2020/21 Salary Cap Preview: Atlanta Hawks
Hoops Rumors is looking ahead at the 2020/21 salary cap situations for all 30 NBA teams. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the NBA calendar, 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.
After adding two more young cornerstones – De’Andre Hunter and Cam Reddish – to their roster in the 2019 draft lottery, the Hawks looked like one of the Eastern Conference’s most exciting young teams entering the 2019/20 campaign.
However, despite a monster offensive season from Trae Young, the Hawks didn’t take a major step forward this year. The team didn’t have a whole lot of effective veteran depth and its young players weren’t fully ready to carry the load — a 25-game John Collins suspension didn’t help either. Atlanta will head into ’20/21 hoping for continued growth from its young core and with the cap flexibility necessary to continue adding talent.
Here’s where things stand for the Hawks financially in 2020/21, as we launch our Salary Cap Preview series:
Guaranteed Salary
- Clint Capela ($16,000,000)
- Dewayne Dedmon ($13,333,333)
- De’Andre Hunter ($7,422,000)
- Trae Young ($6,571,800)
- Cam Reddish ($4,458,000)
- John Collins ($4,137,302)
- Kevin Huerter ($2,761,920)
- Bruno Fernando ($1,517,981)
- Brandon Goodwin ($100,000) — Partial guarantee. Non-guaranteed portion noted below. 1
- Total: $56,302,336
Player Options
- None
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Brandon Goodwin ($1,601,593) 1
- Total: $1,601,593
Restricted Free Agents
- DeAndre’ Bembry ($3,752,338 qualifying offer / $7,811,946 cap hold): Bird rights
- Skal Labissiere ($3,484,882 qualifying offer / $7,016,541 cap hold): Bird rights
- Damian Jones ($3,457,586 qualifying offer / $6,915,172 cap hold): Bird rights
- Charlie Brown Jr. (two-way qualifying offer / $1,445,697 cap hold): Non-Bird rights
- Total (cap holds): $23,189,356
Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds
- Jeff Teague ($28,500,000): Bird rights
- No. 6 overall pick ($5,813,640)
- Vince Carter ($1,620,564): Early Bird rights
- Treveon Graham ($1,620,564): Early Bird rights
- Total: $37,554,768
Offseason Cap Outlook
Regardless of where the cap for the 2020/21 league year ends up, the Hawks are in a good spot and should have more room than virtually any other NBA team. If the cap remains the same as it was in ’19/20, Atlanta could still easily get to $44MM+ in space.
Although that would be more than enough cap room to make a play for a maximum-salary player, I’m skeptical that GM Travis Schlenk would want to go that route, even if team ownership is getting antsy to make a major splash.
Cap Exceptions Available
- Room exception: $4,767,000 2
Footnotes
- Goodwin’s new salary guarantee date is unknown.
- This is a projected value.
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.
Draft Notes: White, Collins, Choh, Ball, Toppin
Like Arizona State teammate Remy Martin, junior forward Romello White is declaring for the 2020 NBA draft, according to Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports, who tweets that White is keeping his options open. In a tweet of his own, White confirmed that he has sought feedback from the NBA’s Undergraduate Advisory Committee.
After putting up modest numbers as a sophomore, White had a bounce-back junior year, averaging 10.2 PPG to go along with a team-best 8.8 RPG, and 1.2 BPG in 30 games (28.5 MPG) for the Sun Devils. He’ll have the option of returning for his senior season if he decides to withdraw from the draft pool later in the process.
Here are a few more draft-related notes and updates:
- South Florida junior guard David Collins is testing the draft waters, reports Rothstein (Twitter link). Collins was the team’s leading scorer in 2019/20, with 13.7 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 1.8 APG, and 1.8 SPG.
- Forward Tamenang Choh is declaring for the draft following his junior season at Brown University, a source tells Jeff Goodman of Stadium (Twitter link). Choh posted 13.2 PPG, 8.1 RPG, and 3.3 APG, but struggled to score efficiently, with a shooting line of .392/.292/.655.
- LaMelo Ball has overtaken Anthony Edwards on Sam Vecenie’s latest big board at The Athletic. Dayton’s Obi Toppin has also moved up in Vecenie’s newest update, coming in at No. 4, behind only Ball, Edwards, and James Wiseman.
- Over at SI.com, Jeremy Woo still has Edwards at No. 1 overall in his most recent mock draft, which covers both rounds. Woo isn’t as high as Vecenie on either Ball (No. 5) or Toppin (N0.9).
Poll: What Should Warriors Do If They Get No. 1 Pick?
