Cavs Notes: Shumpert, Johnson, Lue
The Cavaliers privately deny that they were making Iman Shumpert available in trade talk before the deadline last month, but some in the organization think he might be doing too much to justify the four-year, $40MM contract he signed last summer, reports Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. The fifth-year swingman is averaging career lows in points and field goal percentage since returning in December from a preseason wrist injury, and he often turns the ball over when he tries to drive to the hoop, Lloyd writes.
“His biggest thing for us is defending the best player every single night,” coach Tyronn Lue said. “His shot is going to come and go. Some games, he’s going to get six or seven shots, some games he gets two shots. I’m not really worried about his shots and his scoring. He just has to step up and shoot them with confidence. But for the most part, for Shump and for us, his value is every single night guarding the best player, which he’s done a great job of.”
See more on the Eastern Conference leaders:
- Some Cavs players were convinced that Joe Johnson would sign with the team and were already talking about the sort of lineup they could play with him on the roster, Lloyd writes in a separate piece. Johnson instead signed with the Heat after earlier reports that he envisioned joining the Cavs.
- Tremendous weight is on Lue’s shoulders as he navigates his first NBA head coaching job and deals with immediate expectations of a title, but he’s keeping perspective, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com examines. “I want to win and I know I’m supposed to win, but I think the biggest thing for me is I have to do the best job I can do, but then also enjoy it,” Lue said. “I just can’t put the pressure on of winning a championship, winning a championship, because then I’d never be able to sleep.”
- The “word is” the Cavs signed Sasha Kaun last summer to give since-deposed coach David Blatt an ally in the locker room, according to Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Haynes reported last week that Cavs players were angry that the team decided against re-signing Kendrick Perkins to instead do the deal with Kaun. Perkins played the role of enforcer for Cleveland last season, and LeBron James and Kyrie Irving say having someone to fill that gritty capacity is vital, Haynes notes. Still, it’s “laughable” to suggest that Cavs players don’t think they have enough to win the championship as is, McMenamin opines.
Michael Carter Williams Out For Rest Of Season
Michael Carter-Williams will miss the rest of the season and undergo surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left hip, the team announced. The injury damages whatever hopes of a postseason still exist for Milwaukee, which is in 12th place in the Eastern Conference and six games back of the last playoff spot. It’ll take the point guard three months to recover, according to the team.
It’s uncertain whether Carter-Williams will play again for the Bucks at all, since he was in multiple trade rumors before last month’s deadline. Coach Jason Kidd benched the former Rookie of the Year and marquee offseason signee Greg Monroe early last month, and Carter-Williams hasn’t played at all since February 27th because of patella tendinitis and his hip.
It’s much too late for the Bucks to apply for a disabled player exception, since the deadline for those is January 15th, but the hardship provision could be in play. The hardship would give the Bucks the opportunity to sign an extra player even though they’re at the 15-man roster limit. Milwaukee is also without Steve Novak for the rest of the season, and it’s uncertain when either John Henson, who’s been out since January, and Greivis Vasquez, who hasn’t played since November, will return. A team can apply for a hardship exception if it has four players expected to miss at least two weeks.
The injury robs Carter-Williams of a chance to make a final impression before he enters an offseason in which he becomes eligible for a rookie scale extension. He’s averaging career lows in points, shot attempts, assists and minutes per game, depressing his market value.
Celtics Sign Coty Clarke To 10-Day Contract
The Celtics have signed Coty Clarke to a 10-day contract, the team announced. The 6’7″ combo forward has been with Boston’s D-League affiliate and was on the NBA roster for training camp. The team was carrying an open roster spot, so no corresponding move is necessary. The contract, worth $30,888, will cover four games, against the Grizzlies, Rockets, Pacers and Thunder.
Clarke has averaged 16.1 points and 7.5 rebounds in 26.0 minutes per game across 39 D-League appearances this season, only 11 of which have been starts. Still, the 23-year-old displayed an ability to stretch the floor, with 38.8% 3-point shooting. This season has represented a return stateside for the former University of Arkansas player who spent last season with Hapoel Kazrin in Israel after going undrafted in 2014. He put up 9.4 points and 5.6 rebounds in 22.3 minutes per game with 43.1% 3-point shooting as a senior at Arkansas in 2013/14.
