atop the Reverse Standings will draft in the order in which they finish, but the worse a club’s record, the better shot it has at landing the cream of the 2015 draft class. This year’s top prospects, including Jahlil Okafor, D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns, aren’t as highly touted as the elite 2014 draftees were, but there’s still plenty of star potential.

Our Reverse Standings feature can be found at anytime on our right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features.” It’s a great resource not just for monitoring a team’s draft position, but also for keeping an eye on whether or not traded picks with protection will be changing hands in 2015. Be sure to check back often!

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Atlantic Notes: Bargnani, Lopez, Bogdanovic

By | at March 18, 2015 8:58 am

Soon-to-be free agent Andrea Bargnani isn’t making any promises, but he would like to remain with the Knicks, as agent Leon Rose indicated to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. An earlier dispatch noted that the Knicks are open to re-signing him for the right price, and Isola advances that report, writing that the team will “strongly consider” doing so.

“Andrea is optimistic about what [team president] Phil [Jackson] is trying to accomplish and he certainly wants to be part of it,” Rose said. “But he’s a free agent this summer so it’s too early to predict what may or may not happen.”

While we wait to find out where the former No. 1 overall pick plays next season, here’s more from around the Atlantic Division:

  • Brook Lopez revealed that he’s building a home at Disney World in Orlando, but he also said again that he wants to remain with the Nets as he spoke with Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. Lopez has a player option worth more than $16.744MM for next season, but he hasn’t lent any clarity to conflicting reports about whether he’ll exercise it.
  • Bojan Bogdanovic and the Nets were both somewhat skeptical about just what sort of impact the draft-and-stash product would have even after he signed a three-year deal for the taxpayer’s mid-level exception this summer, writes Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. Inconsistency earlier this season validated that uncertainty, but he’s played well since the All-Star break and is showing signs that he’s capable of helping the Nets through a period of roster transition in the years ahead, Bontemps observes.
  • The Celtics are having success with undersized perimeter players, but that’s out of necessity, not by design, writes Paul Flannery of SB Nation, who hears from president of basketball operations Danny Ainge on the state of the team’s rebuilding. “We will make an attempt in free agency for sure but we have to be careful that we spend [money] correctly and on the right players and not just spend it because it’s available,” Ainge said of the offseason ahead. “We have to maintain that flexibility to get the right players.”
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$10MM+ NBA Players Who Were NCAA Champs

By | at March 17, 2015 4:54 pm

The NCAA tournament begins tonight, and in earnest on Thursday. Most of the 2015 NBA draft prospects have already drawn plenty of attention from scouts and executives, and the impact of college postseason performance is often overrated. Still, there will be plenty of NBA eyes on the NCAA over the next three weeks.

Elite prospects who are playing on NCAA tournament teams have the national championship as a short-term goal, and they surely dream of fat NBA paychecks in the future. Far fewer wind up with high salaries than the number of players who pursue them, and given the existence of the rookie scale for first-round picks, it’s quite a while between the time a college star gets to be paid like an NBA star. Eight-figure salaries are rarely obtainable for NBA players with less than four years of experience.

Plus, still crowding the top of the salary scale is a generation of players who didn’t have to go to college before the NBA implemented its age limit for the 2006 draft. Kobe Bryant, a preps-to-pros star, is still the league’s most highly paid player. There are plenty of international players who go to the NBA without having played in college, too, which further limits the connection between NCAA success and NBA jackpots.

There are only six players who have achieved the pinnacle of college success, winning an NCAA championship, and can boast of an NBA salary of at least $10MM this season. That includes Kemba Walker, who isn’t making that much this year but already signed an extension that will give him $12MM next season. Here’s the short list that underscores the importance of minimizing the connection between bracket-busting heroes and professional financial success on the hardwood:

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

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Serge Ibaka Out Up To Six Weeks

By | at March 17, 2015 3:26 pm

Serge Ibaka is out for approximately four to six weeks after undergoing surgery to address soreness in his right knee today, the Thunder announced via press release. The news is troublesome for Oklahoma City, which holds just a half-game lead on the Pelicans for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference with four weeks and one day to go until the end of the regular season. The team is already missing Kevin Durant, who hasn’t played since February 19th after injuring his right foot. Durant is expected back soon, but another significant injury adds to a season of ill health for the Thunder that threatens to keep them from the playoffs.