After playing in five consecutive NBA Finals, the Warriors bottomed out in 2019/20, losing Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala, and Shaun Livingston last offseason and then having stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson miss essentially the entire season with injuries.
The good news? Curry and Thompson should be fully healthy for ’20/21 and the Warriors’ disastrous season would give them the league’s best lottery odds if the regular season is over.
Under the NBA’s new lottery format, the worst team in the league only has a 14% chance of landing the first overall pick, so the odds are against the Warriors winning the lottery. But what if they do? What would Golden State do with the pick in that situation?
Faced with that question during a SportsCenter appearance this week, ESPN draft guru Mike Schmitz (video link) suggested that the 2020 draft has long been considered “needs-based,” since there’s no one transcendent prospect that stands head and shoulders above the rest. With that in mind, Schmitz says big man James Wiseman is a player who would fit the Warriors’ roster, suggesting the club could use that sort of rim-runner and lob-catcher on offense and rim-protector on defense.
However, Schmitz notes that if he were making the Warriors’ pick, he’d lean toward guard LaMelo Ball, whom he views as the most talented prospect in the 2020 class. As Schmitz explains, Curry isn’t a point guard who always needs the ball in his hands, so he could play alongside Ball. And Golden State would be an ideal spot for the new owner of the Illawarra Hawks to develop, Schmitz adds.
While Wiseman and Ball could both be fits, Connor Letourneau of The San Francisco Chronicle has heard from multiple league sources that the Warriors aren’t believed to be particularly high on either prospect.
“I think they’d only take one of those two if they were trading down in the draft and taking them for another team,” one source told The Chronicle.
According to Letourneau, shooting guard Anthony Edwards appears likely to be Golden State’s top choice if the team lands – and keeps – the No. 1 overall pick. But the Warriors would be open to trading the first overall selection if they do win the lottery, Letourneau notes.
If the Dubs don’t get the No. 1 pick, or decide to trade down, one target might be EuroLeague forward Deni Avdija. One league source tells The Chronicle that there are teams who believe Golden State would have Avdija as high as No. 2 on its draft board, behind only Edwards. Meanwhile, Letourneau also hears that the Warriors may have guard Tyrese Haliburton higher on their board than Ball.
Given all the options the Warriors would have if they win the lottery, we want to know what you think. Which prospect do you think would be the best target for Golden State with the No. 1 pick? Or do you think the club would be better off trading that pick in the hopes of acquiring more assets or an impact veteran?
Vote in our poll, then head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!
What should the Warriors do if they land the No. 1 pick?
-
Draft James Wiseman 30% (403)
-
Trade down a few spots 22% (299)
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Draft Anthony Edwards 20% (266)
-
Trade way down or out of the draft 16% (215)
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Draft LaMelo Ball 6% (82)
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Draft another player 5% (67)
Total votes: 1,332
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
Knicks Notes: Ntilikina, Payton, Portis, Peters
The departure of former team president Steve Mills and the arrival of replacement Leon Rose will complicate Frank Ntilikina‘s future with the Knicks, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post.
As Berman explains, Mills had been Ntilikina’s “stoutest supporter” within the organization, having worked with Phil Jackson to draft the young Frenchman in the 2017 lottery.
Rose, on the other hand, comes from CAA, the agency that Ntilikina left in 2019 when he hired French agent Bouna Ndiaye. Although Rose didn’t directly represent the Knicks’ guard, he led CAA’s basketball department, and Berman hears that the agency was “angered” by Ntilikina’s departure.
Any decision Rose makes on Ntilikina’s future probably won’t be motivated by the 21-year-old’s history with CAA, but it’s not uncommon for new heads of basketball operations to move on from a number of the old regime’s draftees if those players haven’t established themselves as reliable contributors. With Ntilikina entering a contract year in 2020/21, he could be a trade candidate during the coming offseason.
Here’s more on the Knicks:
- Rose will also have a decision to make on another guard, Elfrid Payton, who is owed $8MM in 2020/21. Currently, only $1MM of that amount is guaranteed. While there are no assurances that the Knicks will bring Payton back at that price, Berman notes in a separate Post article that the veteran guard was one of the team’s most productive players in ’19/20. “I just feel the team has been a noticeably better basketball team with him healthy,” a Knicks source told Berman.
- Bobby Portis‘ $15.75MM team option for 2020/21 appears unlikely to be exercised, according to Berman. Agent Mark Bartelstein contends that Portis was “really terrific” in the month leading up to the stoppage after adjusting to a new team and a mid-season coaching change. However, an NBA personnel director tells Berman, “I can’t imagine they can keep him (at that price).”