Boston gave Clarke only a cameo appearance during the preseason, but he appears to fit what the team has been looking for more recently. Coach Brad Stevens pointed to shooting and versatility as key attributes he wanted in someone who would fill the roster vacancy, and Clarke looks like he can deliver on both fronts.
Atlantic Notes: Rambis, Wright, Sloan, Early
Phil Jackson hoped Kurt Rambis would prove the right choice to keep the Knicks head coaching job for the long term when he installed him as interim bench boss last month, league sources tell Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com, and Rambis has to win to secure his position, Begley writes. A desire to better the team’s record this season is why Rambis is shying away from playing Kristaps Porzingis at center, even though the coach admits the idea intrigues him, as Begley relays. Rambis said he’s spoken to management about whether to give rookie Jerian Grant more playing time but added that the team’s brass hasn’t signaled that it wants to shift focus strictly to player development yet, according to Begley. See more on the Knicks, who’ve reportedly struck a deal with Tony Wroten:
- Delon Wright has barely played for the Raptors this season despite having been the 20th overall pick last year, with just 75 total minutes under his belt, but that doesn’t mean coach Dwane Casey is down on him, notes Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. “I think he’s going to be a heck of a player in this league,” Casey said. “His defense is lagging his offense right now. Offensively, he’s an excellent pick-and-roll player, but there’s two sides to the game. … Guarding the speedsters in the NBA is going to be his next challenge on the defensive end. He’s improved tremendously with his shooting, his 3-point shooting.”
- Soon-to-be free agent Donald Sloan has been the starting point guard for the Nets since mid-January after fighting in the preseason simply to make the opening-night roster, but he’s not upset with Brooklyn for making him work for his opportunity, telling Steve Simineri of NetsDaily that he didn’t feel “shafted” at any point. The fifth-year NBA veteran has been the most productive among Brooklyn’s cheap finds this past offseason, Simineri observes, positioning himself for more job security to start next season.
- The Nets passed on Wroten earlier this season under the direction of former GM Billy King because the Sixers had him under minutes restrictions as he came back from injury and because of his high rate of turnovers, tweets NetsDaily. He’s averaged 3.7 per game the past two seasons.
- Cleanthony Early appears closer to a return to game action from having been shot in his right knee in late December, as the Knicks have assigned him to the D-League, the team announced (Twitter link).
Traded First-Round Pick Exchange Scenarios
The season ends five weeks from Wednesday, and we still only know with 100% certainty that one first-round pick is changing hands. That’s the Nets pick that’s going to the Celtics without any protection. Every other first-rounder has some sort of protection involved, though the past several weeks since we last looked at traded first-round pick exchange scenarios have lent near-certainty to several possible outcomes. Five have become either overwhelmingly likely or unlikely to happen, and it’s become likely that the Heat will send their pick to the Sixers, an outcome we pegged as too close to call last time around.
Still, less certainty exists than last time around that Houston will send its pick to Denver, thanks to the up-and-down performance of the Rockets that has them in danger of missing the playoffs. The stretch run will resolve that matter, while other scenarios among the seven we list in the toss-up category below won’t become certainties until the lottery is over. Here’s a look at the chances that every possibility comes to pass:
- Nets to Celtics (unprotected) — 100% certain to happen
- Wizards to Suns (top-9 protected) — Likely to happen: Washington is four and a half games better than Sacramento, which occupies the ninth position in the reverse standings. The team entering the lottery at No. 10 stands only about a 4% chance of vaulting into the top nine, so the Wizards would have to lose that lead to have a realistic chance to keep their pick. They’re only a game and a half out of the playoffs, so any tanking is still probably a ways off.
- Cavaliers to Suns (top-10 protected) — Overwhelmingly likely to happen: The Cavs would have to miss the playoffs to even have a chance of keeping their pick, so we can safely assume this one is headed to Phoenix.
- Mavericks to Celtics (top-7 protected) — Likely to happen: The overtime loss Dallas suffered to the Nuggets on Sunday underscored the fact that the Mavs are no lock for the playoffs, but the fate of their pick is much more certain. The Mavs, up three in the loss column on ninth-place Utah, would still need a major lucky break in the lottery to end up keeping the pick if they miss the playoffs.
- Heat to Warriors (Golden State gets Miami’s pick if it falls outside the top 10 and comes after Golden State’s pick and Oklahoma City’s pick) — Overwhelmingly unlikely to happen (flipped from unlikely to happen last time): A complicated set of scenarios surround this exchange, but essentially, the Heat would have to finish with a better record than the Warriors as well as the Thunder for this to happen. That’s out of the questions unless the Heat win all but one of their remaining games and the Warriors lose all but one of theirs. So, we can safely count out this scenario, and really, we could have called this one overwhelmingly unlikely some time ago.
