How The Cavs/Jazz Trade Worked Financially
It seemed from the moment that news of Tuesday’s trade between the Cavs and Jazz surfaced, the deal was somehow more significant than a swap involving four backups normally would be. The Cavs reportedly see some value in John Lucas III, Malcolm Thomas and Erik Murphy as players rather than simply as non-guaranteed contracts, but an earlier report indicated the team had been looking for non-guaranteed deals specifically to strengthen its bid for Kevin Love. The trio doesn’t represent an overwhelming step toward Love, but the move gives the Cavs more options they can present to the Wolves, which might make the difference as Minnesota president of basketball operations Flip Saunders sorts through several competing packages.
A key part of the trade involves a separate transaction. The Cavs struck a deal that same evening with No. 33 overall pick Joe Harris worth precisely $2,710,369 for three years, including a guaranteed $884,879, according to Mark Deeks of ShamSports. That it runs three years indicates that the Cavs need to use cap space to complete the transaction, since neither the minimum-salary exception nor the room exception, the two vehicles other than cap space the Cavs have for signing free agents, allows for contracts longer than two seasons.
The Cavs have yet to officially announce their deal with Harris, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they haven’t officially signed him. Sometimes teams never make official announcements when they sign draft picks, for any number of possible reasons. The Bulls never announced having signed 2008 No. 1 overall pick Derrick Rose to his rookie scale contract, as Deeks pointed out earlier this month (on Twitter). The RealGM transactions log shows the Harris signing as having taken place, and the presence of his salary figures on Deeks’ database is further indication that the Harris signing is official. That means the signing had to have taken place prior to the trade, which the Cavs did officially announce, since Cleveland wouldn’t have had the cap room necessary to sign Harris to his deal had they executed the trade first.
The Cavs entered Tuesday evening with $56,030,677 in salary and a cap hold of $4,592,200 for Andrew Wiggins, who remains unsigned. That left them with $2,442,123 worth of space beneath the $63.065MM cap. The Harris signing brought that room down to $1,557,244. The Cavs, as the NBA allows them to do, then appeared to split the Jazz trade into two parts. The first involves taking on Lucas’ $1.6MM salary and Murphy’s $816,482 salary in exchange for Felix’s $816,482 salary. Murphy and Felix essentially cancel each other out, so it amounts to an absorption of the $1.6MM Lucas salary, putting the Cavs over the cap by $42,756. The NBA lets teams complete trades that take them as much as $100K above the salary cap without conforming to salary-matching rules, so the Lucas salary just barely squeezes in under this requirement.
That move puts Cleveland over the cap, leaving the Cavs to execute the rest of the trade, a simple acquisition of Malcolm Thomas, using the salary-matching rules required of a capped-out team. The incoming $948,163 salary of Thomas is obviously greater than nothing, which is what Utah is getting in this side of the deal, but fortunately for Cleveland, players on minimum-salary contracts don’t count as incoming salary in the NBA’s matching game. Thomas makes the minimum, so the trade is kosher.
The Jazz needn’t worry about splitting the transaction or dealing with any salary-matching requirements, since they were well under the cap before the trade and are even further beneath it in the aftermath of the deal. The Cavs must continue to deal with the ripple effects of having landed over the cap. By all appearances, that bars them from aggregating Thomas in a subsequent trade for two months. While the Cavs can trade Thomas by himself, no trade limitation applies to either Lucas or Murphy, since Cleveland acquired them while under the cap. Cleveland nonetheless appears ready to sign Wiggins, triggering a 30-day waiting period before he can be traded, and since the Wolves are insistent that Wiggins be a part of any deal for Love, it doesn’t appear as though Cleveland is in any position to rush to make a Love trade official.
All of this hinges on the Harris signing truly having already taken place, as all indications suggest. If it weren’t official, it’s possible the Cavs could have structured the trade differently with the intent of later opening up the cap room necessary to formalize the Harris signing. Still, it appears as though deft management of timing gave Cleveland the opportunity to sign its second-rounder to a three-year deal, which is significantly more valuable to the team than a two-year contract would be, as I explained last year. The Cavs did so while still acquiring non-guaranteed contracts that they can flip, sooner or later. Utah receives some more cap space, as well as Felix, ostensibly the player with the most upside in this transaction, having been picked 33rd overall just a year ago. Time will tell if it was indeed a trade that helped both teams, but the deal has the makings of being just that.
