2015/16 Salary Commitments: Clippers
With the NBA trade deadline passed, teams are focusing on locking down playoff spots or vying for a better chance in the draft lottery. Outside of the players who are added on 10-day deals, or those lucky enough to turn those auditions into long-term contracts, teams’ rosters are relatively set for the remainder of the season.
We at Hoops Rumors are in the process of taking a look ahead at each franchise’s salary cap situation heading into the summer, and the free agent frenzy that occurs every offseason. While the exact amount of the 2015/16 salary cap won’t be announced until July, the cap is projected to come in somewhere around $67.4MM, with the luxury tax threshold projected at approximately $81MM. This year’s $63.065MM cap represented an increase of 7.7% over 2013/14, which was well above the league’s projected annual increase of 4.5%.
We’ll continue onward by taking a look at the Clippers’ cap outlook for 2015/16…
Here are the players with guaranteed contracts:
- Carlos Delfino (Stretch Provision) — $650K
- Jordan Farmar (Stretch Provision) — $510,922
- Blake Griffin — $18,907,725
- Spencer Hawes — $5,543,725
- Chris Paul — $21,468,696
- Miroslav Raduljica (Stretch Provision) — $252,042
- J.J. Redick — $7,085,000
- C.J. Wilcox — $1,159,680
Here are the players with non-guaranteed contracts:
- Matt Barnes — $3,542,500 ($1MM Guaranteed)
- Jamal Crawford — $5,675,000 ($1.5MM Guaranteed)
- Jordan Hamilton — $1,015,421
Players with options:
- None
The Clippers’ Cap Summary for 2015/16:
- Guaranteed Salary: $58,077,790
- Options/Non-Guaranteed Salary: $7,732,921
- Total: $65,810,711
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Southeast Notes: O’Quinn, Beasley, Payton
Kyle O’Quinn‘s future is up in the air as his minutes continue to decrease with the Magic, Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel writes. The big man has spent his entire three year career in Orlando, so he doesn’t know what the free agent process will hold for him, Robbins adds. “It’s my first free agency, so I really don’t know what to expect, to be honest,” O’Quinn said. “My agent [Andy Miller], obviously, he’s been through free agency before with other players. He can give me his analysis and his assumption and his prediction as much as he wants, but I’m the one that has to go to bed at night not knowing where I’ll be next year.” O’Quinn will become an unrestricted free agent this summer if the Magic don’t make him a $1.2MM qualifying offer, or a restricted free agent if the Magic extend the qualifying offer.
Here’s more from the Southeast Division:
- Both Michael Beasley‘s and Henry Walker‘s deals with the Heat are two year, minimum salary arrangements, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter links). Beasley’s contract includes a team option for 2015/16 that needs to be decided on before July, Pincus notes.
- Walker’s deal includes partial guarantees of $100K if he is still on the Heat‘s roster after August 1st, $300K after November 3rd, and another $500K if Walker is still with Miami after December 1st, Pincus tweets.
- Cody Taylor of Basketball Insiders looked at Elfrid Payton‘s rookie season with the Magic and the point guard’s case to win the Rookie of the Year award. The 21-year-old Payton has appeared in 73 games this season, including 54 as a starter. He is averaging 8.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 6.2 assists in 29.5 minutes per contest.
Sixers, Glenn Robinson III Interested In New Deal
The Sixers and rookie Glenn Robinson III have mutual interest in working out a deal that would keep the player in Philadelphia beyond this season, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes. Robinson will be a restricted free agent this summer if the Sixers tender him a qualifying offer worth $1,045,059. The rookie is currently on a one year, minimum salary deal. “They’ve really done a good job with me, just the little time I’ve been here,” Robinson said. “So I would definitely love to come back and play with these bigs [Joel Embiid and Nerlens Noel] and this whole team. I think we really have a good chance of being a great team.”
Robinson has only appeared in one contest for the Sixers since the team claimed him off of waivers from the Timberwolves earlier this month. The young swingman said that getting released by Minnesota tested his resolve, Pompey notes. “I learned a lot in regards to how tough and how strong I am,” said Robinson. “I try not to pay attention to that and still keep pushing. I still believe that one day I’m going to be one of the best players in this league. I have no doubt about that.” The Nuggets were also reportedly interested in Robinson.