- Heat to Sixers (Philadelphia gets Miami’s pick if it falls outside the top 10 and comes before either Golden State’s pick or Oklahoma City’s pick) — Likely to happen (flipped from toss-up last time): This would-be swap is a corollary to the long-shot Heat/Warriors possibility described above. Since we can assume that scenario won’t happen, Philadelphia is in strong position to wind up with Miami’s pick. The Heat would have to miss the playoffs to have a shot at keeping it, but they’re up five games on the Bulls and Pistons, who are tied for the last playoff spot. They’re no certainty for the playoffs, but they’d still need to fall behind a few more teams or get lucky in the lottery to hold on to the pick.
- Thunder to Warriors (Golden State gets Oklahoma City’s pick if it falls outside the top 15 and comes after Miami’s pick and Golden State’s pick) — Overwhelmingly unlikely to happen (flipped from unlikely to happen last time): This is another one related to the Heat/Warriors exchange above. The Thunder would have to catch the Warriors for this one to happen, and Golden State has a 13-game lead on Oklahoma City. The Warriors’ loss Sunday to the Lakers would have to be the harbinger of an epic collapse for this scenario to play out.
- Thunder to Sixers (Philadelphia gets Miami’s pick if it falls outside the top 15 and comes before either Golden State’s pick or Oklahoma City’s pick) — Overwhelmingly likely to happen (flipped from likely to happen last time): Assuming the Thunder don’t send their pick to the Warriors, they’re almost certainly sending the pick to Philly. Oklahoma City, at 28-12, would have to miss the playoffs — or make the playoffs with the worst record among postseason teams — to keep the pick. The Thunder have a 12-game lead on the Rockets, currently the team with the worst record among those in the playoffs if they started today.
- Warriors to Sixers (Philadelphia gets Golden State’s pick if it comes before either Miami’s pick or Oklahoma City’s pick, as long as Miami’s pick falls outside the top 10 and Oklahoma City’s pick falls outside the top 15) — Overwhelmingly unlikely to happen (flipped from unlikely to happen last time): The final of this string of five possible outcomes depends on whether the Thunder or the Heat can catch the Warriors, and as we noted above, Golden State is up 13 games on Oklahoma City, the closer of the two.
- Rockets to Nuggets (top-14 protected) — Toss-up (flipped from likely to happen last time): This pick comes down to whether or not Houston makes the playoffs. Houston had a lead of four and a half games over ninth place the last time we did this exercise, and with the talent of the Rockets, that seemed safe. The current margin of one and a half games and the team’s continued inconsistency leave the fate of this pick uncertain.
- Lakers to Sixers (top-3 protected) — Toss-up: The Lakers had the best of both worlds Sunday, when they beat the Warriors and the Suns also won to preserve L.A.’s margin of four and a half games for the second worst record in the league. Still, the Lakers know from last year, when they vaulted from the fourth position in the lottery to No. 2, that the fate of their pick largely comes down to ping-pong balls. The team with the second worst record entering the lottery has roughly a 43% chance of dropping out of the top three.
- Grizzlies to Nuggets (Denver gets the Memphis pick if it falls anywhere from No. 6 to No. 14) — Unlikely to happen: The Grizzlies keep this pick if they make the playoffs, and while Sunday’s loss to the Suns is an inauspicious sign, Memphis is still seven and a half games up on ninth-place Utah. That should be enough of a cushion, even with Marc Gasol out for the season.
- Timberwolves to Celtics (top-12 protected) — Overwhelmingly unlikely to happen (flipped from unlikely to happen last time): The mathematical chances that the lottery would drop the team that finishes with the 12th worst record into the 13th or 14th pick are only about 4%, and even lower for the team that finishes 10th or 11th worst. Thus, Minnesota would realistically have to climb out of the bottom 12 in the standings for Boston to have a shot at this pick, and the Wolves are 10 and a half games worse than 13th-place Washington.
- Knicks to Nuggets (Denver gets the better pick of its own and New York’s) —Toss-up: The Knicks have but a half-game lead on the Nuggets, so this one is anyone’s guess.