- It’s possible the Knicks may have found an under-the-radar gem in guard Lamar Peters, according to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic, who spoke with Peters about his first season in the G League. Although the former Mississippi State standout spent the year with the Westchester Knicks, New York doesn’t hold his NBA rights, so he could sign with a new team at any point after the current moratorium lifts.
- In case you missed it on Wednesday, the Knicks are said to have some interest in Sixers general manager Elton Brand for a role in their front office. However, the 76ers reportedly like the job he’s done and don’t plan to let him go.
Vegas Remains Most Likely Host For Potential NBA Postseason
Following up on a CNBC report from last week that suggested the NBA is mulling the idea of playing games in Las Vegas if the 2019/20 season is resumed, Chris Mannix of SI.com confirms the league is exploring the viability of holding its entire postseason in Vegas.
As we noted last week and as Mannix reiterates in today’s article, Vegas makes the most sense as a neutral site because the NBA has an existing relationship with the city, which hosts Summer League games at the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion each July. And a single, neutral site may be the only realistic way to complete the playoffs, since travel restrictions may vary in different parts of the country and games would almost certainly have to be played behind closed doors anyway.
Another recent report indicated that the NBA has had internal discussions about locales such as Orlando, Atlantic City, Hawaii, or Louisville hosting games. However, according to Mannix, Vegas is currently the only city receiving “serious” consideration from the league.
Unsurprisingly, several team and league officials who spoke to Mannix confirmed there’s no chance of a traditional postseason happening this summer, so the NBA is getting creative as it considers its options. Still, it’s unclear if holding the playoffs in a single city would be doable either, since thousands of support staffers would be required at hotels and arenas. As Mannix writes, it’s probably not a viable solution unless the COVID-19 situation improves significantly in the coming months and rapid tests become widely available.
“We all want to play,” one executive from a playoff team told Mannix. “But we all know we can’t play until things are dramatically different.”
Meanwhile, the NBA will have to figure out how a resumed season might impact the 2020 draft, which is currently scheduled for June 25. The league’s preference would almost certainly be to postpone the event until after the conclusion of the resumed season, since offseason rules apply to the draft for roster and trade purposes.
However, as Ian Begley of SNY.tv explains, player agents are concerned about the idea of delaying the draft beyond July. If the draft ends up being pushed to August or September, the early-entrant decision deadline would likely be postponed along with it, causing it to bump up against the start of the fall semester, which would create major complications for prospects and college coaches alike.
Central Notes: Bucks, Boylen, Pistons, McRae
If the 2019/20 season can’t be resumed, few – if any – teams will be hit harder than the Bucks, who had an NBA-best 53-12 record before the league’s hiatus began. For now though, the club is still operating as if it will get a chance to resume play and pursue a championship, as Eric Woodyard of ESPN details.
“We are operating and functioning and just have a mentality that we will play,” Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said on Wednesday in a conference call. “… Luckily, Adam Silver and the league office, they’ll make the hard decisions and they’ll do what’s best for everybody, but I think it’s certainly important that we kind of operate and have a mentality that we will play again, and we’ll be excited about that if and when it does happen.”
While Budenholzer admitted that he has been using some of his unexpected time off to catch up on TV shows like ‘Ozark’ and ‘Game of Thrones,’ he has also been spending plenty of time studying potential playoff opponents. As Woodyard relays, the Bucks’ head coach has focused on Brooklyn and Orlando, but is also looking at film on possible Eastern Conference opponents beyond the first round.
Here’s more from around the Central:
- K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago doesn’t believe that the new front office executive eventually hired by the Bulls will be given a mandate to retain Jim Boylen as his head coach. President/COO Michael Reinsdorf and VP of basketball operations John Paxson have been highly supportive of Boylen, but if Chicago’s top front office candidate makes it clear he wants to hire a new coach, that shouldn’t be a deal-breaker, Johnson writes.
- James L. Edwards III and John Hollinger of The Athletic teamed up for an in-depth look at the Pistons‘ future, exploring which players should be long-term fixtures. In Hollinger’s view, no one on the current roster is capable of being the best player on a good team down the road, including Sekou Doumbouya.
- Appearing on the Wizards Talk podcast with NBC Sports Washington’s Chris Miller, Pistons guard Jordan McRae spoke about his experience being quarantined after teammate Christian Wood tested positive for COVID-19. McRae also shared the story of how he indirectly predicted his trade out of Washington at February’s deadline.
