Headlines

Author: Chuck Myron

Knicks Rumors: Woodson, Karl, Tyler, Smith

By | at December 3, 2013 9:03 pm

Mike Woodson‘s name came up in Coach of the Year talk around this time a year ago, but that’s certainly not the case now, with the Knicks tied for the league’s worst record entering tonight. Ian O’Connor of ESPNNewYork.com believes that it’s time for Woodson to show whatever mettle he has if he’s to save his job, but I’m not so sure more effort from the coach will solve the team’s myriad problems. The man who won last year’s Coach of the Year award doesn’t envy Woodson, as we note in our roundup from Madison Square Garden:

  • George Karl wants another NBA head coaching gig, but he wouldn’t want the Knicks job if it came open, as he recently told Dave Krieger of Denver’s KOA Radio (hat tip to Brian Lewis of the New York Post). “I mean, I watch the Knicks play and I wouldn’t want to be in that hell for a million dollars,” Karl said. “It’s just New York City and the Garden and the immensity of the pressure. I think Mike Woodson is standing up to it with tremendous integrity.
  • Jeremy Tyler, who was with the Knicks in training camp, has recovered from the injury that prompted New York to cut him, but there’s no pressing need for the Knicks to re-sign him, argues Keith Schlosser of Ridiculous Upside.
  • Statistics suggest J.R. Smith has been one of the league’s worst players so far this season on his new three-year, $17.9MM deal, so it’s no surprise the Knicks have struggled accordingly, writes HoopsWorld’s Tommy Beer.
0 comments New York Knicks

Players With Trade Kickers

By | at December 3, 2013 7:34 pm

Trade kickers are contractual clauses that pay players a bonus when they’re traded, and they represent one of the tools teams have to differentiate their free agent offers from the deals competing clubs put on the table, as I explained this weekend. They’re often used to woo stars, like Chris Paul and Dwight Howard, both of whom have trade kickers worth the maximum 15% of their new deals. It seems unlikely that either of them will be traded anytime soon, but their kickers offer further deterrence against a trade as well as the possibility that their maximum-salary contracts will become even more lucrative than they already are.

Trade kickers aren’t the exclusive purview of the NBA’s most well-paid players. The agents for Nazr Mohammed, Beno Udrih and Nick Young and all negotiated trade kickers into the minimum-salary deals those players signed this past offseason. The Lakers may well have felt compelled to agree to the kicker to entice Young to sign for below market value, while Mohammed wields the double hammer of a trade kicker and the ability to veto trades, making it highly improbable he gets moved this season.

Sometimes a trade kicker is included in an offer sheet that a team makes to a restricted free agent in hopes that the bonus will dissuade the player’s original team from matching. That appears to have been the case with Jeff Teague, who signed an offer sheet with the Bucks that included a trade kicker. In Teague’s case, the ploy didn’t work, as the Hawks matched anyway.

Teague’s trade kicker is unusual, since it stipulates that in the event of a trade, he’ll receive either a set amount ($600K) or 15% of the value of his contract, whichever is less. Most trade kickers call for the player to get a simple percentage of whatever’s left on the his deal, but Teague is one of a few guys with more complex terms in his contract. Tyreke Evans and Tyson Chandler have similarly structured deals. Trade kickers can also simply call for the player to receive a set amount, though no current players have one like that in their contracts.

Three players with trade kickers were involved in swaps over the summer, so Jason Terry, Andrea Bargnani and Robin Lopez are all on slightly more expensive deals than they were last season. They can be traded again, but they won’t receive any extra money if that happens. Here’s a list of every NBA player with an active trade kicker, listed alphabetically, with the details of the kickers in parentheses. Players who signed deals this past offseason are marked with an asterisk.

ShamSports was used in the creation of this post.

