NBA Signees With D-League Experience
The D-League is certainly not a basketball destination of riches, with the highest salaries in the league last season topping out at $26K, according to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress (Twitter link). Of course, some NBA players spend time on assignment in the D-League, and when they do, they receive their full NBA salaries. In most cases, a player on D-League assignment is making a rookie or minimum salary, and a D-League stint is usually a sign that the player isn’t performing well enough to earn NBA minutes. With NBA minutes comes NBA money, and spending time in the D-League doesn’t portend well for a player’s bank account.
Martell Webster is the exception. He appeared in eight games for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in 2005/06, on assignment from the Trail Blazers, who’d drafted him directly out of high school the previous summer. That D-League experience was a distant memory when he signed a four-year, $21.991MM deal with the Wizards for the full amount of the mid-level exception this past offseason. Matt Barnes is the only other player with D-League experience to have signed a seven-figure NBA contract this year.
Teams around the NBA have just recently begun to realize the potential of the D-League, and many are taking advantage of new rules that allow them to more liberally assign their players. Nearly half the teams in the NBA have a one-to-one affiliation with a D-League team, furthering the player development relationship. More lucrative contracts could find their way into the hands of D-League alums in the years ahead, but this year’s free agent crop shows no sign of that happening yet. Here’s every player with D-League experience to sign a free agent contract with an NBA team this offseason. Non-guaranteed contracts that cover just one season at the minimum salary — mere invitations to training camp — are not included.
- Martell Webster — four years, $21.991MM
- Matt Barnes — three years, $10.189MM
- Earl Clark — two years, $8.5MM
- Chris Copeland — two years, $6.135MM
- Dorell Wright — two years, $6.135MM
- Will Bynum — two years, $5.75MM
- Josh McRoberts — two years, $5.423MM
- DeMarre Carroll — two years, $5MM
- Darius Morris — four years, $4.2MM
- C.J. Watson — two years, $4.093MM
- Gani Lawal — four years, $3.736MM
- Chris Andersen — two years, $3.434MM
- John Lucas III — two years, $3.2MM
- Jon Leuer — three years, $2.902MM
- Robert Sacre — three years, $2.685MM
- Greg Stiemsma — one year, $2.676MM
- Andray Blatche — two years, $2.183MM
- Alan Anderson — two years, $2.011MM
- Byron Mullens — two years, $2.011MM
- Reggie Williams — two years, $2.011MM
- Donald Sloan — two years, $1.832MM
- Lance Thomas — two years, $1.832MM
- Jeremy Tyler — two years, $1.832MM
- Dwight Buycks — two years, $1.516MM
- Shaun Livingston — one year, $1.272MM
- Ryan Hollins — one year, $1.186MM
- Jordan Farmar — one year, $1.107MM
- Aaron Brooks — one year, $1.027MM
- Anthony Tolliver — one year, $1.027MM
- Garrett Temple — one year, $916K
The Hoops Rumors Free Agent Tracker was used in the creation of this post.
Eastern Notes: Aldrich, Anderson, Crawford
Five of the seven teams that are at the offseason roster limit of 20 players reside in the Eastern Conference, so the Sixers, Cavaliers, Hawks, Heat and Knicks will be making plenty of moves between now and October 26th, the deadline for teams to place their camp cuts on waivers. Here’s the latest from the East as cut-down day approaches:
- Cole Aldrich chose to sign with the Knicks over the Bulls, Kings and Pistons, and though coach Mike Woodson has criticized his play and the team appears to be looking for other backup centers, Aldrich is still favored to make the club, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post.
- Former first-round pick James Anderson is resurrecting his career and taking full advantage of the opportunity his non-guaranteed contract with the Sixers presents, as Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer details.
- Celtics teammates and coach Brad Stevens insist Jordan Crawford‘s reputation as a brash ball-hog is off-base, and they’re confident he has the passing ability to thrive as a combo guard as he enters the final year of his rookie scale contract, observes Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com. Grantland’s Zach Lowe notes the high level of optimism surrounding the ex-Wizard (Twitter link).
- Bucks owner Herb Kohl is walking a fine line as he tries to secure public funding for a new arena in Milwaukee, and he and GM John Hammond are being careful to keep the team competitive while still overhauling the roster, as Michael Hunt of the Journal Sentinel examines.
