How Injuries To Players On Non-Guaranteed Contracts Have Impacted Teams’ Caps
In most cases, an NBA team has the ability to waive a player on a non-guaranteed contract at any time before the league-wide salary guarantee date on January 7 to avoid being on the hook for the remainder of that player’s salary.
However, that equation changes if the player is injured at the time he’s placed on waivers. In that case, one of two rules applies:
- If the player’s contract includes Exhibit 9 language, the team incurs a cap hit of $15K when the injured player is waived.
- If the player’s contract does not include Exhibit 9 language and he’s waived on or before January 7, the team continues to pay the player until he has fully recovered from the injury or for the rest of the season, whichever comes first.
Cases that fall into the first category often fly under the radar unless the injury is serious or the player is a well-known veteran, since $15K isn’t enough to make a noticeable dent in a team’s overall salary. However, there were a couple notable instances this fall of players on Exhibit 9 contracts suffering injuries and counting against their respective teams’ caps for $15K.
One was Knicks guard Landry Shamet, who appeared on track to make New York’s opening night roster before he dislocated his shoulder in the preseason. The Knicks waived Shamet and took on a $15K cap hit in the process, which isn’t entirely insignificant for a team currently operating just $581K below its second-apron hard cap. That extra $15K cap charge won’t majorly alter the Knicks’ plans, but it’ll force the team to wait a couple extra days to fit a 15th man under its hard cap later in the season.
Lakers camp invitee Jordan Goodwin also sustained an injury during the preseason, resulting in a $15K cap hit. Los Angeles had been operating just $45K below the second apron, so accounting for Goodwin’s $15K cap charge moved the team to within $30K of the second apron. Again, that shouldn’t really affect the way the Lakers handle business on the trade market or in free agency during the season, but even that slight difference is notable for a team operating with such a razor-thin margin below the restrictive second apron.
Spurs camp invitee Nathan Mensah is the other player who was injured in camp and left his team with a $15K cap charge. But San Antonio is operating way below the luxury tax line and will barely notice that extra $15K.
Exhibit 9 contracts are only effect during the summer and preseason. Once the regular season begins, there are no players on contracts with Exhibit 9 language — a player like Shamet, if he had made the Knicks’ regular season roster, would have had his Exhibit 9 contract turned into a standard one-year non-guaranteed deal.
That means the second rule outlined above applies to any player on a non-guaranteed contract who suffers an injury between opening night and January 7. Pacers center James Wiseman is the most noteworthy example so far in 2024/25.
Wiseman remains on Indiana’s roster for now and his contract is still non-guaranteed, but even if the club waives him today, his full $2,237,691 cap figure will remain on the Pacers’ cap for the rest of ’24/25, since his torn Achilles tendon is expected to sideline him for the rest of the season. Indiana has to continue paying Wiseman until he recovers from his injury or until the end of the season, so waiving him will create no cap relief.
While the Pacers aren’t right up against a hard cap or an apron threshold like the Knicks and Lakers are, the $2.2MM+ cap charge for Wiseman is far more significant than a $15K hit for an Exhibit 9 player, and it could have a real impact on what Indiana can do on the trade market. Currently, the team is hovering just $500K below the luxury tax line.
The Pacers will want to avoid becoming a taxpayer this season, so their ability to take on an extra salary in a trade is now noticeably more limited than it would be if they could cut Wiseman and remove more than two-thirds of his cap hit from their books.
Southwest Notes: Thompson, Mavs, Smart, Wembanyama
Klay Thompson is averaging just 12.6 points per game with career-worst shooting percentages of 38.1% from the field and 36.8% from beyond the arc through his first 19 games with the Mavericks. As ESPN’s Brian Windhorst writes in an Insider-only story, Thompson has started every game he has played so far for Dallas, but hasn’t always been part of the team’s closing lineup.
“Klay has been an awkward fit so far,” one Eastern Conference executive told ESPN. “Derrick Jones shot the ball better and played better D for them last year.”