3 comments Uncategorized

L.A. Notes: Nash, Luxury Tax, Frank

By | at December 3, 2013 6:03 pm

The two New York teams are making plenty of headlines lately, thanks in large measure to their poor play. There’s lots of drama going on in Los Angeles, too, where the Clippers are mulling a Lamar Odom signing and the Lakers await the returns of Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash. Here’s the latest on both teams, including an update on Nash:

  • The Lakers had reportedly planned to gauge Nash’s progress in practice this week before deciding whether to pursue another point guard, but Nash said he isn’t rushing his recovery in light of Jordan Farmar‘s injury, notes Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com. Nash doubts he’ll return in time for the team’s next game on Friday.
  • The Clippers are set to pay the luxury tax for the first time in franchise history, and Mark Deeks of ShamSports explains why now might be the right time, as part of a piece for SB Nation that juxtaposes L.A.’s tax quandary with that of the Thunder. There’s a risk the expenditure could go for naught, as in the case of the Bulls, but it could help the Clippers re-sign Blake Griffin in a few years.
  • Doc Rivers tried to recruit Lawrence Frank to join the Clippers coaching staff this summer, but the Nets wooed Rivers’ former Celtics assistant with a six-year deal worth more than $1MM per year, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter links). Frank and Nets head coach Jason Kidd appear to be at loggerheads.
3 comments Brooklyn Nets Chicago Bulls Los Angeles Clippers Los Angeles Lakers Oklahoma City Thunder

Trade Kickers

By | at December 1, 2013 12:58 pm

The collective bargaining agreement limits the flexibility teams have to sweeten their offers to free agents. Trade kickers are one of the few tools that clubs have at their disposal, and they’re often written into contracts. Formally known as trade bonuses, they represent extra cash that players receive in case their teams trade them.

One rule regarding trade kickers changed in the 2011 CBA. For contracts signed since the new CBA took effect, the bonus must be paid by the team that trades the player, rather than the acquiring team. Sometimes the kicker is a fixed amount, but usually it’s based on a percentage of the remaining value of the contract. So, a player who has a 10% trade kicker is given 10% of the amount of money he’s yet to collect on his deal.

The value of a trade kicker declines each passing day during the season, since the amount the player gets for the current year of his deal is prorated. In a hypothetical scenario, let’s say the Cavaliers trade Anderson Varejao today. There are 137 days left in the 170-day season, including today. The commensurate amount left on Varejao’s $9,036,364 salary this year is $7,282,246. Added to the $4MM in guaranteed salary he’s set to make next season, Varejao’s 5% trade kicker would net him an extra $564,112.

Regardless of whether the trade kicker is set at a fixed amount or a percentage, the bonus can’t exceed 15% of the remaining value of the contract. That means that if a set amount of $1MM would equal more than 15% of what the player is owed, the kicker would pay out less than $1MM in the event of a trade.

Trade kickers don’t do much to help the most well-compensated players. The bonus can’t push a player’s salary above the maximum salary, even if the player is already making more than the max. Pau Gasol has a 15% kicker in his deal, but his $19,285,850 salary this season is already more than the $19,181,750 maximum for a player with 10 or more years of experience, as he has. That means the trade kicker is void, and Gasol wouldn’t receive any extra money if the Lakers dealt him away.

Similarly, players on rookie-scale contracts can’t make more than 120% of the scale amount, so if a first-round pick negotiates a trade kicker into his rookie deal, he can’t wind up making more than 120% of the value assigned to his draft slot. This rarely happens, though, since first-round picks generally wind up with contracts worth 120% of the slot value anyway.

The amount of the kicker that’s applied to a team’s cap is spread out equally over the remaining years of the contract. So, if a player with two seasons left on his deal were due a kicker worth $1M, the team obligated to pay it would take a cap hit worth $500K in both of those seasons, regardless of whether the player’s salary is different in each of the two years left on the deal.

However, if a player has years on the deal that are partially guaranteed or non-guaranteed, the cap hit is apportioned based on the guaranteed money in the deal, excluding all option years. So, if a two-year contract is fully guaranteed this year and 50% guaranteed next season, two-thirds of the kicker would apply to this year’s cap and one-third of it would be on next year’s cap. If the contract is non-guaranteed next season, the entire trade kicker would hit this year’s cap.

Other notes on trade kickers:

  • Player and team option years don’t count toward the value of a kicker, unless the option has already been exercised.
  • Years following early-termination options do count toward how much the player receives via the kicker, even though they don’t count toward the team’s cap hit.
  • Incentive clauses don’t figure into the value of a kicker, which is calculated using a player’s base compensation only.
  • Players may waive any amount up to the full value of the trade kicker to facilitate a swap, if they wish. However, players can’t change the amount of their trade kickers to allow a deal that would otherwise put a hard-capped team over the tax apron, even if everyone involved in the deal wants that to happen. Such a trade is simply illegal.
  • For salary-matching purposes in trades, the kicker counts for the team absorbing the player, but not for the team that trades him away.

Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ and ShamSports were used in the creation of this post.

This post was initially published on December 9th, 2012.

0 comments Hoops Rumors Glossary

Eastern Rumors: Marquis Teague, Beasley, Bosh

By | at December 1, 2013 11:50 am

The Bulls and Heat were perhaps the strongest Eastern Conference title contenders to start the season, but they’ve taken divergent paths, thanks to Derrick Rose‘s injury. The Bulls probably won’t win the title this year, while the Heat appear only to have the Pacers in their way as they try for their fourth straight conference title. Here’s more from Chicago and Miami:

  • There were four teams interested in trading for Marquis Teague at the start of the season, according to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. The Wolves and Jazz were reportedly two of them, but it’s not clear who the other teams were or if any clubs maintain their interest. The Bulls have hoped that Teague would improve this year, with Kirk Hinrich set to hit free agency.
  • Michael Beasley‘s has assumed a “significant” role on the Heat, coach Erik Spoelstra says. It’s Spoelstra’s strongest endorsement of Beasley this year, observes Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald, who examines how the team’s minimum-salary gamble is paying dividends so far. Beasley’s deal remains non-guaranteed.
  • The Heat might be able to find a better bargain on the free agent market in the summer, but Chris Bosh‘s slow start has done nothing to affect his value to the Heat this season, as Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel writes in his mailbag column.
0 comments Chicago Bulls Miami Heat

Trade Candidate: Jameer Nelson

By | at December 1, 2013 10:16 am

Dwight Howard is long gone from Orlando, but the hangover from the team’s run to the Finals in 2009 remains. GM Rob Hennigan took an aggressive step toward complete overhaul of the roster a few months after he took the job last summer with the Howard trade, but he’s otherwise embarked on a slow rebuild. One of his most curious moves was re-signing Jameer Nelson in the summer of 2012 to a three-year, $25.2MM contract.

The deal came before the Howard trade, so it’s possible that Hennigan brought Nelson back with aspirations of remaining a title contender. It seems more plausible that the Magic simply wanted him around to mentor their young players, since they’re fond of the point guard’s off-court leadership. Regardless, the Magic are stuck with another veteran they’d like to swap for a younger player and Nelson, who turned down a lucrative player option to sign his three-year deal in the hopes he wouldn’t become a trade candidate, finds himself in that very position.

Nelson wants to remain with the Magic for the rest of his career, but he also wants to have a significant role. He has reportedly been upset with his lack of fourth-quarter playing time this season, though his amount of minutes per game is consistent with the level he’s seen ever since taking over as the Magic’s starting point guard back in 2005/06. Orlando has no in-house candidates to replace him in that role, barring its experiment with Victor Oladipo as a point guard, so it’s not as if his presence in the lineup impedes the development of a younger player.

The Magic instead hope to acquire a prospect in return for Nelson, as they’re reportedly seeking a first-round pick in trade talks involving him. That won’t be an easy ransom to extract, considering how highly NBA executives have come to value first-rounders, especially for the prized class of 2014. Nelson’s contract wouldn’t do much to clog another team’s cap beyond this season, since his $8MM salary for next year is only guaranteed for $2MM, but expiring deals aren’t the trade chips they used to be. The shorter contracts brought about by the latest collective bargaining agreement allow more teams to clear cap room every summer without having to give up assets to acquire deals like Nelson’s.

His performance this season could depress his value even further. His PER is at a career-low 12.0, thanks in large measure to his 37.3% shooting, also the worst mark of his career. His three-point shot is off, and he’s also making less than 50% of his shots at the rim for the first time, per NBA.com. It’s just a month into the season, so there’s a chance those numbers could improve over time. Still, it’s been seven years since his assists-to-turnover ratio, currently at 6.1-to-2.9, has been as low as it is, so his struggles aren’t confined to his shot.

The Magic give up nearly seven more points per 100 possessions when he’s on the floor compared to when he’s on the bench, according to NBA.com. That’s an astoudingly high number, but it’s not nearly as impressive as the nine point jump in points per 100 possessions Orlando experiences when Nelson is playing. The net effect is that the team has been better off when Nelson is in the lineup, but it should be, considering that E’Twaun Moore, Ronnie Price and Oladipo, a rookie playing out of position, are his backups.