- Quincy Acy is about to start the last guaranteed season of his contract with the Raptors, and Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun chronicles the 2012 second-round pick’s efforts to crack the rotation before time runs out.
Traded 2012 First-Round Draft Picks
There’s talk that Marquis Teague, the 29th pick in the 2012 draft, could be on the move in the coming days, and if the Bulls trade him, he’d join eight other first-rounders from that draft who have been traded since August 2012. That nearly a third of the 2012 first-round has changed hands in the span of 14 months is remarkable, considering teams were so reluctant to part with 2013 first-rounders at this year’s trade deadline. No. 5 overall pick Thomas Robinson has twice been traded, meaning there have already been nine swaps involving 2012 first-round picks. In one respect, it shows how quickly the value of a first-rounder can decline once the pick is used to draft a player.
Here’s a look at each of the 2012 first-round picks who’ve been traded, along with brief analysis on how much they cost to acquire. Note: This list doesn’t include players involved in 2012 draft-night transactions.
No. 5, Thomas Robinson — Traded February 20th from Kings to Rockets with Francisco Garcia and Tyler Honeycutt for Patrick Patterson, Cole Aldrich, Toney Douglas, and $1MM in cash; traded July 10th from Rockets to Trail Blazers for the rights to Kostas Papanikolaou and Marko Todorovic, a 2015 second-round pick, and a 2017 second-round pick.
- The cost wasn’t high in either case, though arguably the price the Rockets paid to acquire Robinson at the deadline wasn’t as high as what the Blazers gave Houston in this summer’s trade. Houston also received Garcia in the Robinson deal, which no doubt gave the team an edge when it re-signed Garcia this summer.
No. 12, Jeremy Lamb — Traded October 29th, 2012 from Rockets to Thunder with Kevin Martin, the Mavericks’ 2013 first-round pick, the Raptors’ 2013 first-round pick and the Bobcats’ 2013 second-round pick for James Harden, Daequan Cook, Cole Aldrich and Lazar Hayward.
- Lamb was a throw-in as part of the Harden trade, and it’s difficult to pinpoint his cost amid all the moving parts in this deal. Still, unless Lamb shows significant improvement, he appears to have been a small price to pay to facilitate the acquisition of Harden.
No. 15, Maurice Harkless — Traded August 10th, 2012 from Sixers to Magic as part of a four-team deal. The Sixers gave up Nikola Vucevic, Andre Iguodala and a protected 2015 first-round pick and acquired Andrew Bynum and Jason Richardson. The Magic gave up Dwight Howard, Jason Richardson, Chris Duhon and Earl Clark and acquired Harkless, Vucevic, Arron Afflalo, Al Harrington, Josh McRoberts, Christian Eyenga, three first-round picks and two second-rounders.
- This was another deal that involved superstars and a host of other components, but it’s hard to say that Harkless’ cost was anything but dire, since the Magic had to surrender the face of their franchise in the trade. The swap has nonetheless worked out much better for Orlando than for Philly, and the development of Harkless has been a major factor in that.
No. 16, Royce White — Traded July 13th from Rockets to Sixers with Furkan Aldemir and cash for a protected 2014 second-round pick.
- The Rockets acquired a player they believed was a top-five talent midway through the draft last year, his psychological problems notwithstanding. White never saw the floor for Houston during the regular season as GM Daryl Morey‘s gamble didn’t pan out. New Sixers GM Sam Hinkie, who was Morey’s assistant when they drafted White, was willing to take another shot on White, but this time, the stakes are much lower.
No. 22, Fab Melo — Traded August 15th with $1.66MM cash from Celtics to Grizzlies for Donte Greene.
- Both players involved in this deal have been waived by the teams that acquired them, so it’s safe to say Melo came cheaply. Memphis walked away with $1.66MM just for their trouble. Melo is on a non-guaranteed camp deal with the Mavs.
No. 24, Jared Cunningham —Traded June 27th from Mavericks to Hawks with Lucas Nogueira and Mike Muscala for Shane Larkin.
