FAs Signed After Friday Won’t Become Trade-Eligible On December 15
Unless he’s part of a sign-and-trade deal, an NBA free agent who signs a new contract can’t be traded immediately. The Collective Bargaining Agreement states that a newly signed free agent is ineligible to be traded until December 15 or until he’s been under contract for three months, whichever comes later.
Based on that rule, the majority of the free agents who signed new contracts in July, August, and the first half of September will become trade-eligible on December 15 (a smaller group of free agents who met certain specific criteria won’t become trade-eligible until January 15).
By our count, at least 85 players will become eligible to be moved on December 15. That doesn’t take into account any players signed to non-guaranteed training camp deals who might earn regular season roster spots, since our list doesn’t include players on Exhibit 9 or Exhibit 10 contracts.
However, that list won’t continue to expand to include any additional names after Friday, since we’re now exactly three months away from Dec. 15. As a result, a free agent who signs a new contract after today will remain trade-eligible for a full three months, rather than becoming trade-eligible on Dec. 15.
For instance, a player who signs on September 22 would become eligible to be dealt on December 22; one who signs on October 4 would become trade-eligible on January 4, and so on.
November 8 is an important date in this discussion, since this season’s trade deadline will land on February 8. A player who signs a free agent contract on November 9 or later will be ineligible to be dealt during the 2023/24 season.
Once the season begins next month and we have a better sense of which players signed after Sept. 15 have earned spots on regular season rosters, we’ll publish a new list of those players’ trade eligibility dates to complement our December 15 and January 15 round-ups.
Wizards Re-Sign Taj Gibson
1:51pm: The Wizards have officially re-signed Gibson, the team announced in a press release.
“Taj has earned his reputation as a consummate professional and loyal teammate,” Wizards general manager Will Dawkins said in a statement. “We look forward to him adding to the competitive atmosphere when we begin training camp next month.”
9:47am: Free agent big man Taj Gibson has reached an agreement to return to the Wizards on a one-year, minimum-salary deal, agent Mark Bartelstein tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
Gibson, 38, appeared in 49 games for Washington last season, averaging 3.4 points and 1.9 rebounds in 9.8 minutes per night. All of those figures were career lows, though the former first-round pick was a valued veteran presence in the Wizards’ locker room.
Given that the Wizards were already carrying 16 players on guaranteed contracts and revamped their front office this offseason, the odds seemed to be working against Gibson’s return. However, Washington isn’t especially deep in the frontcourt after trading away big man Kristaps Porzingis, so having a vet like Gibson on the bench could be a useful insurance policy.
It’s unclear at this point whether or not Gibson’s salary will be fully guaranteed. Many of the contracts being signed by veteran free agents at this stage of the offseason are either non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed, and the Wizards may not be eager to exacerbate their roster crunch by adding another guaranteed salary to their books. We’ll have to wait for additional details.
Assuming they all make the 15-man regular season roster, Gibson could end up vying with fellow centers Daniel Gafford and Mike Muscala for playing time at the five. His minimum-salary contract would pay him $3,196,448 for the 2023/24 season, while Washington would have a $2,019,706 cap charge.
Warriors To Sign Donovan Williams
The Warriors will bring wing Donovan Williams to training camp to compete for a roster spot, sources tell Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link).
According to Slater, Williams impressed the Warriors during recent scrimmages at their facility. The team also likes his length — he’s 6’6″ with a seven-foot wingspan.
Williams, who went undrafted out of UNLV in 2022, began his rookie season with the Long Island Nets, Brooklyn’s G League affiliate, then signed a two-way contract with the Hawks in January and spent most of the rest of the season with the College Park Skyhawks, Atlanta’s NBAGL team. That two-way deal with the Hawks included a second year covering 2023/24, but the 22-year-old was waived in June, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Williams averaged 15.5 points and 4.2 rebounds in 29.2 minutes per game with a .476/.402/.680 shooting line in 18 Showcase Cup appearances for Long Island. During the G League regular season, he played in 32 total contests (27.3 MPG) for Long Island and College Park, putting up 12.9 PPG and 4.1 RPG on .438/.302/.702 shooting. He also briefly saw the floor in two NBA games for the Hawks.
Slater’s report doesn’t specify what kind of contract Williams will receive from Golden State, but it figures to be a non-guaranteed minimum-salary deal, likely with Exhibit 10 language. That would allow the Warriors to convert Williams to a two-way contract if they want to keep him around without dedicating a standard 15-man roster spot to him.
Even after reaching an agreement today on a two-way deal with Usman Garuba, the Warriors have one two-way slot still open.
Dwight Howard To Meet With Warriors
Free agent center Dwight Howard will meet with Warriors officials next week, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
As Anthony Slater of The Athletic notes (via Twitter), Golden State has brought several veteran big men in for workouts in recent weeks as the team casts a wide net in its search for a player or two to fill out the roster. Slater refers to Howard as a “real option,” adding that the 37-year-old’s mindset during his meetings with the Warriors’ brass will be a factor in determining whether the two sides move forward.
Howard is an eight-time All-Star and a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, but was out of the NBA last season after playing for the Lakers in 2021/22. He averaged 6.2 points and 5.9 rebounds in 16.2 minutes per game (60 appearances) for Los Angeles in ’21/22 before playing in Taiwan in ’22/23.