Nelson is nursing a sprained foot, but that minor injury shouldn’t have any significant impact on his trade value. The Magic don’t appear to be in a hurry to get a deal done, and they shouldn’t be, considering his poor start. Hennigan has higher priorities for now as he oversees a roster with other misplaced veterans like Nelson. Arron Afflalo and Glen Davis are trade candidates as well, and the Magic have a little more than a month left to find a taker for Hedo Turkoglu before they’d have to eat the $6MM guarantee on his contract.

Perhaps an another Eastern Conference team sensing an opportunity to steal a high playoff seed among a weak field of contenders will grab Nelson at the trade deadline. Maybe an injury to a point guard on a team with legitimate title hopes prompts a call to Hennigan. Other teams will likely drive the market for Nelson, so the Magic would be wise to see what the market bears and choose the best offer come February.

I don’t think any team will be desperate enough to give up a first-rounder, unless it’s one that’s destined to fall at the very end of the round, but perhaps Hennigan will find an intriguing young player who hasn’t had the chance for much playing time, as he did with Tobias Harris last year. Nelson’s partially guaranteed contract for next year means the Magic probably won’t have to keep him around much longer if they don’t want to, even if they can’t find a trade partner. His leadership ability means he holds value to the Magic’s rebuilding project, so there’s really no need to trade Nelson short of an offer that’s clearly in Orlando’s favor.

2 comments Orlando Magic Trade Candidate

Atlantic Notes: Knicks, Garnett, Rondo, Young

By | at December 1, 2013 8:59 am

The Celtics are just 7-12, but they could have moved into first place in the Atlantic Division with a win last night. Instead, they lost to the Bucks, the worst team in the woeful Eastern Conference. That leaves the Raptors on top of the Atlantic at 6-9. Here’s more on the four teams chasing Toronto:

1 comment Boston Celtics Brooklyn Nets New York Knicks Philadelphia 76ers

Odds & Ends: Bennett, Ledo, Pistons, Heat

By | at November 30, 2013 10:51 pm

The Cavs drafted Anthony Bennett first overall with many in the organization envisioning him becoming a small forward at some point, notes Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. Lloyd argues that the team should make the former UNLV big man the starter at that position now. Cleveland’s win tonight brings the team’s record to just 5-12, so Lloyd believes it’s an idea worth trying in a season when few of coach Mike Brown‘s gambits have worked. Here’s more from around the NBA:

1 comment Cleveland Cavaliers Dallas Mavericks Detroit Pistons Miami Heat NBA G League

Recent December Trades

By | at November 30, 2013 9:14 pm

Sunday could be the start of one of the most intriguing Decembers in recent memory, with Omer Asik, Luol Deng, Dion Waiters, Iman Shumpert among the names coming up in trade rumors. We’ve already seen one deal this season, with Derrick Williams heading to the Kings and Luc Mbah a Moute going to the Timberwolves, but there’s a strong chance that’s not the only one that happens before New Year’s Day. Most free agents who signed this summer become eligible to be traded on December 15th, and that will open the door for plenty of action.

There weren’t any December trades last season, and while there were many in December 2011, the lockout-shortened calendar fueled those moves. We’ll instead look back on the six December trades that happened in 2009 and 2010, when two dozen players changed hands.

December 18th, 2010: The Wizards traded Gilbert Arenas to the Magic for Rashard Lewis.

  • The Magic began dismantling the core of their 2009 Finals team with a pair of significant deals this day. They swapped one regrettable contract for another, acquiring Arenas, whom they later waived via amnesty clause. Arenas doesn’t count against the Magic’s cap anymore, even though they’ll still be paying off his $111MM contract through 2016. Lewis never made a significant contribution to the Wizards, who traded him to New Orleans last year for another pair of overpriced contracts.

December 18th, 2010: The Magic traded Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat, Mickael Pietrus, cash and a 2011 first-round pick (Nikola Mirotic) to the Suns for Earl Clark, Jason Richardson and Hedo Turkoglu.