- The Hawks turned the 2013 No. 18 pick into players who were 16th, 24th and 44th overall picks in the last two drafts, so Cunningham was part of a bargain for Atlanta. Nogueira and Muscala are spending this season overseas, so there may be some degree of pressure on Cunningham to perform this year, particularly if Larkin impresses.
No. 25, Tony Wroten — Traded August 22nd from Grizzlies to Sixers for a protected 2014 second-round pick.
- A former first-round pick traded straight up for a second clearly shows Wroten’s cost reduction. That’s further underlined when you consider that the Grizzlies are unlikely ever to see that second-round pick. The Sixers only send it to Memphis if it falls between 51st and 55th overall.
No. 26, Miles Plumlee — Traded July 27th from Pacers to Suns with Gerald Green, and a lottery-protected 2014 first-round pick for Luis Scola.
- The Pacers weren’t excited about giving up Plumlee, but with an established scoring big man like Scola available, they pounced. Even though Scola wasn’t relevant to Phoenix’s rebuilding plan, Plumlee’s cost was significantly higher than Wroten’s or Cunningham’s, the two players picked immediately before him.
Western Rumors: Jazz, Miller, Kings, Brown
Trey Burke‘s injury has opened up the possibility that the Jazz could trade for Marquis Teague of the Bulls or scour the free agent market for a veteran, and Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin says the team will consider its options, notes Steve Luhm of The Salt Lake Tribune.
“We’ll see,” Corbin said. “We’ll put our heads together tomorrow. We’ve got scouts out there. We’ll see what’s available. We’ve got some guys here. … We’ll see what gives us a chance.”
Internal candidate John Lucas III has impressed in camp so far, Luhm writes, so perhaps the Jazz may not have to look too far for their interim starting point guard. Here’s more from the West:
- Andre Miller isn’t concerned about offseason trade rumors that invoked his name, and the 37-year-old Nuggets point guard says he wants to play until he’s 40, as Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post writes.
- Kings owner Vivek Ranadive struck an agreement to hire Michael Malone as the team’s new head coach before the sale of the team became official, and Malone tells Sactown magazine that he and Ranadive kept their arrangement secret for two weeks. Sactown Royalty’s Tom Ziller has more.
- Shannon Brown fell out of the rotation for the Suns last season, and the team could have waived him in June and avoided paying 50% of this season’s $3.5MM salary. They kept him instead, and he’s relishing the fresh start the team’s new regime has afforded him, as he tells Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic.
Five NBA Players On $100MM+ Deals
Kobe Bryant will earn more than $30MM this season, a salary that’s by far the NBA’s largest in 2013/14. Still, he’s not a member of the exclusive club of players signed to $100MM+ deals. Only five guys are currently on deals that include more than $100MM in base salary, including Chris Paul, who joined the club with his new max deal in July.
LeBron James is fittingly a part of the club, along with the other two members of the Heat’s power trio. Still, none of them touch Joe Johnson‘s staggering $123,658,089 contract that he signed under the old collective bargaining agreement, which allowed for six-year deals. That’s not a bad take for a player who’s only appeared on one All-NBA team during his 12-year career.
Johnson’s teammate Deron Williams ($98,772,325) and fellow New Yorker Amar’e Stoudemire ($99,743,996) fall just beneath the threshold. If Paul George and John Wall qualify for the 30% max on their recently signed extensions, they’ll likely fall a few million dollars shy of the nine-figure mark, too, barring a unforeseen jump in maximum salaries next July.
Here’s the complete $100MM+ club, as it stands now:
- Joe Johnson, Nets ($123,658,089) — re-signed with the Hawks in 2010 to a six-year contract for the max.
- Chris Bosh, Heat ($109,837,500) — signed-and-traded to the Heat in 2010 to a six-year contract.
- LeBron James, Heat ($109,837,500) — signed-and-traded to the Heat in 2010 to a six-year contract.
- Dwyane Wade, Heat ($107,565,000) — re-signed with the Heat in 2010 to a six-year contract.
- Chris Paul, Clippers ($107,343,475) — re-signed with the Clippers in July to a five-year contract for the max.
ShamSports was used in the creation of this post.