- Knicks to Raptors (Toronto gets New York’s pick if it comes after Denver’s pick) —Toss-up: The Raptors will end up with whichever pick the Nuggets don’t take in the pick swap described immediately above, so with precious little separation between New York and Denver, this one is just as hard to call.
- Nuggets to Raptors (Toronto gets the Denver’s pick if it comes after New York’s pick) — Toss-up: See the explanation for the last two picks.
- Trail Blazers to Nuggets (top-14 protected) — Toss-up: Denver gets this pick if Portland makes the playoffs. Three games separate the seventh-place Blazers from ninth-place Utah, but only two in the loss column, so it’ll be a close call.
- Kings to Bulls (top-10 protected) — Toss-up: Sacramento is in a virtual tie with Milwaukee for the ninth and 10th places in the reverse standings, with only two games of separation between them and 11th-place Orlando. Throw in the roughly 9% chance the 10th-place team has of getting passed in the lottery, and this one’s far from decided.
- Kings to Sixers (Philadelphia gets the better of Sacramento’s pick and its own if Sacramento’s pick falls inside the top 10) — Unlikely to happen: The Sixers are 18 games behind the Kings, but the capriciousness of the lottery helps keep this one from going into the overwhelmingly unlikely to happen category. Sacramento is only two games better than New Orleans, which occupies sixth place in the reverse standings. So the Kings could easily enter the lottery at slot No. 6 and have about a 21.5% chance of netting a top-three pick. The Sixers, assuming they hang on to their lead of four and a half games for the worst record, are poised to enter the lottery with a 35.7% chance of dropping out of the top three. So this exchange is still in limbo.
- Sixers to Kings (Sacramento gets the inferior of its own pick and Philadelphia’s pick if its own pick falls inside the top 10) — Unlikely to happen: See the scenario immediately above.
Southwest Notes: Dekker, Parsons, Anderson
It’s mostly been a lost season for Sam Dekker, the 18th overall pick in last year’s draft who spent months on the shelf because of back surgery, notes Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders. The Rockets clearly could have used a greater contribution than the six minutes in three games he’s seen so far, and the inability to deliver more has left Dekker with regrets, as Brigham details.
“There are times where, I’m not going to lie about it, you can get really down on yourself when there’s long stretches where you’re not seeing the court. That’s been new to me. I’ve always played,” Dekker said. “But I’ve found myself really leaning on my vets, and that’s helped a lot. Trevor [Ariza], for one, has been great to me. He talks me through things, knows when I’m down, knows what I need to hear, and seeing a guy who works that hard makes me want to get back in the gym. It keeps me motivated. I know I’m going to have a long career in this league. I just have to stay positive.”
See more on the Rockets amid news from the Southwest Division:
- Chandler Parsons wouldn’t rule out going back to the Rockets in free agency this summer, as he said on the “Channel 33” podcast (audio link; transcription via HoopsHype). The Mavericks small forward is almost certain to turn down his player option, and Houston is expected to pursue him, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. “Houston was home for me for three years,” Parsons said. “I definitely would never count that option out. I have great memories there. They have a great crowd, a great city to live in … I have nothing but respect and love for them. I would never count that out.”
- Ryan Anderson said he hasn’t talked to Pelicans management about his free agency and has yet to develop a feel for how it will go, notes Justin Verrier of ESPN.com. Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry has left him on the bench for key stretches of late, but Anderson indicated that he doesn’t lament that as much as the lack of opportunity to play with a fully healthy Pelicans team during his time in New Orleans, as Verrier chronicles.
- Gentry regretted a Wednesday comment that the Pelicans are out of the playoffs, but after two more losses Thursday and Saturday, he acknowledges it’s time to shift focus, as Verrier notes in a separate piece. “At this stage, like I said, it would be a miracle almost for us to make the playoffs,” Gentry said. “We really have to start looking at developing a culture and how we’re gonna play in the future and figuring out guys on this team, how they fit into the system and if they’re going to be able to fit in a system.”
10-Day Contract Tracker
A renewed flurry of 10-day contracts has taken place around the NBA in the wake of the trade deadline and buyout season, with new roster vacancies prompting the call for short-term trials. Seven teams signed players to 10-day contracts this week, while others are investigating the possibility of more 10-day deals.
