Central Notes: Oladipo, Respert, Cavs, Pistons
After reporting earlier this week that the Pacers aren’t considering the possibility of shopping Victor Oladipo and that the veteran guard isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, J. Michael of The Indianapolis Star digs a little further into the subject.
A source tells The Star that Oladipo “loves” Indiana, and Michael notes that the two-time All-Star has a good, “open-door” relationship with Pacers executives Kevin Pritchard and Chad Buchanan.
According to Michael, the Pacers have made it clear they’re willing to give Oladipo a maximum-salary contract once his current deal ends in 2021, assuming that’s his market value. The 28-year-old hasn’t fully regained his All-Star form since returning from a serious leg injury, but is willing to roll the dice that he can get there.
Doing so would put him in line to earn a long-term max deal in ’21 rather than settling for an early extension that wouldn’t be as lucrative or as lengthy, due to CBA restrictions — Oladipo is seeking as much security as possible on his next contract, says Michael.
Here’s more from around the Central:
- Bulls director of player development Shawn Respert, whose contract is set to expire at the end of the season, won’t be retained beyond 2019/20, according to K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. Interestingly, Johnson says that decision was made by Jim Boylen, who remains the Bulls’ head coach for now as he continues to be evaluated by the team’s new basketball operations decision-makers.
- The Cavaliers are unlikely to have any cap room this offseason, but could still be a minor player in free agency, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, who speculates in his latest mailbag that Derrick Jones, Michael Carter-Williams, Josh Jackson, and Harry Giles could be among Cleveland’s targets.
- While February’s Andre Drummond trade will help ensure the Cavs don’t have cap room this offseason, moving Drummond’s contract should allow the Pistons to create upwards of $30-35MM in space, depending on where exactly the cap lands. James L. Edwards III of The Athletic explores which players Detroit could look at if the team decides to trade for unwanted contracts rather than using its room on free agents.
2020/21 Salary Cap Preview: Orlando Magic
Hoops Rumors is looking ahead at the 2020/21 salary cap situations for all 30 NBA teams. Due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the NBA, it’s impossible to know yet where the cap for 2020/21 will land. Given the league’s lost revenue, we’re assuming for now that it will stay the same as the ’19/20 cap, but it’s entirely possible it will end up higher or lower than that.
The Magic entered the 2019/20 season looking to build on its strong finish the previous year, but have ended up taking a slight step back instead, entering the hiatus with a 30-35 record after winning 42 games in 2018/19.
With Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon, and Terrence Ross still earning eight-figure salaries for multiple years beyond this season, and Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz expected to eventually be locked up too, the Magic may not be in position to make major changes to their roster within the next year or two unless they do so on the trade market.
Here’s where things stand for the Magic financially in 2020/21, as we continue our Salary Cap Preview series:
Guaranteed Salary
- Nikola Vucevic ($26,000,000)
- Aaron Gordon ($18,136,364)
- Terrence Ross ($13,500,000)
- Markelle Fultz ($12,288,697)
- Al-Farouq Aminu ($9,720,900)
- Jonathan Isaac ($7,362,566)
- Mohamed Bamba ($5,969,040)
- Khem Birch ($3,000,000)
- Total: $95,977,567
Player Options
- Evan Fournier ($17,150,000)
- James Ennis ($2,130,023)
- Total: $19,280,023
Team Options
- Melvin Frazier ($1,663,861)
- Total: $1,663,861
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- None
Restricted Free Agents
- Wesley Iwundu ($2,023,150 qualifying offer / $2,023,150 cap hold): Bird rights
- Gary Clark ($1,820,524 qualifying offer / $1,820,524 cap hold): Non-Bird rights
- B.J. Johnson (two-way qualifying offer / $1,445,697 cap hold): Non-Bird rights
- Vic Law (two-way qualifying offer / $1,445,697 cap hold): Non-Bird rights
- Total (cap holds): $6,735,068
Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds
- D.J. Augustin ($13,775,000): Bird rights
- Jerian Grant ($5,014,697): Bird rights 1
- No. 15 overall pick ($3,285,120)
- Chuma Okeke ($3,121,080) 2
- Michael Carter-Williams ($1,620,564): Early Bird rights
- Arron Afflalo ($1,620,564): Non-Bird rights 1
- Marreese Speights ($1,620,564): Non-Bird rights 1
- Total: $30,057,589
Offseason Cap Outlook
Assuming they plan to keep their first-round pick and sign Okeke in 2020, the Magic will have more than $102MM in guaranteed money committed to 10 players. That should put the club in position to either re-sign Fournier or accommodate his $17MM player option without approaching tax territory.