Atlantic Rumors: Knicks, Kirilenko, Celtics
Former Knicks GM Glen Grunwald rarely spoke with the media, so it was something of a surprise to see that his successor, Steve Mills, engaged in a 15-minute gab-fest yesterday with Knicks beat writers. The exchange was cordial except for one moment when Mills testily repeated his earlier assertion that Isiah Thomas doesn’t have any role with the team, as Marc Berman of the New York Post notes. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Andrei Kirilenko feels he’s reached a point in his career when he can afford to accept a discounted contract from the Nets in return for a shot at the title, but, “If it was 10 years ago, I would never have taken it — never, ever even thought about it,” Kirilenko told Andrew Keh of The New York Times.
- The Paul Pierce/Kevin Garnett trade sent a pack of veterans from a contending team in Brooklyn to the rebuilding Celtics, but none of them are pouting, observes Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald.
- The Raptors aren’t going to make any drastic moves until at least 15 or 20 games into the regular season, and they probably won’t make any cuts to their camp roster until after the seventh preseason game, as Doug Smith of the Toronto Star writes in his mailbag column.
- Mike Sielski of the Philadelphia Inquirer sees much in common between the rebuilding projects the Sixers and Celtics are on.
Highest-Paid Rookies On Non-Scale Deals
Negotiations between the Magic and 51st overall pick Romero Osby seemed to move at a snail’s pace, and it wasn’t until three months after draft night, just as training camp was starting, that the team finally announced it had a deal. Happy Walters of Relativity Sports didn’t make his client wait without reason. The Magic wound up using part of their mid-level exception to give Osby a three-year deal that includes a first-year salary of $682,180, according to HoopsWorld’s Eric Pincus, making him more highly paid this season than all but one other player taken in the second round this June. The contract reverts to the minimum salary in seasons two and three, and it’s non-guaranteed, but it does call for a $100K partial guarantee on this season to kick in if he makes the opening-night roster.
Osby’s deal will give him less than Andre Roberson, this year’s lowest-paid player among those signing the rookie scale contracts afforded first-round picks. It’s still an accomplishment for Walters and company, since Osby is one of only 14 rookies who weren’t drafted in the first round to sign for more than the minimum this year. The four highest earners among them aren’t second-round picks. They’re players from overseas who signed with their teams as free agents, led by Vitor Faverani, who secured $2MM from the Celtics.
Allen Crabbe, the first player drafted in the second round this year, checks in fifth on that list. He’s followed by Dwight Buycks, an American-born player who went undrafted in 2011, plied his trade in the D-League and international circuits, and wound up with a guaranteed $700K from the Raptors.
Draft position doesn’t dictate how much a second-round pick will earn as a rookie, as Osby demonstrates. Ricky Ledo, the 43rd overall pick, is set to earn more this year than five players taken ahead of him. And, as you can see in our complete list of this year’s highest paid rookies not taken in the first-round, the draft order is jumbled throughout.
- Vitor Faverani, Celtics: $2MM (signed as a free agent)
- Luigi Datome, Pistons, $1.75MM (signed as a free agent)
- Miroslav Raduljica, Bucks, $1.5MM (signed as a free agent)
- Pero Antic, Hawks: $1.2MM (signed as a free agent)
- Allen Crabbe, Trail Blazers: $825K (31st overall pick)
- Dwight Buycks, Raptors: $700K (signed as a free agent)
- Romero Osby, Magic: $682,180 (51st overall pick)
- Isaiah Canaan, Rockets: $570,515 (34th overall pick)
- Ricky Ledo, Mavericks $544K (43rd overall pick)
- Jamaal Franklin, Grizzlies: $535K (41st overall pick)
- Ray McCallum, Kings: $524,616 (36th overall pick)
- Carrick Felix, Cavaliers: $510K (33rd overall pick)
- Tony Mitchell, Pistons: $500K (37th overall pick)
- Nate Wolters, Bucks: $500K (38th overall pick)
HoopsWorld and ShamSports were used in the creation of this post.