Heat Notes: Olynyk, Workouts, Herro, Nunn
A month ago at this time, Kelly Olynyk appeared to be facing a difficult offseason decision on his $13.2MM player option, says Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. However, given the uncertainty that the NBA’s hiatus has created for the salary cap going forward, Olynyk’s decision may be getting easier.
As Jackson writes, Olynyk’s player option is worth more than the mid-level, and only a small handful of teams project to have the cap room required to match or top $13.2MM. Most of those teams with cap space are in the process of rebuilding, which may not appeal to Olynyk — it’s unlikely that any would even be willing to spend big money on him anyway, since the market will be “saturated with players of similar quality,” Jackson observes. It all points to Olynyk likely opting in for at least one more year with the Heat, barring a trade.
Here’s more on the Heat:
- Goran Dragic said on Tuesday that Heat coaches are overseeing video-conferencing workouts for Heat players for 90 minutes a day, tweets Jackson. Heat players complete the workouts – including weight-lifting exercises – from home and see their teammates on their screen going through the same drills.
- In a mailbag, Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel acknowledges that the NBA’s suspended season and lost revenue could have a ripple effect on the Heat’s 2020 and 2021 free agency plans. In addition to impacting presumed cap increases, this stoppage could result in more players opting for the financial security of longer-term contracts, Winderman suggests. That might limit Miami’s ability to re-sign veterans like Dragic to one-year deals to maintain cap flexibility for the summer of ’21.
- Another Sun Sentinel mailbag explores the Heat’s point guard situation, with Winderman writing that he wouldn’t be surprised if Tyler Herro supplants Kendrick Nunn as the starter as soon as next season.
Community Shootaround: Executive Of The Year
Unlike the other awards we’ve discussed in our Community Shootaround posts over the last week-and-a-half, the NBA’s Executive of the Year honor is voted on by team executives rather than media members. As such, it’s not generally grouped together with the league’s major awards like Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year, and Most Valuable Player.
Still, now that we’re facing the possibility that the 2019/20 regular season may be over, it’s worth exploring which executives might be the top candidates for the award this year.
A team’s winning percentage is often a pretty good indicator of which general managers or presidents of basketball operations will receive Executive of the Year consideration. Five of the last six execs to win the award have overseen the team with the NBA’s best record, including last year’s winner: Jon Horst of the Bucks.
With Milwaukee once again holding the league’s best record in 2019/20, Horst is a candidate to become a repeat winner. However, his roster moves in the last year haven’t been particularly flashy — he mostly re-signed key free agents during the 2019 offseason, adding only role players like Robin Lopez and Wesley Matthews.
Voters may be more swayed by a major move such as the acquisition of Anthony Davis, which could put Lakers head of basketball operations Rob Pelinka in the driver’s seat. Besides acquiring Davis, Pelinka filled out the roster with a series of budget signings, building a squad that now owns the top seed in the Western Conference. And he did all that in the wake of Magic Johnson‘s shocking departure from the front office last spring.
Los Angeles’ other team, the Clippers, made a pair of flashy acquisitions during 2019’s free agent period, landing both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, and currently ranks second in the West. As such, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank should receive Executive of the Year consideration.
Heat president Pat Riley deserves credit for landing Jimmy Butler without any cap space and for identifying under-the-radar gems like Duncan Robinson and Kendrick Nunn. Thunder GM Sam Presti did a tremendous job putting together a playoff roster while trading away George, Russell Westbrook, and Jerami Grant and stockpiling future draft picks. Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge pivoted nicely from a dysfunctional group led by Kyrie Irving to a more cohesive squad with Kemba Walker at the point.
While those look to me like the top candidates, you could certainly make a case for a few others, especially if you consider how past years’ transactions have impacted this year’s rosters. For instance, the Mavericks‘ 2018 draft-day trade for Luka Doncic is the primary reason for the team’s breakthrough ’19/20 season. That’s a point in favor of Mavs GM Donn Nelson, even if you don’t weigh it as heavily as roster moves from the last 10-12 months. Raptors president Masai Ujiri is another exec who’d fall into this category.
I’d also probably give Grizzlies executive VP of basketball operations Zack Kleiman at least a cursory look for a series of impressive transactions, including trading away Mike Conley and trading up in the draft for Brandon Clarke. Memphis also secured a lightly-protected first-round pick in an Andre Iguodala salary dump before flipping Iguodala in a deal that netted the club Justise Winslow.
What do you think? Who would be your pick for Executive of the Year in 2020? Who are the other candidates you’d consider?
Head below to our comment section to weigh in with your thoughts!