Sixers coach Brett Brown said the team would need to take a look at what Robinson could do at some point, Pompey adds. “I don’t feel the pressure yet,” Brown said of the need to play Robinson. “I don’t feel that I’m in a rush to make it happen.” Robinson is currently behind Jason Richardson, Hollis Thompson, Robert Covington, and JaKarr Sampson on the Sixers’ depth chart.
The 21-year-old out of Michigan was selected with the No. 40 overall pick by the Timberwolves in the 2014 NBA draft. Robinson appeared in 25 games for Minnesota this season, averaging 1.2 points and 0.6 rebounds in 4.3 minutes per contest.
And-Ones: Beverley, Woodson, Terry
Patrick Beverley‘s injured wrist is still being evaluated and the player will miss at least ten days, and potentially the remainder of the Rockets‘ season if he requires surgery, Jenny Dial Creech of The Houston Chronicle writes. “He is going to meet more people today and get a final determination as to what is going to happen,” coach Kevin McHale said. “There probably won’t be any major decisions made for a week-10 days, see what happens.” Beverly has been diagnosed with a torn ligament, tweets Sam Amick of USA Today.
Here’s more from around the league:
- Former Knicks coach and current Clippers assistant Mike Woodson says that he absolutely wants to be an NBA head coach again, Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times relays (Twitter link).
- Woodson also said that if he had been retained as Knicks coach he would have pushed for the team to hold onto Tyson Chandler and to keep the veteran core together another season, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com tweets.
- With the loss of Beverely, the Rockets will need Jason Terry to step up his game if the team is to stay afloat in the Western Conference, Creech writes in a separate article. “I am looking to turn up my aggression offensively,” Terry said. “It’s something I haven’t been doing all season. You have seen a spark once or twice, like in Atlanta, maybe the Milwaukee game, but at this age it’s hard to do that all the time, but in these last two weeks before the playoffs, I am going to turn up my aggression very high and try to get a rhythm and consistency on the offensive end of the floor.”
Pacific Notes: Nash, Wear, Len
Speaking at his retirement press conference Steve Nash said that he considered his time with the Lakers a failure, Joey Ramirez of NBA.com relays. “I came here with huge hopes and dreams and was incredibly excited and humble to have the opportunity to come here and play for the Lakers and the world’s biggest fan base,” Nash said. “For it just not to be in the cards was a failure and a huge disappointment. It’s been a difficult period of my career and my life to battle through that and to try to make something of it, which was fruitless in the end. But I know I’ve never worked harder. I never wanted something more, and I never worked harder. It just wasn’t to be.”
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Nash said that he understands the backlash he received from Lakers fans regarding him not being around the team this season, Bill Oram of The Orange County Register writes. “I really needed to get away,” Nash said. “I had an incredible amount of stress and anxiety. I wanted something so bad and held on way too long. Probably over-trained to get there. I needed to get some space.”
- Suns coach Jeff Hornacek insists that center Alex Len will be “a great player,” and his rapid progress is seen on almost a daily basis, Matt Petersen of NBA.com writes. “He’s getting smarter and smarter every day,” Hornacek said. “He’s backed off a little bit on the pick-and-rolls. He knows the speed of the guys better, it seems like. He made a couple plays where I thought guys were going to have lay-ups…yet he can block it late. Those are big plays.”
- Quite a bit has changed with the Kings organization since David Wear, who recently inked a 10-day deal with the team, was in training camp with them earlier this season, Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee writes. The forward is excited to get a shot to play in the NBA, Jones adds. “Of course I’ve been waiting, hoping for a call-up, so when I got the call, I was thrilled,” Wear said. “That’s what this whole year’s been all about, and it’s good to finally be here.”
2015/16 Salary Commitments: Pacers
With the NBA trade deadline passed, teams are focusing on locking down playoff spots or vying for a better chance in the draft lottery. Outside of the players who are added on 10-day deals, or those lucky enough to turn those auditions into long-term contracts, teams’ rosters are relatively set for the remainder of the season.