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps points out in the same story that the Mavericks are running into a similar issue Golden State did last season — since Thompson has lost a step following ACL and Achilles injuries, playing him alongside two offense-first guards (Stephen Curry and Brandin Podziemski last year; Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving this year) compromises his team’s defense.
“He’s the exact same player he was with the Warriors,” one scout told Bontemps. “A quality spot-up shooter who can get hot and make shots still and who can occasionally guard.”
While Thompson certainly hasn’t come flying out of the gates this season, the Mavericks have been better with him on the court (+9.8 net rating) than off it (+4.5). And at least one scout believes it’s too early to be concerned about the veteran sharpshooter’s production.
“Klay has been fine,” that scout told ESPN. “His impact will be determined in the postseason, and if he has a few big games, then no one will remember what he shot from three in November.”
We have more from around the Southwest:
- Asked about nearing the end of a grueling 28-day stretch in which the Mavericks have had 15 games on their schedule – including 12 on the road – and have had to repeatedly traverse several time zones, head coach Jason Kidd acknowledged it hasn’t been easy, per Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News. “We’ve gone as far as you can go west, and now we’re going as far as we can go east,” Kidd said. “We’re not going to complain about it. It is what it is, but it’s not fair if you want players to play. And so when guys sit out, they (the NBA) can’t complain about guys sitting out when you have a schedule like this.” The Mavs have handled the travel- and schedule-related challenges admirably, having gone 10-4 entering the final contest of that 15-game run on Saturday in Toronto.
- Grizzlies guard Marcus Smart will be looking to get a rare win against his old team in Boston on Saturday. The Celtics have beaten Memphis in 16 of their last 17 meetings dating back to 2016, according to Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. “You want him to get that win and get that feeling of beating the team that traded him or whatever,” Grizzlies guard Scotty Pippen Jr. said. “At the end of the day, we want to have Marcus’ back and go up there and get the win.”
- Victor Wembanyama tested his sore lower back in warmups on Friday before being ruled out of the Spurs‘ game vs. Sacramento, writes Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News (subscription required). Head coach Mitch Johnson said “the hope” is that Wembanyama will be good to go on Sunday against New Orleans after missing two games this week. Tre Jones (left shoulder sprain) is missing a third consecutive contest for the Spurs on Friday, while Devin Vassell (right foot injury management) is sitting the second end of a back-to-back, but should be available Sunday.
- In case you missed it, we passed along a handful of Pelicans-related notes and rumors earlier this evening.
Pelicans Rumors: Ingram, Tax, Green, Missi, Health
Confirming a Michael Scotto report from earlier in the week, Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link) says Brandon Ingram spent the offseason seeking a maximum-salary contract extension (which could’ve been worth as much as $208MM over four seasons), while the Pelicans would have been comfortable with a deal more in the vicinity of $40MM per year.
Fischer also provides some details on the trade opportunities involving Ingram that the Pelicans explored over the summer, noting that the Kings initially had the forward on their radar before landing DeMar DeRozan and that the Cavaliers weren’t interested in a deal centered around Ingram and Jarrett Allen. While there were some talks with the Jazz, Fischer classifies those discussions as “preliminary,” suggesting Utah’s pursuit of Mikal Bridges got much further down the road.
A return to the Lakers has been mentioned by scouts as a possibility for Ingram, but Fischer says he’s been given no indication Los Angeles is seeking a reunion with their former No. 2 overall pick. The Lakers, according to Fischer, are more focused on adding more frontcourt depth and perimeter defense to their roster.
Given that there doesn’t appear – at this point, at least – to be a team eager to do a long-term, maximum-salary contract for Ingram, league sources expect the forward and his new reps at Klutch Sports to be open to lucrative shorter-term deals, Fischer writes, pointing to Fred VanVleet‘s three-year deal with Houston as an example. That contract is worth the max but features a third-year team option.
It’s still possible the Pelicans will be the team to work out a new agreement with Ingram, but there’s a ceiling on what they’re willing to pay him, Fischer adds.