The bulk of the signings that take place in the NBA between now and the end of the regular season figure to be of the 10-day variety, and we’ll keep on top of all of them. Hoops Rumors has created a database that allows you to track every 10-day signing all season long. The 10-Day Contract Tracker includes information on all 10-day contracts signed from the 2006/07 season on, giving you a chance to identify trends regarding your favorite teams and players. The search filters in the database make it easy to sort by team, player and year. Just be sure to write a player’s last name first if searching in that field. You can even see whether a player and team signed a second 10-day contract, and if the short-term deals led to an agreement that covered the rest of the season.
For instance, if you want to see the 10-day contracts that Jordan McRae has signed this season, enter his last name and first name into the player search box. Similarly, if you want to see all the 10-day contracts that the Suns have given out this year, just select them from the team drop-down menu. Adjust the year drop-down menu to see 10-day contract information from previous seasons. Plenty of other filters allow you to further customize your look at the data.
A link to our 10-Day Contract Tracker can be found at any time in the Tools menu at the top of the page, or in the right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features.” We’ll be keeping it up to date for the rest of the season, so be sure to check back to keep tabs on the latest signings as they become official.
Pistons Sign Justin Harper To Second 10-Day
SATURDAY, 11:58am: The signing is official, the Pistons announced today.
FRIDAY, 11:38am: The Pistons will sign Justin Harper to another 10-day contract, coach/executive Stan Van Gundy said today, according to Keith Langlois of Pistons.com (Twitter link). That’s no surprise, since Van Gundy remarked two days ago that he was leaning toward another 10-day deal with the power forward, as Rod Beard of The Detroit News wrote. Harper’s first 10-day deal expires tonight. The latest pact will represent a tiny investment of $49,709 with a larger decision looming afterward, since Detroit will have to either re-sign him for the season or let him walk.
Harper, 26, has averaged 3.3 points in 7.7 minutes per game across three appearances so far with the Pistons, who’ve given him his first regular season NBA action in four years. He played at a handful of stops overseas and in the D-League in between, and he was with the Nets for the preseason this past fall.
The collapse of Detroit’s trade for power forward Donatas Motiejunas and injuries to power forward Anthony Tolliver and small forward Stanley Johnson prompted the Pistons to turn to Harper. Tolliver is liable to miss two more weeks while Johnson is out through at least the weekend, Langlois tweets.
Sixers Sign Christian Wood To 10-Day Deal
3:41pm: The signing is official, the team announced via press release.
1:18pm: The Sixers will re-sign first-year pro Christian Wood, whom they waived earlier this season to make room for Elton Brand, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). It’ll be a 10-day contract, a source tells Jake Fischer of SI Now (Twitter link). Philadelphia has kept an open roster spot in the wake of losing JaKarr Sampson because of a failed three-team trade at the deadline, so no corresponding move is necessary. Wood has been playing with Philly’s D-League affiliate since shortly after the Sixers cut him from the NBA roster in January.
The 20-year-old power forward was a well-regarded prospect coming out of UNLV last spring whose failure to get drafted was a mild surprise. He said this past November that he didn’t think he’d fall past pick No. 25 but pointed to concerns teams had about his level of motivation as a major reason his stock slipped. He reportedly agreed to sign with the Rockets shortly after the draft, but evidently that deal fell through, and he wound up joining the Sixers instead on a four-year contract with just $50K guaranteed. He’ll make $30,888 on his new 10-day with Philly.
Wood has put up 15.8 points and 8.8 rebounds in 26.8 minutes per game across 26 D-League appearances this season, starting in just 17 of those games. He nonetheless saw a decent-sized chunk of playing time in 14 games at the NBA level before his release, averaging 3.6 points and 2.3 rebounds in 8.1 minutes contest.
Financial Impact Of Deadline, Buyouts: Northwest
The effects of the trade deadline and buyout season are still being felt around the NBA as teams negotiate with new free agents and fill open roster spots. Hoops Rumors will be taking a team-by-team look at the financial ramifications of all the movement. We began earlier with looks at the Southwest, Pacific and Central divisions, and we’ll continue with the Central Division:
Jazz
Utah’s parade of 10-day contracts appears to be over thanks to the deadline trade that filled the team’s open roster spot and netted the Jazz’s starting point guard for the past five games. The team used its cap space to add Shelvin Mack as part of a three-team swap that only cost the Jazz a second-round pick. The deal also brought the team above the $63MM salary floor, thanks to Mack’s $2,433,333 pay. The Jazz overshot the minimum team salary, adding $1,817,873 more than they had to, but the move entailed no long-term sacrifice, as Mack’s contract is non-guaranteed for next season, and it appears, given Mack’s prominent role in Utah, that the trade has been worth the extra expenditure so far.