Magic Sign Devyn Marble
11:12am: The deal is official, the Magic announced via press release.
10:59pm: The sides have an agreement in principle on a three-year deal that’s fully guaranteed for the first season, Robbins writes in his full story. Since it’s for three years, that means the Magic are indeed using cap space.
10:52am: The Magic are on track to sign No. 56 overall pick Devyn Marble as soon as later today, reports Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link). The rights to the former Iowa shooting guard went from Denver to Orlando as part of last month’s Arron Afflalo trade.
Marble, the son of former NBA player Roy Marble, showed steady improvement over his final three seasons with the Hawkeyes, averaging 17.0 points in 30.2 minutes per game with 34.9% three-point shooting as a senior. He aligned himself with another former NBA player when he chose B.J. Armstrong as his agent.
Orlando will likely use some of its ample cap space on what’s probably a deal for the minimum salary. It would be somewhat surprising if it were fully guaranteed, as such deals aren’t too common for late second-round picks. The Magic appear to be coming to a much quicker resolution with their second-rounder this year than they did last summer, when they didn’t officially have a contract with No. 51 overall pick Romero Osby until September 27th.
Contract Details: LeBron, Deng, Carter, Gasol
The idea that the Cavs would trade LeBron James sometime during his two-year contract is outlandish, but just in case it happens, the deal includes a 15% trade kicker, according to Mark Deeks of ShamSports. Deeks has updated his salary database with plenty of new information on deals signed within the past few weeks, so we’ll pass along some of his noteworthy findings. All links to go the relevant salary page at ShamSports.
- Luol Deng, LeBron’s replacement with the Heat, also has a 15% trade kicker, as do new Grizzlies swingman Vince Carter and Knicks signee Jason Smith.
- The last year of Pau Gasol‘s three-year deal with the Bulls is a player option.
- The final season of the contract Joe Harris signed with the Cavs is non-guaranteed.
- Eric Griffin‘s three-year, minimum-salary contract with the Mavs is non-guaranteed, with the exception of a $150K partial guarantee for this coming season.
- Jodie Meeks‘ deal with the Pistons was originally reported to be more than $19MM, but it actually checks in at $18.81MM.
- Damjan Rudez will make $3.449MM over the life of his three-year deal with the Pacers, which includes a team option for the final season. Shayne Whittington‘s partial guarantee with the team this year is worth $25K.
- Russ Smith‘s deal with the Pelicans runs three years at the minimum salary, but only the first season is fully guaranteed. Fellow Pelicans rookie Patric Young‘s two-year deal is non-guaranteed, save for a $55K partial guarantee this year.
Hoops Rumors 2014 Free Agent Tracker
Dozens of players have signed new contracts in the past few weeks, and some noteworthy free agents remain without one. You can see where they all stand with the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Tracker. Using our tracker, you can quickly sort through contract agreements, sorting by team, position, free agent type, and a handful of other variables.
A few notes on the tracker:
- Contract years and dollars are based on what’s been reported to date, so in some cases those amounts are approximations rather than official figures. Salaries aren’t necessarily fully guaranteed, either.
- A restricted free agent who signs an offer sheet will be listed under the team that extended the offer sheet, but note that those signings won’t be official unless the player’s original team declines to match within the three-day period to do so. If the original team matches, we’ll update the tracker to show that the player is back with that team.
- The tracker doesn’t include signed draft picks, since those players weren’t free agents. We’re keeping on top of 2014 draft pick signings in this post. The tracker also doesn’t include “draft-and-stash” players who’ve signed this summer, like Nikola Mirotic and Bojan Bogdanovic. You can find information about those players on their personal rumor pages (Click these links for Mirotic‘s and Bogdanovic‘s personal rumor pages, and find out how to access any player’s rumor page here).
Our 2014 Free Agent Tracker can be found anytime on the right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features,” and it’s also under the “Tools” menu atop the site. It will be updated throughout the offseason, so be sure to check back for the latest info. If you have any corrections, please let us know right here.
Ray Allen Mulling Retirement Amid Cavs Pursuit
JULY 23RD: Allen is leaning towards returning for a 19th season to join LeBron with the Cavs, sources tell Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe (via Twitter). We heard earlier tonight that Allen will be making a decision once he gets MRIs on his legs.