Here’s more on the Pelicans:
- Executives around the NBA talk about the Pelicans making a move to get out of luxury tax territory as if it’s an inevitability, per Fischer. The team is currently operating about $1.4MM above the tax line, so it might be as simple as shedding a minimum-salary contract at the deadline, though a deal involving Ingram could also potentially get New Orleans out of the tax.
- Fischer doesn’t expect New Orleans to make a head coaching change anytime soon, despite some speculation around the NBA about Willie Green‘s job security. “Ownership is loyal to their people,” a New Orleans figure tells Fischer.
- People within the Pelicans organization have raved about how quickly rookie center Yves Missi is learning and progressing, according to Fischer, who compares it to the way that people in Dallas were talking about Dereck Lively last season. Nonetheless, Fischer has heard New Orleans remains in the market for frontcourt depth.
- Although Zion Williamson, Jose Alvarado, and Jordan Hawkins remain on the injured list, the Pelicans were as healthy as they’ve been since opening night on Thursday, with Ingram, Dejounte Murray, CJ McCollum, Herbert Jones, and Trey Murphy all active together for the first time. The result – a hard-fought 126-124 win over Phoenix – was an encouraging one, as William Guillory of The Athletic writes. The Pelicans are still just 5-18, but Thursday’s game provided a glimpse of what the team thought it could be, with the first-time starting lineup of Ingram, Murray, McCollum, Jones, and Missi outscoring the Suns by 14 points in 11 minutes of action.
Pacific Notes: Kuminga, Curry, Green, Harden, DeRozan
Without Stephen Curry and Draymond Green available on Thursday vs. Houston, Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga had his best game so far this fall — his 33 points, seven rebounds, and 33 minutes were all season highs, and as Anthony Slater of The Athletic writes, Kuminga played an important role in crunch time to help Golden State secure a hard-fought victory.
Kuminga’s role and playing time have been inconsistent this season, in part because the Warriors have such a deep rotation and head coach Steve Kerr has been adamant about starting a center next to Green. Kuminga, who has been in and out of the starting lineup, has been at his best when he’s played at power forward rather than at the three alongside Green and a center. Kuminga has been at the four in each of the Warriors’ past two games, starting next to Looney in the frontcourt with Green sidelined.
“The floor has been opened up a little bit the last couple games for JK,” Kerr said. “But can we get him out there more with Draymond, with Loon? But as a (power forward) like he’s been playing the last couple of nights. That’s really the key. We just have a lot of guys, so we have to sort through all this. But there’s no question we can do more of this.”
As Shams Charania said during a Friday appearance on ESPN’s NBA Today (Twitter video link), the Warriors continue to seek a star to complement Curry after missing out on Paul George and Lauri Markkanen over the offseason. The question, Charania says, is whether that star needs to be acquired externally or whether a current Warrior like Kuminga could still become that player.
“That relationship between Jonathan Kuminga and Steve Kerr is something that Warriors officials have been monitoring over the last year or so,” Charania said. “How he fits in when Stephen Curry and Draymond Green will be interesting to monitor.”
We have more from around the Pacific:
- The Warriors should get a chance on Friday to assess how to best use Kuminga with both Curry and Green available. According to Slater (Twitter link), both players are listed as probable to play vs. Minnesota. Curry was out on Thursday due to bilateral knee injury management, while Green missed back-to-back games with left calf tightness.
- After spending a few years as a secondary offensive option in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, James Harden has been back in a featured role as the Clippers‘ offensive engine this fall — his usage rate of 30.3% is his highest mark since his last full season in Houston in 2019/20. According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst (Insider link), Harden has been “almost universally” praised within the Clippers’ organization for his leadership and offensive impact, and sources close to the team have cited his bond with new assistant Jeff Van Gundy as an important factor in Harden’s day-to-day preparation. The Clippers guard is also dedicated to getting “the most sleep of his life” to stay sharp at age 35, Windhorst adds.