Letting Fournier walk would theoretically give the Magic even more flexibility, but probably wouldn’t result in any cap room. It would make more sense for Orlando to operate as an over-the-cap team in that scenario in order to retain its full mid-level and bi-annual exceptions.
Cap Exceptions Available
- Mid-level exception: $9,258,000 3
- Bi-annual exception: $3,623,000 3
Footnotes
- The cap holds for Grant, Afflalo, and Speights remain on the Magic’s books because they haven’t been renounced after going unsigned in 2019/20. They can’t be used in a sign-and-trade deal.
- The 16th overall pick in 2019, Okeke has yet to sign his rookie scale contract. He’ll be eligible to sign in 2020/21 for the same amount as the No. 16 pick in the 2020 draft.
- These are projected values. If the Magic’s team salary continues to increase, it’s possible they’d be limited to the taxpayer mid-level exception ($5,718,000).
Note: Minimum-salary and rookie-scale cap holds are based on the salary cap and could increase or decrease depending on where the cap lands.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and Early Bird Rights was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
FIBA Announces New Olympic Qualifying Tournament Dates
With the Tokyo Olympics rescheduled for July 23 through August 8, 2021 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, FIBA has also postponed its qualifying tournaments that will decide the four open men’s basketball Olympics slots. According to a press release, those tournaments will take place from June 29 to July 4, 2021.
The four qualifying tournaments will be played in Canada (Victoria), Croatia (Split), Lithuania (Kaunas), and Serbia (Belgrade), with those countries among those still vying to be part of the 12-team field for the Olympics.
Brazil, Greece, Turkey, China, Poland, Russia, and Germany are among the other teams that will compete in the four tournaments, which will be made up of six teams apiece (24 in total). The United States, Spain, France, Australia, Nigeria, Argentina, Iran, and Japan have already qualified.
While a number of the countries competing in those qualifying tournaments could theoretically have multiple NBA players on their roster, the new dates may not line up well with the NBA’s calendar. For now, it seems likely that the start of the 2020/21 season will be postponed and that the NBA will still try to play a full 82-game schedule, which means the regular season could run into June, with the playoffs extending into August.
In that scenario, stars on likely 2021 playoff teams – such as Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece), Nikola Jokic (Serbia), and Jamal Murray (Canada), among others – could still be playing in the NBA postseason when the qualifiers take place, preventing them from participating in those tournaments.
Even if the NBA resists making major changes to its schedule and attempts to finish the 2021 Finals in June like usual, the qualifying tournaments would take place during the start of free agency, which could affect some players’ plans.
Warriors Notes: Giannis, Okongwu, Draft, Eliyahu
Every now and then, over the last year, a report has surfaced detailing the Warriors‘ interest in Giannis Antetokounmpo or suggesting that Golden State has been preparing its pursuit of the Bucks star for “years.” However, Anthony Slater of The Athletic is highly skeptical that anything will come of the Warriors’ interest in Giannis, whose current contract with Milwaukee expires in 2021.
As Slater explains, the fact that the Warriors were able to land Kevin Durant in 2016 means they’ll never be ruled out when they pursue other superstars, but in that case, everything lined up perfectly for the franchise — Durant was able to team up with the Warriors’ stars when they were all in their primes and took advantage of a huge cap spike in 2016 to join the team on a max-salary deal.
Several years later, the cap situation for the Warriors and the NBA as a whole isn’t nearly as rosy — Golden State’s cap is loaded with big-money contracts for its stars (and Andrew Wiggins), offering no realistic path to landing Antetokoumpo as a free agent or in a sign-and-trade. The league’s lost revenues also mean that a major dip in the cap is more likely than another spike.
On top of all that, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green are in their 30s now, meaning that if he were to become a Warrior, Giannis “would be joining what’d probably become the early stages of a rebuild around him,” Slater writes.
If a star player badly wants to get to a specific team, there’s often a way to make it work, as we saw with last summer with the likes of Anthony Davis and Paul George. But there has been zero indication that Giannis is itching to leave the team with the NBA’s best record for the one in dead last. And even if that’s what he wanted, the roadblocks in the way would be substantial.