Oklahoma City has 15 players signed through at least the end of the season, as our roster counts show, and it’s too late for the team to apply for a disabled player exception. The Thunder don’t have enough missing players to apply for a hardship exception that would give them a 16th roster spot, either, so their avenues for injury relief are limited. The team used hardship to sign Ish Smith as a 16th man earlier this season, but that was a temporary measure, and two more players would have to turn up with long-term injuries to put the team back in line for that provision.

It’s conceivable that Ibaka’s expected absence would encourage the Pelicans to make a move to try to pass the Thunder. New Orleans has one of the league’s most flexible rosters, with 14 players and only 13 of them signed through the season, and the Pelicans have a sliver of their mid-level exception to dangle on one of the more sought-after free agents if they choose. The Suns loom two and a half games back of Oklahoma City, and Phoenix has more than $3MM in cap room along with only 14 players signed through the end of the season. The Thunder have portions of their mid-level and biannual exceptions remaining, but they’d have to waive a player and risk eating his salary to sign anyone else, and they’re already a taxpaying team.

2 comments New Orleans Pelicans Newsstand Oklahoma City Thunder Phoenix Suns

Atlantic Notes: Noel, Knicks, Young, KG

By | at March 17, 2015 3:00 pm

Rookie Nerlens Noel is already essentially the centerpiece of the Sixers, and he has no complaints about the team’s radical rebuilding, as Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com examines. 

“I love the direction that we’re heading in,” Noel said. “I love what [GM] Sam Hinkie is doing with our team: building through the draft, getting young guys and being very particular about the pieces that he brings into this organization. I think this is going to be a very solid team in the next few years and we’re just going to continue to grow together.”

Noel, unlike many other rookies who were drafted in the first round, is set for free agency in 2017, and not 2018, because he signed his rookie scale contract before sitting out the entire 2013/14 season with injury. So, it appears he’ll benefit from a cap surge instead of a potential cap drop like his fellow rookies, as I examined. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

  • The amount of cash the Knicks sent the Pacers this past June for the rights to 57th overall pick Louis Labeyrie was $1.5MM, a league source told Marc Berman of the New York Post. That counted against New York’s 2013/14 traded cash limit and doesn’t apply toward the $3.3MM the team can send out in trades between the end of the regular season and June 30th this year. Labeyrie recently signed a one-year extension with Paris Levallois in France, so a buyout would have to be paid for him to sign with the Knicks for next season, according to Berman.
  • The Nets‘ acquisition of Thaddeus Young for Kevin Garnett helped the team get younger, but it doesn’t erase the ill-fated trade for Garnett and Paul Pierce from 2013, opines Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. Garnett did fill a leadership role, but no one has stepped into that void in his absence, Bondy also argues.
  • Brooklyn owes its first-round pick to Boston in 2016 because of that Garnett-Pierce trade, and Tim Bontemps of the New York Post examines how that dynamic and others makes Young’s decision about his player option for next season a crucial one for the Nets.
  • The Celtics have once more assigned James Young to the D-League, the team announced. It’s the 10th time that Boston has sent 2014’s 17th overall pick on D-League assignment this season, though none of his previous nine trips have covered more than three days.
0 comments Boston Celtics Brooklyn Nets Indiana Pacers NBA G League New York Knicks Philadelphia 76ers

Clippers Sign Nate Robinson To Second 10-Day

By | at March 17, 2015 2:33 pm

TUESDAY, 2:33pm: The deal is official, the Clippers announced via press release (hat tip to Dan Woike of the Orange County Register).

MONDAY, 3:35pm: The Clippers will sign Nate Robinson to a second 10-day contract, reports Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com (Twitter link). Coach/executive Doc Rivers said earlier to reporters, including Markazi, that the move was likely (Twitter link), but Markazi hears that the signing will indeed take place because of an injury to Jamal Crawford that will keep him out at least 10 more days. Robinson’s first 10-day deal expires after tonight. Rivers also reiterated that he plans to sign Jordan Hamilton to a deal that covers the rest of the season, Markazi notes, so put together, the moves would give the team a full 15-man roster.