- Within that same ESPN Insider story, Windhorst and Bontemps spoke to rival NBA executives who questioned DeMar DeRozan‘s fit with the Kings, pointing out that the veteran forward operates in the same areas of the court as De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis and “hasn’t driven winning” in San Antonio, Chicago, and Sacramento. While the Kings are off to a disappointing 10-13 start this season, it’s unclear whether the fit of the DeRozan/Fox/Sabonis trio is the issue. As Bontemps observes, the club has a +6.5 net rating in the trio’s 420 minutes on the court together.
Wolves Viewed As ‘Potential Player’ On Trade Market
The Timberwolves made arguably the biggest trade of the offseason at the start of training camp when they sent Karl-Anthony Towns to New York in a deal that saw Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo head to Minnesota. That might not have been their last major move of the 2024/25 league year.
According to Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst of ESPN (Insider link), Minnesota is being viewed by rival decision-makers as a “potential player” on the in-season trade market.
As ESPN’s duo explains, one reason why the Timberwolves are considered a team with a move to make is that Randle and DiVincenzo haven’t been perfect fits in Minnesota so far. Windhorst notes that scouts and executives have pointed to Randle’s “ball-stopping” habit as a factor that has slowed down the Wolves’ offense, while Bontemps cites a scout who says DiVincenzo is being asked to be more of a play-maker with his new team, something he didn’t really do in New York.
“When you watch them you can see the guys who can be free agents (Randle and Naz Reid) get frustrated at times,” one scout told ESPN. “If they were winning more it probably wouldn’t be an issue, but it’s one of the things that happens when a team underachieves.”
“Just because you’re trading for talent, it has to be the right fit. They have to learn and adjust,” another scout said. “Making a trade that late (in the offseason) is hard. So I’m empathetic.”
Bontemps and Windhorst don’t specify exactly what the Timberwolves might be looking for or what sort of assets they’d be willing to give up, but it’s worth noting that both Randle and Reid can be free agents if they decline 2025/26 player options and it’s unclear if the team would be willing to extend both, given that the Towns trade was at least partly financially motivated.
Minnesota also has a lot riding on veteran point guard Mike Conley, an important connecting piece on offense who has had an up-and-down age-37 so far, making just 35.4% of his field goal attempts. It would make sense for the team to try to find another reliable point guard who could organize the offense when Conley sits and provide much-needed insurance for a player who missed a few games in November due to injury. The Wolves have been significantly better with Conley on the court (+7.4 net rating) than off it (+0.2) and went 0-4 in the games he missed.
Still, making a trade won’t be easy, given that the Wolves are operating above the restrictive second tax apron and don’t have any of their own future first-round picks available to move (they do have one protected first-rounder from Detroit). There are still two months to go until the 2025 trade deadline and Minnesota has looked good this week, with back-to-back blowout wins over the Clippers and Lakers, neither of whom scored more than 80 points. If the Wolves can keep playing like that, a deadline move may not be necessary.
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript: 12/5/2024
Hoops Rumors hosted a live chat today at 2:00 pm Central time (3:00 pm ET).
Click here to read the transcript, and join us next week for the following live chats:
- Tuesday, December 10 (11 am CT): Live chat for Front Office subscribers with Arthur Hill.
- Thursday, December 12 (2 pm CT): Live chat with Luke Adams.
Bulls Notes: Williams, Giddey, White, Ball, LaVine
Bulls forward Patrick Williams, who has been out since November 18 due to inflammation in his surgically repaired left foot, won’t play in either game of the team’s back-to-back set on Thursday (in San Antonio) and Friday (vs. Indiana), tweets K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network.
Although Williams didn’t practice with the team on Wednesday, he did work out individually, according to head coach Billy Donovan, who said the 23-year-old’s window to potentially return opens next week.
Given that he has yet to practice, Williams may not be ready to go for Sunday’s game vs. Philadelphia, but the Bulls will have four days off after that before hosting the Hornets next Friday — it sounds like he could return for that contest.