We at Hoops Rumors are in the process of taking a look ahead at each franchise’s salary cap situation heading into the summer, and the free agent frenzy that occurs every offseason. While the exact amount of the 2015/16 salary cap won’t be announced until July, the cap is projected to come in somewhere around $67.4MM, with the luxury tax threshold projected at approximately $81MM. This year’s $63.065MM cap represented an increase of 7.7% over 2013/14, which was well above the league’s projected annual increase of 4.5%.
We’ll continue onward by taking a look at the Pacers’ cap outlook for 2015/16…
Here are the players with guaranteed contracts:
- Paul George — $17,120,106
- George Hill — $8MM
- Solomon Hill — $1,358,880
- Ian Mahinmi — $4MM
- C.J. Miles — $4,394,225
- Damjan Rudez — $1,149,500
Here are the players with non-guaranteed contracts:
- None
Players with options:
- Roy Hibbert (Player Option) — $15,514,031
- David West (Player Option) — $12.6MM
The Pacers’ Cap Summary for 2015/16:
- Guaranteed Salary: $36,022,711
- Options/Non-Guaranteed Salary: $28,114,031
- Total: $64,136,742
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Eastern Notes: Rose, Miller, Price, Shved
Hornets assistant coach Mark Price agreed to terms with UNC Charlotte to become the program’s new head coach, Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer reports. The 51-year-old replaces Alan Major, who resigned two weeks ago, Bonnell adds. Price has been an assistant with the Hornets for the past two seasons. When discussing the loss of Price, Hornets coach Steve Clifford said, “It’s not good for us, but that is how this profession works. If you hire good people they are going to get other opportunities,” Bonnell tweets.
Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- The Pistons assigned Quincy Miller to the Grand Rapids Drive, their D-League affiliate, the team announced via Twitter. This will be the second trek to Grand Rapids of the season for Miller, who inked a two year deal with Detroit earlier this month.
- Derrick Rose is confident that he’ll return to action for the Bulls this season, K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune tweets. “Oh yeah. I’m not worried about that. I don’t have any pain,” Rose said.
- The Bulls‘ oft-injured point guard wouldn’t elaborate on his possible return date, notes Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com (Twitter link). Regarding him returning by the playoffs, Rose said, “That would be the plan, but who knows? Whenever I’m ready to come back, that’s when I’m going to come back.“
- Alexey Shved had an MRI that revealed an incomplete fractured rib and he will be out of action indefinitely, the Knicks announced. The guard will be reevaluated in two or three weeks time. The regular season ends three weeks from tonight.
Larry Bird On Tanking, Draft, Roster
Despite losing star forward Paul George prior to the season to a serious leg injury the Pacers have still been competitive this season, and team president Larry Bird expects his team to make the playoffs, Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com relays. Bird spoke with Mazzeo on a number of subjects, and here are some of the highlights of their chat:
Discussing the concept of tanking and what comes to mind when it is mentioned, Bird said…
“It makes me sick to my stomach. For somebody that’s been in this league for over 30 years, I don’t think that’s the way you do things, but that’s my opinion. Everybody else has got their opinion. I’ve read in the past here where people thought we should lose on purpose. I don’t believe in that. I’ve never believed in that. If I ever get that way, I’ll be out of the game.”
When asked if the team prefers to draft players who have stayed in college for multiple seasons, Bird said…
“I don’t think it’s a direction. I do like four-year guys, though. They’re low maintenance. They already know what the league’s all about. We’ve taken some young guys — Paul George, Lance Stephenson, and both of them are very good players. I don’t think every draft we go in and say we’ve got to get a four-year guy or a three-year guy. It’s really who’s there. I know in Danny’s [Granger] situation, we followed Danny’s career pretty closely. And I know when he came in here to work out for us, it was more of a favor to come in here than it was that we had an opportunity to draft him. I think we were at [pick No. 17] that year [2005], and we thought he was gonna be taken in the top six. But he slid to us and we knew about his knee injury and everything. It was pretty easy. If you saw the way Roy [Hibbert] played his freshman year, you would’ve never dreamed he’d be on an NBA court. But the improvement, the work ethic he displayed, showed us that he’d be the best player he possibly could be by sheer work and force. Then, you take a lot of the other guys on our team — David West was a four-year guy. It’s just so much easier.”