Western Notes: Ridnour, Blazers, Jazz, Mavs
HoopsWorld’s Jabari Davis looks at how five of the most compelling additions to Western Conference teams are already influencing their new franchises just a couple weeks into the preseason. One of them is Eric Bledsoe, who faces extra pressure with a Halloween deadline to work out an extension with the Suns. Phoenix’s front office already has plenty on its hands, needing to get rid of at least one fully guaranteed contract within the next two weeks. Point guard Ish Smith leads a tight race among voters in our poll on which of the 16 Suns with guaranteed deals is most likely to be waived. Here’s more news related to Western Conference teams:
- Luke Ridnour is with the Bucks this season, a fact his former coach with the Wolves regrets, notes Charles F. Garnder of the Journal Sentinel. “We didn’t really want to get rid of Luke,” Rick Adelman said. “We had to make some moves, and he was the one that everybody wanted, and I know why.”
- New Blazers point guards Mo Williams and Earl Watson both spent last season with the Jazz, but neither begrudges the team’s decision not to sign any of its free agents and instead focus on its youth, observes Bill Oram of The Salt Lake Tribune.
- Brandan Wright‘s shoulder injury creates opportunities for others on the Mavericks, including Fab Melo and Renaldo Balkman, who are on non-guaranteed deals, as Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News examines.
Poll: Which Guaranteed Deal Will The Suns Cut?
NBA teams will be forced to make a lot of moves in the next two weeks, as teams pare down their preseason rosters to the 15-man regular season limit. Extra players must clear waivers by October 28th, making 4pm Central time on October 26th the deadline for teams to make their camp cuts. Nearly 100 players will be exiting NBA rosters, as Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors detailed yesterday.
Perhaps the most difficult decisions will be made in Phoenix, where the Suns have 16 fully guaranteed contracts. They’re the only team with more than 15 such deals, so unless they can find a trade partner soon, they’ll wind up owing a full season’s salary to a player they won’t be carrying. New GM Ryan McDonough also has Dionte Christmas on a partially guaranteed deal and James Nunnally on a make-good contract, further complicating matters. Christmas and McDonough have a history with the Celtics, and Nunnally was a sought-after camp invitee, so if the GM and president of basketball operations Lon Babby are tempted into keeping one or both of those players, multiple Suns with guaranteed deals could hit the road.
For the purposes of our poll, we’ll simply assume that the Suns will cut only one guaranteed contract. Which do you think is likeliest to go? We’ve included their 2012/13 salary figures via ShamSports to assist your choice. Leave a comment if you think someone you don’t see here is a better bet to end up on waivers. The other option here is a wild card — if you think the Suns can find a team willing to absorb one of their guaranteed contracts via trade and finalize the transaction by October 28th, they won’t have to cut any of their guaranteed guys.
Which Guaranteed Deal Will The Suns Waive?
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Ish Smith ($951,463) 24% (92)
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Malcolm Lee ($884,293) 21% (82)
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Viacheslav Kravtsov ($1,500,000) 15% (59)
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Kendall Marshall ($2,005,560) 15% (57)
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No one — the Suns will work out a trade 14% (54)
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P.J. Tucker ($884,293) 12% (46)
Total votes: 390
Winderman On Stoudemire, Bosh, D-League
The Knicks aren’t drawing much attention as a potential landing spot for LeBron James next summer, unlike in 2010, when New York cleared cap space for LeBron and wound up signing Amar’e Stoudemire instead. But Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel believes that if Stoudemire musters a bounce-back season, the Knicks have at least a slight chance of trading his hefty contract and again opening up room for LeBron. It would be a shock if the Knicks found a taker for Stoudemire, whom they owe more money than anyone else on their roster, but considering the Hawks unloaded Joe Johnson last year with nearly $90MM left on his deal, you never know. Here’s more from Winderman:
- Many NBA players in Chris Bosh‘s circumstances would see next summer’s potential free agency as a chance to bolt and become a team’s No. 1 option, but Bosh is comfortable as the third man in the Heat‘s hierarchy. “The thing I like about this, is, of course I’m not the guy, I’m not the number-one option,” Bosh said. “That gives me creativity to be able to take my position and mold it into what I want to do.”
- If the Magic establish a D-League team in Jacksonville or another location close to Orlando, it could make it easier for the Heat to move their affiliate from Sioux Falls to Estero, Fla., where a D-League-caliber arena already exists.
- Michael Beasley‘s casual approach turned off many around the NBA, but he insists he’s taking his current opportunity with the Heat more seriously than when he joined the team as the No. 2 overall pick in 2008, as Winderman notes in a separate piece.