JULY 12TH, 9:46am: If Allen plays another season, it will be with the Cavs, sources tell Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio. Amico notes that Cleveland has been in contact with Allen’s agent as their efforts to add familiar veterans around LeBron James intensify.
2:51pm: The Cavs haven’t had contact with Allen yet, according to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
1:13pm: Allen’s priority is to keep playing with LeBron, wherever LeBron chooses to go, tweets Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick.
JULY 9TH, 10:10am: The Cavs are trying to woo free agent Ray Allen, reports Chris Broussard of ESPN.com (on Twitter), but the shooting guard is strongly considering retirement, as Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders hears (Twitter link). The pursuit Allen would appear to be part of Cleveland’s effort to entice LeBron James to sign there after the Cavs agreed to a trade this morning that will give them enough cap room to accommodate a max contract for James.
Allen, who’s 11 days shy of his 39th birthday, has been leaning toward returning for another season with the hope of playing with James for another season, but it’s unclear whether he wants to follow the four-time MVP from Miami to Cleveland should James elect to move north. The Jim Tanner client remains one of the league’s better three-point shooters, though his accuracy from behind the arc slipped to 37.5% this past season, his lowest mark in four years after three straight seasons in which he bettered his career percentage of 40.0%.
Western Notes: Clips, Jazz, Withey, Buycks, Mavs
Steve Ballmer’s $2 billion bid for the Clippers equals more than 12 times the total revenue projections for the team from 2013/14, but no major pro sports team has ever sold for more than five times of its total revenue, according to Bank of America. Ramona Shelburne and Darren Rovell of ESPN.com have the details, which back up the contention of Clippers CEO Dick Parsons that it would be tough to envision another bidder coming in so high.
- The Jazz received $1.3MM in cash Tuesday as part of their three-for-one trade with the Cavs, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). That’s slightly more than the $1MM that was originally reported.
- Jeff Withey‘s minimum salary became fully guaranteed for this coming season after the Pelicans declined to waive him before the end of Tuesday, the final day they could do so without owing him any money, according to Mark Deeks of ShamSports. Teammate Luke Babbitt also earned a $100K partial guarantee when the Pelicans kept him past Tuesday, which was also the final day his contract had been fully non-guaranteed.
- Dwight Buycks is drawing the eye of the Clippers and Suns, and multiple teams from overseas are interested in him as well, Sportando’s Enea Trapani reports. The Raptors waived Buycks on Saturday, before his contract would have become fully guaranteed.
- The Mavs are nearing a deal with Jameer Nelson, but owner Mark Cuban insisted to Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com that the team isn’t trying to unload Raymond Felton. “We like him and think he will have a great year,” Cuban said.
- Cuban also made an appearance on Sportsradio 1310 The Ticket in Dallas this week, during which he explained that the Mavericks strategically used the ultra-logical approach of the Rockets‘ front office to put together an offer for Chandler Parsons that was unlikely to be matched (link via The Dallas Morning News).
Kings Plan To Submit Claim For Omri Casspi
The Kings plan on making a waiver claim on Omri Casspi, whom the Pelicans released today, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Casspi would go to the team with the worst record from last season if multiple teams submit claims, so the Bucks, Sixers, Magic, Celtics, Jazz and Lakers could all prevent him from ending up in Sacramento. Casspi’s contract is for only the minimum salary, so teams could use the minimum-salary exception to accommodate their claims.
Casspi has expressed interest in a return to Sacramento, where he spent his first two, and most productive two, years of his NBA career. Stein reported that the Pelicans were likely to waive the 26-year-old even before the trade that brought him from Houston became official, and agent Dan Fegan had already begun reaching out to other teams, as Casspi told Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee.
Any team that claims Casspi would have until the end of August 5th to turn around and waive him again before his non-guaranteed salary became fully guaranteed. It’s unlikely any team would make such a move, but the option of doing so would nonetheless provide a degree of flexibility. That might be enough to persuade another team to submit a claim and keep him from Sacramento.
Pelicans Waive Omri Casspi
4:32pm: The team has officially announced the move on its website.
4:16pm: The Pelicans have waived Omri Casspi, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link), a move that Stein reported the team was likely to make in the wake of its three-way trade to acquire him from the Rockets. The team has yet to make an official announcement.