Robinson has averaged 4.0 points in 14.6 minutes per game in five appearances for the Clippers on his initial 10-day deal. It seemed the guard’s arrival on the roster would come much sooner, as the team was reportedly the front-runner for him in mid-January, shortly after he bought his way off the Celtics, but Rivers and company decided to pursue other options before circling back to the 30-year-old. The Bulls and Robinson engaged in exploratory talks following Derrick Rose‘s injury, but the discussion didn’t appear to progress any further.

The 10th-year veteran is set to become the only Clipper without a deal that carries at least through season’s end if he and Hamilton sign this week. Rivers had earlier spoken of a desire to pursue the post-deadline buyout market, but Robinson is the lone player to have engineered a buyout this season before joining the Clippers.

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Potential 2018 Free Agents Facing Cap Drop

By | at March 17, 2015 2:15 pm

The salary cap is likely to surge for the 2016/17 season, and teams and players anticipate another leap for 2017/18 that would take it above $100MM, as TNT’s David Aldridge wrote this week. However, the NBA and the players union reportedly acknowledge that it’s possible that the second jump is only temporary, and that the cap will return to its 2016/17 level for 2018/19. That would still represent quite a surge from this year’s $63.065MM cap, but with estimates ranging from about $85-90MM for 2015/16, that would be quite a comedown from $100MM-plus.

That’s a potential “recipe for disaster” for players set to hit free agency in 2018, as Aldridge put it. Already, there are 47 such players who can elect free agency no sooner than that summer, as long as their teams don’t cut them loose beforehand. The majority of them are first-round picks from last year signed to rookie scale contracts that would have the players in restricted free agency come July 2018. So, Andrew Wiggins and company could find a free agent market not only mined out from two years of dramatic leaps in the salary cap but further compressed by a suddenly more conservative cap. That’s also true for the 20 who are set for unrestricted free agency that summer, a group that includes James Harden, DeMarcus Cousins and Derrick Favors. Also among those 20 is Carmelo Anthony, who has an early termination option for 2018/19 that he might be more inclined to take in the hopes that the cap recovers for 2019/20. Paul George, who has a player option for 2018/19, is in the same position.

Here’s the complete list of players set for free agency in 2018, when the cap could shrink. Those with an (R) by their names are in line to become restricted free agents.

Nine others have player or early termination options for 2017/18 that they would seemingly be more likely to opt into if it appears by mid-2017 that there will indeed be a receding cap for 2018/19. The respective values of their options are listed by their names below, rounded to the nearest $1K:

Of course, all of this hinges on negotiations for the next collective bargaining agreement that are expected to take place after the 2016/17 season, when the league and the union have a mutual option on the existing agreement. The union, faced with the possibility of a cap that could plummet and surge from year to year, might be more willing at that point to consent to cap smoothing. The league might agree to keep the salary cap from dipping too low if the players are willing to make other concessions. In any case, there’s uncertainty for the players listed above, even if the potential consequences are a few years off.

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

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Rival Execs Unsure Cavs Want Love On Max Deal

By | at March 17, 2015 12:24 pm

Kevin Love silenced many rumors when he said in January that he plans to opt in for next season with the Cavs, but rival executives have begun to question whether Cleveland would want to re-sign Love for the maximum salary if he were to opt out, according to Chris Broussard of ESPN (video link). Many executives think Love will leave the Cavs, perhaps to sign with the Lakers, Broussard also says, reiterating earlier reports that the power forward has denied amid continued insistence that he’d like to stay in Cleveland. The Cavs haven’t given any indication that their desire for Love has waned, Broussard cautioned.

Love has missed the last two games because of a minor back ailment, and when he has played, he’s often sat out during fourth quarters. He hinted of frustration earlier this month with a role that has him acting as more of a spot-up shooter than in the past, though he’s mostly remained upbeat even amid a downturn in his scoring and rebounding averages and shot attempts per game. The Cavs have taken off despite the failure of Love to once again become the dynamic force he had been in years past with the Timberwolves, with Cleveland having gone 24-6 over its last 30 games to climb comfortably into second place in the Eastern Conference.