Here’s more on the Bulls:
- While he admits that his first 22 games this season have been “up and down,” Josh Giddey said he’s doing his best to help the Bulls in any way he can and isn’t thinking about trying to make the team look good for its decision to give up Alex Caruso for him over the summer, as Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic relays. “Anytime you get traded for a player like (Caruso), I mean, there was a lot of talk about it, whether it was a good trade or a bad trade,” Giddey said. “I don’t buy too much into that. I’m confident in myself and what I can do. These guys make it easy for me to play. I’m not trying to come in here and be anything more than myself. Find ways I can fit in and make this group better.”
- Coby White will miss a second consecutive game on Thursday due to a left ankle sprain, per Johnson (Twitter links), though Mayberry suggests White shouldn’t be out for an extended period. Another Bulls guard, Lonzo Ball, has been ruled out for Thursday’s game, according to Johnson, but that’s just a case of the team managing his usage in a back-to-back — the plan is to have him active on Friday against the Pacers.
- Coming off a season-ending injury, surrounded by trade rumors, and facing questions about the size of contract, Zach LaVine could easily have come into camp as a disgruntled star this fall, but the Bulls continue to be impressed by his positive attitude, according to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. LaVine told reporters on Wednesday that he’s “in a really good spot mentally,” which hasn’t gone unnoticed by head coach Billy Donovan. “Whatever his frustrations were, they were,” Donovan said. “But he’s been able to digest that, go through that himself mentally, and get to the place he is now. I really respect everything he’s done. … He’s in a really good headspace.”
- LaVine added that he’s enjoyed being called upon for more challenging defensive assignments this season, as Cowley notes. “This year has opened my eyes up a little bit to where you look at guys that I watched: Kobe (Bryant), Michael (Jordan), D-Wade (Dwyane Wade), and it’s like, ‘I’ve always been in great shape, but OK, you have to be in top-tier … strong too.'” LaVine said. “Yeah, it takes a little bit away (from the offense), but mentally that’s where you have to dig deep and see how much you want it. I like taking on those challenges right now.”
De’Anthony Melton Undergoes Surgery On Partial ACL Tear
Warriors guard De’Anthony Melton underwent surgery on Wednesday in Los Angeles to repair a partially torn ACL in his left knee, the team announced in a press release.
It was initially reported over two weeks ago that Melton would undergo season-ending surgery to address a left ACL injury, though this is the first time the team referred to that injury as a partial tear.
According to the Warriors, the plan is for Melton to begin rehabilitation on the knee in the coming weeks. He’s expected to make a full recovery prior to the start of the 2025/26 season.
The next step for the Warriors will likely be to apply for a disabled player exception, a salary cap exception that can be awarded to teams who lose a player to a season-ending injury. It would be worth approximately $6.4MM, half of Melton’s $12,822,000 salary.
Although Golden State could theoretically use that exception to sign a free agent to a one-year contract or to acquire (via trade or waiver claim) a player on an expiring deal, the team is less than $600K away from its hard cap, so taking on additional salary isn’t really an option at this point. Assuming the Warriors are granted a disabled player exception, they’d have to move off some salary to make use of it.
Melton’s $12.8MM expiring contract could also be used as a salary-matching piece in a trade prior to the February 6 deadline. If the Warriors go that route before using their disabled player exception, they would forfeit that exception.
Warriors Notes: Kerr, Green, Podziemski, Waters, Rotation
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr screamed at the officiating crew before leaving the court after the team’s 119-115 loss in Denver on Tuesday night, explaining in his post-game media session that he believed the referees failed to notice Nuggets guard Christian Braun calling for a timeout in the game’s final seconds with his team out of timeouts (Twitter video link).
“Braun called a timeout,” Kerr said, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “He dove on the floor, he rolled over. Everybody saw it except for the three guys we hire to do the games, and that makes me angry. That’s a technical foul. They don’t have a timeout left. We shoot a free throw, we get the ball, we got a chance to win the game. (The referees) all told me they didn’t see it. … It’s up to the referees to see (it). That’s why we have three of them. Somebody’s got to see it. So yeah, that made me mad.”