  • Orlando is still paying Arenas, but the team’s more egregious mistakes were in this deal. The Suns reaped a first-round pick for Gortat last month, while Carter is still a productive player for the Mavs, and Mirotic might be the best player outside the NBA. Clark and Richardson were valuable for the Magic only in the sense that they served as ballast in the Dwight Howard trade, and Orlando is trying without much luck to find a taker for Turkoglu’s bloated contract.

December 15th, 2010: In a three-team trade, the Lakers traded Sasha Vujacic and a 2011 first-round pick (JaJuan Johnson) to the Nets; the Rockets traded the rights to Sergei Lishouk to the Lakers, the Rockets traded a 2013 first-round pick to the Nets (Shane Larkin); the Nets traded Terrence Williams to the Rockets; the Nets traded Joe Smith, a 2011 second-round pick (Darius Morris) and a 2012 second-round pick (Robert Sacre) to the Lakers.

  • The most significant part of this convoluted deal was the 2013 first-rounder that the Nets got from Houston. Brooklyn sent the pick that became Larkin to the Hawks last year in the Joe Johnson trade, and Atlanta sent it to Dallas on draft night this past June.

December 15th, 2010: The Rockets traded Jermaine Taylor and cash to the Kings for a protected 2011 second-round draft pick (the pick was never conveyed under the terms of the protection).

  • This was purely a financial move for the Rockets and GM Daryl Morey, who greased the skids for their involvement in the three-way deal that took place the same day. Taylor played out the season before the Kings waived him in June, and he hasn’t been back in the NBA since.

December 29th, 2009: The Timberwolves traded Jason Hart to the Suns for Alando Tucker, cash, and a 2010 second-round draft pick (Hamady N’Diaye).

  • This one didn’t move the needle much, though Minnesota traded the N’Diaye pick on draft night in 2010 for a package that included Lazar Hayward. The Wolves later traded Hayward to the Thunder, and Oklahoma City included Hayward in the James Harden deal. It’s the NBA’s version of the domino theory at work.

December 22nd, 2009: The Jazz traded Eric Maynor and Matt Harpring to the Thunder for the rights to Peter Fehse.

  • Harpring had already played his final NBA game by this point thanks to injuries, but he continued to have a major effect on the Jazz because of his $6.5MM contract. Utah had to throw in its first-round pick from the previous June to unload Harpring’s salary and reduce its luxury-tax bill. Oklahoma City wound up with a promising young bench piece who played a significant role on the Thunder’s first deep push into the playoffs.

Storytellers Contracts was used in the creation of this post.

0 comments Uncategorized

Central Links: Cavs, Asik, George, Hinrich

By | at November 30, 2013 8:03 pm

The Pacers are the class of the NBA, but next they face a tough Western road trip that includes tough tests against the Clippers, Blazers, Spurs and Thunder. The only breather appears to be their matchup with the league-worst Jazz. There’s more from Indiana as we check the latest from the Central:

  • The Cavs have “kicked the tires” on Omer Asik in the past, writes Bob Finnan of The News-Herald. It’s not clear when Cleveland showed interest in the Rockets center, but it doesn’t appear from the report like the Cavs are in on him now.
  • In the same piece, Finnan asserts that the Cavs shouldn’t trade Dion Waiters because he might be the team’s best player, even with Kyrie Irving around. Irving is off to a slow start, but Waiters hasn’t been any better statistically, so I’m not sure that part of the argument holds any water.
  • Paul George spoke to Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune this week about a variety of topics, including whether he gave thought to signing with a glamour team in free agency before he agreed to a long-term extension with the Pacers. “Of course everyone does, but you have to look at the bigger picture and the bigger picture here is we’re all young, we did so well last year, we have a core group of guys who are going to be here for a while,” George said. “There’s no need to go to a big market when I have a market where I can win here.”
  • George also told Zgoda about his predraft workout with the Timberwolves in 2010, revealing that they didn’t show much interest in him because they were sold on Wesley Johnson. George, the 10th pick that year, still holds a grudge against the nine teams that passed him up, as Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star details.
  • The Bulls signed Kirk Hinrich last year with the thinking that they’d reduce his role this season, but the 32-year-old soon-to-be free agent is again a key player for the team after another Derrick Rose injury, observes K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune.
0 comments Chicago Bulls Cleveland Cavaliers Houston Rockets Indiana Pacers Minnesota Timberwolves
Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Pro Hockey Rumors