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- In a mailbag for The San Francisco Chronicle, Connor Letourneau discusses Alen Smailagic‘s development, possible options for the Warriors’ $17MM trade exception, and potential draft targets, among other topics. Interestingly, Letourneau indicates that, when it comes to draft-eligible big men, Golden State is higher on Onyeka Okongwu than James Wiseman.
- While there has been plenty of speculation about the Warriors potentially trading their 2020 lottery pick for win-now veteran help, Ethan Strauss of The Athletic contends that it might make more sense for the club to move the Timberwolves’ 2021 first-rounder if a major trade opportunity arises.
- Veteran Israeli forward Lior Eliyahu, who spent the 2019/20 season with Maccabi Ashdod, is considering retirement, per an Israel Hayom report (relayed by Sportando). How is that news relevant to the Warriors? Well, Golden State technically holds Eliyahu’s NBA rights, having acquired them in a trade with Minnesota last July. The No. 44 pick in the 2016 draft never came stateside, but has had a decorated playing career in his home country, winning six Israeli League titles and earning seven All-Star nods.
LeBron, Curry Among Players Who Will Owe Money From 2020/21 Salaries
Starting this Friday, 25% of NBA players’ pay checks will be withheld for the foreseeable future. The NBA and NBPA reached that agreement last month in order to ensure that players are bearing some of the brunt of the league’s lost revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic — and so that players won’t be required to surrender a significant lump sum in a few months if games are officially canceled and the CBA’s “force majeure” clause is triggered.
However, some players will still have to return money to the league down the road rather than seeing a portion of their pay checks withheld now. While most NBA players are paid in 24 bi-monthly installments, beginning in November, some players negotiated deals that see them receive just 12 pay checks, with the last one issued on May 1. As a result, those players have already received their full salaries for the 2019/20 season and withholding part of their checks starting on May 15 isn’t an option.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN details, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, John Wall, Blake Griffin, and Paul George – all of whom are making $33MM or more this season – are among the players who have already received their ’19/20 salaries in full.
Because those players – and several others – won’t resume receiving pay checks from their respective teams until the fall, they’ll essentially owe the NBA an IOU for each pay date this spring and summer (until the 25% agreement ends), Marks explains.
By the fall, the league should better understand to what extent players’ 2019/20 salaries have to be reduced, and players like James and Curry will have money taken out of their advances for 2020/21 (on October 1) and/or their ’20/21 pay checks (beginning on November 15).
As Marks notes, the amount of money that players ultimately have to give up for the 2019/20 season will depend on how many games can be played this summer if and when the season resumes.
Players could lose approximately 23-26% of their full-season salaries if games don’t resume, according to Marks. On the other hand, in the unlikely event that the NBA is able to play its remaining regular season games and playoff games in full, teams would be responsible for returning players’ full salaries to them.
Adjusting player salaries based on the amount of games that can eventually be played should help the league avoid a scenario in which the salary cap fluctuates significantly over the next couple years based on this year’s lost revenue, since the NBA and its players share roughly a 50-50 split of the league’s revenue.
Magic Notes: Facility, Fultz, Offseason, Okeke
After pushing back their target date a couple times, the Magic are moving forward with reopening their practice facility today, tweets Josh Robbins of The Athletic. As we detailed on Wednesday, the team had been waiting on coronavirus test results for a number of asymptomatic players and staffers.
With the Magic set to allow their players to conduct voluntary individual workouts starting Thursday, they’ll become the 11th NBA team to do so, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. Reynolds identifies Portland, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Denver, Atlanta, Indiana, Sacramento, Toronto, and Utah as the first 10 teams to reopen their facilities.
We’ve covered all those teams’ decisions in recent days except for the Bucks, who slipped through the cracks. They announced on Monday (via Twitter) that they’d be reopening their building on a limited basis.
The Magic were the first team to secure written authorization from a local health authority – along with approval from the NBA – to test asymptomatic players for COVID-19, which means they’re able to be more proactive than other teams in screening who’s entering their building. Most clubs, for now, are conducting basic health and temperature checks on those entering their facilities.
Here’s more on the Magic:
- After recently polling NBA scouts on Jonathan Isaac‘s outlook going forward, Josh Robbins of The Athletic has done the same for Markelle Fultz, one of Orlando’s other young building blocks. Unsurprisingly, Fultz’s shot-making ability is the primary concern among those evaluators. “Right now, I think he’s more of a backup, which is perfect for him,” one scout said. “The shooting, unless that gets a lot better, he’s a backup. He’s with a good coach who values what he does. He defends. He’s an athletic presence. He can get to the rim. But for him to be a starter and a guy you pay that kind of money to, you’ve got to make shots.”