Crew chief Tyler Ford told a pool reporter after the game that Braun “never fully or clearly” signaled for a timeout, a ruling Braun agreed with.
“No,” Braun said when asked if he had called timeout. “It might’ve looked like it maybe. I was fumbling the ball on the ground a little bit. My hands moved, but the refs didn’t call it.”
It was a frustrating finish for the Warriors, who were up by 11 points with just over six minutes left and still held a six-point lead with two-and-a-half minutes to play. While Kerr strongly disagreed with the officials’ decision on the Braun play in the final seconds, he acknowledged that it shouldn’t have gotten to that point.
“That’s not why we lost,” Kerr said. “We lost because we didn’t close. Again. This is like the fifth game in a row where we’ve — maybe not all five (losses) — but most of these games in this stretch, we’re not closing, we’re not executing, we’re not making good decisions, and it’s got to improve.”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- Draymond Green, who missed Tuesday’s game due to left calf tightness, was scheduled to undergo an MRI on Wednesday, according to Kerr (story via Sam Gordon of The San Francisco Chronicle). As Andy Lindquist of NBC Sports Bay Area relays, Green said on his podcast that he’s a little concerned about the calf issue, but is confident in the medical staff and believes they’re getting ahead of it before it gets any worse.
- Kerr expressed frustration with Brandin Podziemski during and after Tuesday’s loss for a pair of reckless turnovers – including one in a 5-on-4 situation in transition – and committing a third-quarter foul on a jump shooter, as Anthony Slater of The Athletic details. “I love Brandin,” Kerr said after addressing a couple specific plays that bothered him. “Hell of a player. Hell of a future ahead of him. But I hope he watches this clip because he needs to hear it. He’s gotta be a smart, tough, great decision-maker. He’s very capable of it. That’s his next step.”
- Even with Green sidelined, Kerr trimmed his rotation a little on Tuesday, with Lindy Waters earning his first DNP-CD since November 12 after having logged double-digit minutes in each of Golden State’s past eight games. As Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area notes, it was a productive night for both Jonathan Kuminga, who scored 19 points as part of the starting lineup, as well as Moses Moody. After playing a season-low three minutes on Saturday, Moody scored 13 points in nearly 21 minutes and had a positive plus/minus rating.
Pelicans Provide Injury Updates On Zion Williamson, Four Others
The injury-ravaged Pelicans have announced in a press release that forward Zion Williamson is progressing well in his recovery from a left hamstring strain and will be reevaluated in about two weeks.
Reporting nearly two weeks ago indicated that Williamson wasn’t close to a return — the latest update from the Pelicans doesn’t suggest otherwise. While it’s possible the former No. 1 overall pick will be ready to suit up when he’s examined in two weeks, it’s more likely that his absence will extend beyond that date.
Williamson has been limited to just six games so far this season and hasn’t been active since November 6. The Pelicans have gone 1-12 since he last played.
Besides providing an update on Williamson, New Orleans also shared news on several other injured players within today’s announcement. Here’s the latest from the team:
- Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado, like Williamson, is said to be progressing well through his rehabilitation process and will be reevaluated in approximately two weeks. Alvarado has been sidelined since November 11 due to a left hamstring strain.
- Second-year wing Jordan Hawkins, who has missed 11 games this season due to what the team has typically referred to as low back soreness, has been diagnosed with a lumbar spine annular fissure. He’ll be reevaluated in about a week.
- Forwards Brandon Ingram (right plantaris tendonitis) and Herbert Jones (right shoulder strain) both went through a full practice on Wednesday and will be listed as questionable to play on Thursday vs. Phoenix. Ingram has missed New Orleans’ past five games, while Jones has been out for 18 in a row. Shams Charania of ESPN reported earlier this week that both players were trending toward being able to return on Thursday.