Rockets’ Morey Talks Draft, Roster, D’Antoni, More
Rockets general manager Daryl Morey is hopeful that the NBA will be able to resume its 2019/20 season, since he feels as if his club is in a good spot to make some noise in the playoffs. Speaking to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle, Morey said he was pleased by the way Russell Westbrook and James Harden had meshed in recent months.
“I think we’re as well positioned as we’ve ever been with our current situation,” Morey said. “Maybe we’re not the ’96 Bulls, but I think we’re a team that can win the title in any given year, including this one.”
Morey declined to comment on whether he believes the season can be salvaged, but said he’s “confident in general” about the NBA’s outlook: “I’m optimistic in a lot of ways that we’ll come out of this crisis and that basketball will come out of it as well.”
Feigen’s Q&A with Morey included several other interesting tidbits, as the Rockets’ GM discussed his draft preparations, Mike D’Antoni‘s future, the club’s ability to spend, and more. Let’s round up some of the highlights…
On preparing for the draft despite not having a first- or second-round pick:
“We have a long history of buying (draft picks), which I think has a reasonable chance of happening. We also might have a trade to trade (into the draft.) Actually, having no pick ends up harder than having a pick. You normally don’t want to roster more than one to three rookies in a given year. We generally like to roster at least one because I think it is smart to always have a developmental pipeline going.
“You’re preparing for a much wider list. You have to be ready to trade into the first round. You have to be ready to buy a pick. You have to be ready for the crush as teams chase undrafted players. We’re going to prepare everything now because we just don’t know how much time there’s going to be between things like we normally know.”
On the Rockets’ roster going forward:
“Our (trade) deadline really set us up well. Not only did we shoot for a better structure of our core players, that they fit together better, but also allowed us to be more flexible going forward to add players that we think overall as we allocate our player spending. We were over-weighted at the five spot. This opens up ability to spend at other spots.”
On whether the Rockets want to retain D’Antoni and his staff beyond this season:
“Coach D’Antoni is one of the best all-time coaches, in my opinion. To me, he’s like one of those players in the past that hadn’t quite won the title yet. I’m hoping this is the year for him. He’s one of the all-time great innovators and a great partner. I’d love for it to keep going. It takes two to tango, but we’re going to figure that out in the offseason.”
On how he’d respond to criticism of moves that appeared designed to cut costs and avoid the tax:
“Judge us by results on the floor. I honestly don’t get the focus on what owners around the league are spending. Pretty much every owner is spending … right around the luxury tax line. That’s where we’ve been literally my whole career. Nothing’s changed. That’s how every team operates.”
Draft Decisions: Alston, Mizzou, Diarra, French, More
Boise State forward Derrick Alston Jr. has entered his name in the 2020 NBA draft pool, he announced on Twitter. He’ll leave the door open for a possible return to school for his senior season.
Alston, who comes in at No. 98 on ESPN’s big board of 2020 draft prospects, averaged 17.3 PPG, 5.2 RPG, and 3.1 APG in 32 games (33.0 MPG) in 2019/20. His three-point shooting fell off as his volume increased, dipping from 38.4% as a sophomore to 33.5% as a junior.
Alston’s father, Derrick Alston Sr., is a former NBA player who is currently the head coach of the Westchester Knicks, New York’s G League affiliate.
Here are more early entrant draft decisions from across the NCAA:
- Three Missouri players – sophomore guard Xavier Pinson and junior forwards Mitchell Smith and Jeremiah Tilmon – will test the draft waters, according to a press release from the school. All three played part-time roles for the Tigers in 2019/20, with Pinson averaging 11.1 PPG, good for second-best on the roster.
- Jeff Goodman of Stadium reports a pair of early entries, tweeting that Eastern Kentucky sophomore guard Jomaru Brown and Vermont junior guard Stef Smith are declaring. A source expects Smith to return to school, Goodman notes.
- According to Goodman (via Twitter), Kansas State junior guard Cartier Diarra is testing the draft waters. If he decides to withdraw, he’ll transfer to Virginia Tech.
- Saint Louis junior forward Hasahn French and junior guard Jordan Goodwin are testing the draft waters, according to the school. Goodwin was Saint Louis’ leading scorer with 15.5 PPG, while French chipped in 12.4 PPG. Both players averaged double-doubles, with an impressive 10.4 RPG apiece.
- Isiaha Mike (SMU), Nate Pierre-Louis (Temple), Paul Atkinson Jr. (Yale), and Aamir Simms (Clemson) each announced on their personal Twitter accounts that they’re entering the draft while maintaining their NCAA eligibility.