- Given the Magic’s limited projected cap flexibility and the fact that they likely won’t have a lottery pick, Robbins says in a mailbag for The Athletic that he thinks the most realistic way for the team to make a splash in the 2020 offseason is to do so on the trade market.
- Within the same mailbag, Robbins also confirms that 2019 first-rounder Chuma Okeke won’t be joining the Magic if the season resumes, since he’ll have to wait until the 2020/21 league year begins to sign his rookie contract. Okeke, who was recovering from an ACL tear when he was drafted last June, essentially took a redshirt year in the G League.
- The Magic will be the next team up in our Salary Cap Preview series for ’20/21 — keep an eye out for that story to be published later today.
And-Ones: Game Ball, Mo Williams, Zion, Kobe
The NBA will be making a change to its on-court product starting in 2021/22 that figures to be felt by players — even if it’s hardly noticed by fans. According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, the NBA’s long-standing relationship with Spalding is coming to an end, as the two sides have mutually agreed to part ways. The league has reached a deal with Wilson to produce the NBA’s official game ball, starting in ’21/22.
As Haynes details, the NBA has been using Spalding balls since 1983, though Wilson manufactured the league’s game balls before that. Wilson, which will also begin producing balls for the WNBA and G League, is already the official game ball of the NCAA tournament.
According to Haynes, the NBA and NBPA will have a significant amount of input on the new game ball, and the leather and product specifications will remain unchanged, which should go a long way toward creating a smooth transition from Spalding to Wilson.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Former NBA guard Mo Williams has been hired by Alabama State as the school’s new men’s basketball head coach, according to a press release from the program. Williams, who had previously been an assistant coach at California State University at Northridge (CSUN), had a 13-year NBA career, earning an All-Star spot in 2009 and a championship in 2016, his final season.
- The legal battle between Pelicans forward Zion Williamson and his former marketing representative – Prime Sports Marketing president Gina Ford – took another interesting step forward this week, as Ford’s attorneys are pushing to get Williamson to admit he accepted unauthorized benefits at Duke. Dana O’Neil and Diamond Leung of The Athletic and Michael McCann of SI.com have shared informative breakdowns explaining what to make of the latest developments in the case.
- The facility previously known as the Mamba Sports Academy is dropping the “Mamba” moniker, announcing that it will retire that part of the name and “raise it to the rafters” in honor of the late Kobe Bryant. After initially stating that the decision was made out of respect for Kobe’s legacy, Sports Academy later clarified that “it was a mutual agreement made in accordance with the wishes of (Bryant’s) estate.”
Florida Governor Says State Open For Sports
After Arizona Governor Doug Ducey announced on Tuesday that professional sports (without fans in attendance) will be permitted in his state beginning this weekend, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made a similar announcement on Wednesday (video link via Andy Slater of Fox Sports 640 South Florida).
“All professional sports are welcome here for practicing and for playing,” DeSantis said during a news conference, per ESPN. “… What I would tell commissioners of leagues is, if you have a team in an area where they just won’t let them operate, we’ll find a place for you here in the state of Florida. Because we think it’s important and we know it can be done safely.”
Given the number of unknowns surrounding the reopening of professional sports leagues and all the work those leagues are doing to understand the risks of resuming play, DeSantis’ assertion that “we know it can be done safely” seems somewhat dubious. Still, the fact that the state of Florida is willing to accommodate professional sports could be good news for commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA.
If and when the league makes its own determination that the 2019/20 season can be safely resumed, games are expected to be played in one or two “bubble” locations. One of the top candidates to host that “bubble” is Walt Disney World near Orlando, so the fact that Florida’s state government is seemingly on board removes one potential roadblock for the NBA.
Kings, Pacers, Heat Among Latest Teams To Reopen Facilities
Teams around the NBA continue to reopen their practice facilities to accommodate voluntary individual workouts for their players. The Kings, Pacers, and Heat are among the latest teams to do so.
As James Ham of NBC Sports California details, Sacramento opened its facility on Monday, and a handful of players have already taken advantage of the opportunity to get some work in.