Nuggets
Denver has been opening its checkbook in an apparent effort to address injury concerns, though the team’s trade deadline swap also reaped a pair of second-round picks. That move involved the absorption of Steve Novak‘s $3,750,001 salary and D.J. Augustin‘s $3MM pay in exchange only for the $3.135MM that Randy Foye makes. The buyout with Novak saved $396,242, and the Thunder gave the Nuggets $1.16MM in cash, according to Bobby Marks of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports, but the trade still cost Denver $2,058,759, a relatively heavy price considering the team’s faint playoff hopes. Augustin went into the role of backup point guard amid concern that Jameer Nelson would miss the rest of the season, and Nelson still hasn’t played, so the deal has come in handy in that regard.
The Nuggets used their disabled player exception for Wilson Chandler‘s season-ending injury to accommodate the uneven exchange of salaries, applying it to Novak and his larger salary so that they could create a $135K trade exception for the difference between the salaries for Foye and Augustin, though the trade exception is so tiny that it’s virtually useless. Similarly, Axel Toupane‘s $30,888 10-day contract is but a pin prick of an expenditure in the wake of another injury, one that threatens to end the season for Danilo Gallinari. The Nuggets spent more when they gave JaKarr Sampson a prorated minimum-salary contract worth $258,489 for the rest of the season. That deal also includes a non-guaranteed minimum salary for next season. Denver neither gave up nor acquired any salary that’s guaranteed beyond the end of this season, so none of Denver’s deadline or buyout season moves necessarily have bearing on the team’s ledger for next year.
Thunder
Oklahoma City took advantage of a rare opportunity to save money and exchange two players who were out of the rotation for one who’s in it. The same $3,218,759 that represents Denver’s cost of its trade with the Thunder is the amount of Oklahoma City’s savings in raw salary, though it’s actually a windfall of significantly more for taxpaying OKC. The Thunder’s tax bill dropped a projected $7,148,705 because of the trade, and they also scored a trade exception for Novak’s $3,750,001 salary. The swap also created an open roster spot, and GM Sam Presti hinted at a willingness to use it on a signing, but so far, that hasn’t happened.
Timberwolves
It seemed for months as though the Wolves and Kevin Martin were headed for a parting of ways, though they stuck together just about as long as they possibly could. Minnesota didn’t trade Martin at last month’s deadline and the sides didn’t reach a buyout deal until the night of March 1st, the final hours before the point at which Martin would lose eligibility to appear in the postseason with another team. The financial sacrifice involved for Martin explains why. He resisted making any promise to turn down his $7,377,500 player option for next season before the deadline, reportedly dissuading would-be trade partners, but he agreed to sacrifice exactly half of the option and $352,750 of this season’s salary as part of his buyout, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. Thus, Martin gave up a total of $4,041,500, more than anyone else in the period since the trade deadline. The Wolves are left with $3,688,750 for Martin next season, and they have a few days’ grace to decide whether to use the stretch provision to spread that evenly over the next three years or pay it all at once in 2016/17. Early indications are that Minnesota won’t stretch the salary, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press. The Wolves also took $256,333 off their obligation to Andre Miller in his buyout, dropping their payroll to less than $1MM over the salary cap. They rolled some of that savings into a 10-day contract for Greg Smith that costs $55,722.
Trail Blazers
The Blazers predictably used their ample cap space as a depository for salary that other teams wanted to move off, taking on Anderson Varejao and Brian Roberts in a pair of trades. Look for the moves to continue, since the team is still $513,142 shy of the salary floor. The addition of Varejao in a deal that otherwise involved only draft picks added $10,256,800 to this season’s ledger, though the Cavs will pay a majority of that, including the exercised trade kicker included in that figure. Portland made use of the stretch provision to spread his salary for next season, which was almost entirely guaranteed, over the next five years at equal payments of $1,984,005, though the Cavs paid a portion of those amounts, too, because of the trade kicker. The acquisition of Roberts is much simpler since he’s on an expiring contract, but again, the Blazers don’t have to shell out for the majority of his $2,854,940 salary because he already received most of his paychecks from the Heat. Portland gave up $75K in cash to Miami as part of the Roberts deal, but the team would have had to pay that money anyway to reach the salary floor.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.