Casspi’s minimum salary was to have become fully guaranteed if the Pelicans hadn’t waived him by the end of the day on August 5th. However, that guarantee date will still apply if a team claims him off waivers. It seems he’d be a decent candidate for a waiver claim, since he was a part of Houston’s rotation this past season and would come cheaply. The 26-year-old averaged 6.9 points in 18.1 minutes with 34.7% three-point shooting for the Rockets, reversing a steady decline in production that had taken place since his rookie year.
Casspi told Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee that agent Dan Fegan has spoken with several teams about a deal should he hit free agency, as we noted earlier. The Kings are among those clubs, Casspi said, expressing a desire to return to Sacramento, where he played his first two seasons in the league.
Rockets To Sign Clint Capela
JULY 23RD: Capela has signed his contract, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Houston will have to receive the signed contract before it becomes official.
JULY 14TH: The Rockets have been working with No. 25 pick Clint Capela to secure his buyout from Chalon-Sur-Saone of France and a FIBA letter of clearance, and they intend to sign him to a rookie scale contract this summer, reports Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. The outcome is the result that Capela’s camp had been pushing for after the Rockets apparently asked him to remain overseas for next season. Feigen’s piece doesn’t refer to the request, which Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com had reported over the weekend, but he does cast the Rockets as having been ambivalent about the notion of Capela playing for the team this season. Now, it appears the team and Capela are in lockstep toward a contract.
“We are planning out roster for next season. We expect him to be a part of it,” Rockets executive vice president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas said. “We’re in the process of working toward that.”
Capela is likely to receive a salary worth more than $1.189MM for next season, as our table of salaries for 2014 first-rounders shows. The Rockets had been attempting to preserve cap flexibility as they chased LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh, and Houston shopped the pick before the draft. There was also reportedly interest from other teams in trading for Capela’s rights once the Rockets made the selection, but Houston never showed mutual interest in such a swap. Now that the team’s marquee free agent targets are headed elsewhere and Chandler Parsons is off to Dallas, there’s room for Capela, a raw talent who averaged 9.8 points and 6.9 rebounds in 21.4 minutes per game for his French team this past season.
Thunder, Huestis Cut D-League Deal Before Draft
The Thunder and representatives for Josh Huestis made an arrangement prior to the draft in which Huestis agreed to sign with Oklahoma City’s D-League affiliate for this season in exchange for the Thunder taking him 29th overall, agent Mitchell Butler tells Grantland’s Zach Lowe (Twitter link). Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman originally reported this weekend that Huestis was likely to sign with the Thunder’s D-League team.
Huestis was projected as a second-round pick at best, coming in 44th in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress rankings, and Chad Ford of ESPN.com had him as only the 90th best draft prospect. Butler told Lowe that he wasn’t sure that his client would be drafted at all and saw the deal with Oklahoma City as the best way to make sure that a team would pick him (Twitter link). Huestis didn’t want to play for a European team and was on board with the D-League idea, Butler added, noting that Huestis wouldn’t have gone for the plan if any other NBA team had asked him to do so, with the exception of the Spurs (Twitter link). Butler also contends that the arrangement doesn’t violate the NBA’s rules against discussing potential compensation with a prospect prior to the draft, as Lowe also tweets.
The small forward from Stanford is in line for a fraction of the more than $1.1MM that he would have received this season if he were signing an NBA rookie scale contract for the standard 120% of the rookie scale amount, as our table of likely first-round salaries shows. D-League salaries top out around $25K. It’s not clear whether the Thunder have promised to sign Huestis next summer as part of the deal or if it’ll be up to him to prove his worth in the D-League this year. Huestis expressed confidence in his abilities when he spoke with Zach Links of Hoops Rumors prior to the draft.
The Thunder also moved to cut costs last year with their first-round pick, doling out only 80% of the scale amount to 2013 26th overall pick Andre Roberson. A change in D-League rules for this year allows NBA draft picks to sign directly with the affiliate of the team that holds their NBA rights, helping pave the way for Oklahoma City’s Huestis plan. The Thunder had to work trades last year to acquire the first pick in the 2013 D-League draft to grab the D-League rights to No. 40 overall pick Grant Jerrett, moves they won’t have to undertake this time around.