The same thing happened in Indiana this week, according to J. Michael of The Indianapolis Star. Michael’s source didn’t identify the specific players who have been back at St. Vincent Center, but said some players have returned to the facility, even as many staffers still aren’t cleared to enter the building.
As for the Heat, they reopened their facility at AmericanAirlines Arena on Wednesday, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun-Sentinel. All but three of Miami’s players are still in the South Beach area, per Winderman, so a number of those players figure to make use of the building.
The Cavaliers, Trail Blazers, Nuggets, Jazz, Hawks, and Raptors are among the teams that have also opened their respective facilities. Raptors forward Malcolm Miller confirmed today that he was the first player back at the club’s facility in Toronto earlier this week (Twitter link via Blake Murphy of The Athletic).
As the list of teams with reopened facilities grows, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Tuesday night that the league believes 22 of its 30 teams will have their building opened back up by next Monday (May 18). However, situations remain fluid.
For instance, the Wizards had reportedly targeted this Friday to reopen their practice facility. That target date is now up in the air, since the stay-at-home order in Washington, D.C. has now been extended through June 8, tweets Fred Katz of The Athletic.
Players who have been given the green light to participate in individual workouts at their teams’ facilities face restrictive guidelines. They can only work out for an hour at a time, with no more than four total players in the building. They also must undergo temperature checks before entering the facility and are required to wear a mask when not engaged in physical activity.
Players Eligible For Rookie Scale Extensions In 2020 Offseason
When the NBA’s 2020/21 league year begins in November, players eligible for free agency will be able to begin negotiating and reaching contract agreements with suitors. In addition to those free agents, another group of players will also become eligible to sign new deals.
For players who are entering the fourth and final year of their rookie scale contracts, the first day of the new league year (November 21) is the first day they can agree to rookie scale extensions. Those players, who are almost exclusively 2017 first-round selections, will have until December 21, the day before the 2020/21 regular season starts, to finalize long-term agreements with their current teams.
Players eligible for rookie scale extensions can sign new deals that run for up to four – or five – years, with those contracts taking effect beginning in 2021/22. If they don’t sign extensions during the coming offseason, those players will be eligible for restricted free agency in the summer of 2021.
A year ago, nine players eligible for rookie scale extensions signed new deals between July 1 and the start of the season. That number was a little higher than usual, likely because few teams projected to have significant cap room available in 2020. Still, we should have at least that many viable candidates for rookie scale extensions this time around, even if that doesn’t mean they’ll all sign new contracts.
Here are the players who will be eligible to sign rookie scale extensions during the 2020 offseason:
- Bam Adebayo (Heat): Extended
- Jarrett Allen (Nets)
- OG Anunoby (Raptors): Extended
- Lonzo Ball (Pelicans)
- Tony Bradley (Sixers)
- John Collins (Hawks)
- Zach Collins (Trail Blazers)
- Terrance Ferguson (Sixers)
- De’Aaron Fox (Kings): Extended
- Markelle Fultz (Magic): Extended
- Josh Hart (Pelicans)
- Jonathan Isaac (Magic): Extended
- Justin Jackson (Thunder)
- Luke Kennard (Clippers): Extended
- Kyle Kuzma (Lakers): Extended
- T.J. Leaf (Thunder)
- Lauri Markkanen (Bulls)
- Donovan Mitchell (Jazz): Extended
- Malik Monk (Hornets)
- Frank Ntilikina (Knicks)
- Dennis Smith Jr. (Knicks)
- Jayson Tatum (Celtics): Extended
- Derrick White (Spurs): Extended
- D.J. Wilson (Bucks)
The following players were either selected in the first round of the 2017 draft or signed their rookie scale contracts in ’17 along with the players listed above. However, they aren’t eligible for rookie scale extensions this year for the reasons noted:
- Harry Giles: Fourth-year option declined by Kings in 2019.
- Josh Jackson: Fourth-year option declined by Grizzlies in 2019.
- Tyler Lydon: Third-year option declined by Nuggets in 2018.
- Anzejs Pasecniks: Never signed rookie scale contract; rights renounced by Sixers in 2019.
- Justin Patton: Third-year option declined by Timberwolves in 2018.
- Caleb Swanigan: Fourth-year option declined by Kings in 2019.
- Guerschon Yabusele: Waived by Celtics in 2019.
- Ante Zizic: Fourth-year option declined by Cavaliers in 2019.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.