On why he decided to keep the Pacers’ core intact at the trade deadline this year…
“I wanted to keep our group together because in the summer, if David and Roy opt out, we’re back to zero, really. We don’t have that much, so you leave your options open. If we did make a trade, I didn’t want to take on a lot of contracts — because that’s what usually happens. Plus, I liked my guys. They’re playing well. If we keep the core together and Paul comes back healthy, we’ll be right back to where we were.”
On which Pacers player has been the biggest surprise this season…
“I’ve been watching Rodney Stuckey for eight years now, and when you watch players from other teams you know how good they are, but you see them every day and you know they’re really good. And I think C.J. Miles has had problems with injuries throughout his career, but our training staff is getting him pretty healthy and he’s going to be here all summer, so I look forward and I look out for the big picture. We are going to have a good draft pick — whether we’re in the playoffs or not, we’re gonna get somebody that can help us. And we’ll just go forward with that, and we think we’re gonna be pretty good next year.“
2015/16 Salary Commitments: Rockets
With the NBA trade deadline passed, teams are focusing on locking down playoff spots or vying for a better chance in the draft lottery. Outside of the players who are added on 10-day deals, or those lucky enough to turn those auditions into long-term contracts, teams’ rosters are relatively set for the remainder of the season.
We at Hoops Rumors are in the process of taking a look ahead at each franchise’s salary cap situation heading into the summer, and the free agent frenzy that occurs every offseason. While the exact amount of the 2015/16 salary cap won’t be announced until July, the cap is projected to come in somewhere around $67.4MM, with the luxury tax threshold projected at approximately $81MM. This year’s $63.065MM cap represented an increase of 7.7% over 2013/14, which was well above the league’s projected annual increase of 4.5%.
We’ll continue onward by taking a look at the Rockets’ cap outlook for 2015/16…
Here are the players with guaranteed contracts:
- Trevor Ariza — $8,193,030
- Clint Capela — $1,242,720
- Joey Dorsey — $1,015,421
- James Harden — $15,756,438
- Dwight Howard — $22,359,364
- Nick Johnson — $845,059
- Terrence Jones — $2,489,530
- Donatas Motiejunas — $2,288,205
Here are the players with non-guaranteed contracts:
- Pablo Prigioni — $1,734,572 ($290K Guaranteed)
Players with options:
- Kostas Papanikolaou (Team Option) — $4,797,664
The Rockets’ Cap Summary for 2015/16:
- Guaranteed Salary: $54,479,767
- Options/Non-Guaranteed Salary: $6,242,236
- Total: $60,722,003
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Atlantic Notes: Brown, Jackson, Thomas
Sixers coach Brett Brown won’t stop pushing his team to improve, regardless of how it affects Philly’s chances of snagging the top pick in this year’s draft, Bob Cooney of The Philadelphia Daily News writes. “I don’t know how to coach anymore if that becomes part of it all,” Brown said. “I really don’t. You can’t cheat the game. I get it and I understand it. I just don’t even know how to do my job, otherwise. We go about our business. I can’t walk into the locker room and do anything else for those guys. They want to play hard. They want to compete. Whatever ends up happening, ends up happening. I’m proud of the way we play every night. What we may lack in resumes and birth certificates and all of that, we make up for with big spirit and tremendous team camaraderie, despite what our win/loss record says. This is a spirited group and one that I love coaching.”
Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- While the Sixers still need an upgrade at the point, Ish Smith has shown enough promise that he should factor into the team’s plans for next season, Cooney adds. “He has a clear upside,” Brown said of Smith. “I think that because of his style of shooting – he’s a set-shooter – I can see how he can improve with repetition and encouragement and all those types of things in the next short period of time. Then you have the constant qualities that he’s a hell of a teammate, he’s an athlete, he’s highly competitive. Although he’s been around a lot, it’s not like he’s got a lot of miles on his legs. He really hasn’t played a lot, but he’s been around a lot. For all those reasons, I just feel like his upside is clear.”
- Phil Jackson was hired as Knicks team president to restore faith in the franchise, something he has failed to do during his tenure thus far, Justin Terranova of The New York Post writes. Jackson has fallen in ESPN Insider’s Front Office rankings from the No. 21 spot to the 29th, with only Nets GM Billy King below him.
- A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com looks at the effect that Isaiah Thomas will have on the Celtics‘ lineup and playoff chances now that he’s set to return from his injury.