The 26-year-old has a player option worth $16.744MM for next season, but he’d likely be in line for a higher salary on a maximum-salary contract if he were to opt out and if a team were to make such an offer. The Cavs have plenty of other concerns this offseason, when all but five of their players can hit free agency, making it a distinct possibility that the team will have to pay the luxury tax next season if it returns largely intact.

The Celtics are reportedly among the teams planning a run at Love if he opts out, and he’d reportedly be willing to at least take a meeting with the Lakers if he becomes a free agent. In spite of his insistence that he wants a long-term future in Cleveland, the majority of Hoops Rumors readers believe he won’t remain on the Cavs next season.

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Northwest Notes: Hunt, Garnett, Young

By | at March 17, 2015 11:20 am

Nuggets players would endorse the removal of the interim tag from coach Melvin Hunt‘s job title, and it’s a move the organization will at least consider, GM Tim Connelly told Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post.

“As an organization, we have all been impressed with the job Melvin has done thus far,” Connelly said. “When the season concludes, he will be one of the candidates as we begin an exhaustive search to find a head coach.”

Hunt is an impressive 6-3 in his brief tenure, and Hochman argues that while he deserves a shot, there are other candidates who merit consideration, too. Here’s more from the Northwest Division:

  • The injection of 20th-year veteran Kevin Garnett into the inexperienced Timberwolves roster struck an immediate chord, Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders told reporters, including Newsday’s Roderick Boone. “It was like three little kids looking at Santa Claus coming down the chimney,” Saunders said of the reaction some of his younger players had to meeting Garnett.
  • Thaddeus Young indicated to the Wolves that he didn’t intend to pick up his player option worth about $10MM for next season, writes Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. Young had reportedly requested a trade through his agent. Young, who hasn’t decided on opting in with Brooklyn, credits the Timberwolves organization for accommodating his wishes, working with his agent and keeping him in the loop, as Zgoda relays. Saunders this week expressed his affection for Young as a player, as Boone notes in his story.
  • The Nuggets have begun to sit key players for rest, but Wilson Chandler, a free agent after next season, is not pleased, as Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post relays. “It’s tough when you’re fighting together but you’re getting set up for failure,” Chandler said. The decision isn’t coming from the players or Hunt, Dempsey writes, which suggests it’s the front office’s call.
  • Mike Sorensen of the Deseret News has more details on Greg Miller’s decision Monday to relinquish his role as CEO of the company that controls the Jazz, a move that team and company officials insist won’t have much effect on Jazz basketball operations.
  • The Jazz have recalled Ian Clark from the D-League, the team announced. He averaged just 14.0 points in 32.0 minutes per game but nailed 45.0% of his three-point attempts on an assignment that last nearly a month.
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Latest Salary Cap Projections

By | at March 17, 2015 9:55 am

The expectation of a leap in the salary cap to about $90MM for the 2016/17 is well-known and has been a matter of broad discussion since the league and its TV partners closed on a $24 billion deal this past fall. But the players union and the league also anticipate another surge for 2017/18 that would likely send the cap zooming past $100MM, as TNT’s David Aldridge writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. However, that second bump would be a product of artificial inflation of sorts, a ripple effect from the injection of the new TV revenue the year prior, as Aldridge details. So, there’s a chance the cap would contract from that $100MM-plus figure, setting up a decline for the 2018/19 season, according to Aldridge. The league and the union agree that such a dip is indeed possible, as USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt and Grantland Zach Lowe report (Twitter links). That could be “a recipe for disaster” for players who become free agents in 2018, as well as for teams that signed high-dollar deals the years prior, Aldridge writes.

There’s more on the changing salary cap, as we pass along:

  • The union’s final rejection of cap smoothing was no shock to the league, which had told teams to prepare for both outcomes, Aldridge notes in the same piece. Still, the league sought a gradual increase to the cap because some teams are concerned that they’ll be unable to compete for free agents in 2016 with so many opponents set up to have cap space, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders writes within in NBA AM piece.
  • Most executives from teams around the league estimate that the cap for next season will come in at a little more than $67MM, as Kyler reports in the same story. The league is now projecting a $67.4MM cap.
  • The low-end estimates for the 2016/17 cap are between $85MM and $86MM, and the high estimates are close to $90MM, Kyler hears. A couple of team executives told Kyler that they assume that the cap will be $87MM.
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