Howard’s 16.2 MPG in ’21/22 was a career low, but may be his ceiling going forward — at this stage of his career, he’s unlikely to be viewed as more than a situational reserve by NBA teams. If he’s willing to accept a limited role and perhaps a non-guaranteed contract, the former superstar should have a legitimate shot at an NBA comeback.
Dewayne Dedmon, Derrick Favors, and Harry Giles are among the other bigs that have reportedly gotten a look from the Warriors this summer (Giles has since signed with Brooklyn). The team was also said to have interest in JaVale McGee before he joined the Kings.
Golden State is currently carrying 13 players on standard contracts. The club will need to have at least 14 by opening night.
Cavaliers Sign Zhaire Smith To Exhibit 10 Deal
11:58am: The signing is official, Hoops Rumors has learned. Cleveland now has a full 21-man offseason roster.
11:14am: The Cavaliers are set to add a former first-round pick to their 21-man roster, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link), who hears from agent Adie von Gontard that Cleveland has agreed to an Exhibit 10 deal with free agent wing Zhaire Smith.
The 16th overall pick in the 2018 draft, Smith battled health issues after going pro and was limited to 13 regular season appearances in two NBA seasons with the Sixers. He was traded during the 2020 offseason to the Pistons, who subsequently waived him. The former Texas Tech standout hasn’t been on an NBA roster since he signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Grizzlies in December 2020.
Although Smith was on the roster for the Memphis Hustle – the Grizzlies’ G League affiliate – in 2020/21, he didn’t play at all that season and hasn’t suited up for any team since then, having continued to be plagued by injuries. According to Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman, the 24-year-old underwent separate cleanup procedures on both knees during the summer of 2022.
“Every year I was like, ‘Oh, I’m about to play, I’m about to play,’ then there was just a setback,” Smith said, per Mussatto. “I didn’t know what was going on with my knees, and that was the hardest part.”
Smith’s ongoing effort to make an NBA comeback saw him join the Thunder for Summer League action this July. He appeared in four total games in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, averaging 6.0 points on 75.0% shooting in 14.0 minutes per game.
Exhibit 10 contracts can be converted to two-way deals, but the Cavaliers have filled all three of their two-way slots, so they likely envision having Smith suit up for their G League affiliate, the Cleveland Charge. If he’s waived before the NBA season begins and then spends at least 60 days with the Charge, Smith would be eligible to earn an Exhibit 10 bonus worth up to $75K.
Team USA Back To No. 1 In Latest FIBA Rankings
The United States didn’t win a medal at this year’s World Cup, but the team’s fourth-place finish helped move the program back to No. 1 in FIBA’s updated world rankings.
The rankings are based on national teams’ performance in recent international competitions, including the World Cup, Olympics, and various regional tournaments. The U.S. had previously been at No. 2, behind Spain, the 2019 World Cup champions. The Spaniards finished ninth at this year’s World Cup and fell to second place in FIBA’s rankings.
Germany, Canada, and Latvia are among the biggest risers. The Germans moved up from 11th to third after winning the 2023 World Cup, while Canada’s bronze-medal finish helped them jump from 15th to sixth. Latvia, having finished fifth at the World Cup, climbed an impressive 22 spots, from 30th to eighth, in FIBA’s rankings.
Australia (fourth), Serbia (fifth), Argentina (seventh), France (ninth), and Lithuania (10th) are the other teams in the top 10. South Sudan is another notable riser, having leaped from 63rd to 31st to become Africa’s top-ranked national club.
FIBA’s rankings don’t mean much once the games begin, but they’re used to determine potting, seeding, and groupings in future competitions, so it will benefit teams like Germany, Canada, and Latvia going forward to be ranked higher, as Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca notes (via Twitter).
The full rankings can be viewed right here.
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript: 9/14/2023
Hoops Rumors hosted a live chat today at 2:00 pm Central time (3:00 pm Eastern).
Click here to view the transcript, and join us on Tuesday for our next live chat, hosted by Dana Gauruder!
Super-Max Candidates To Watch In 2023/24
Note: This is an updated version of an article that was sent exclusively to our Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers in June. Click here for more information on Trade Rumors Front Office.
The NBA’s Designated Veteran rule, as we explain in our glossary entry on the subject, allows players to qualify for a maximum salary worth 35% of the cap before they gain the required NBA service time.
Typically, a player is ineligible to receive a maximum contract that starts at 35% of the cap until he has at least 10 years of experience, but the Designated Veteran rule gives a player with between seven and nine years of experience the opportunity to do so if he meets certain performance criteria. This has become colloquially known as signing a “super-max” deal.
The performance criteria are as follows (only one of the following must be true):
- The player was named to an All-NBA team and/or was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in the most recent season, or in two of the last three seasons.
- The player was named the NBA MVP in any of the three most recent seasons.
Since the NBA introduced the concept of the Designated Veteran contract in 2017, 12 players have signed them across seven offseasons. Celtics wing Jaylen Brown became the latest player to join that group this summer when he signed a five-year super-max deal that could become the NBA’s first $300MM contract.
Brown will be the only player who signs such a contract this offseason, but it’s worth taking a peek down the road to see which players are the best candidates to join the list of super-max recipients in 2024 and 2025.
We can start by penciling in another Celtic, Jayson Tatum, for 2024. Although he doesn’t yet have enough years of NBA service to sign a Designated Veteran extension, Tatum met the performance criteria in the spring by earning his second consecutive All-NBA berth.
That means that even if he doesn’t make an All-NBA team in 2024, he’ll have received an All-NBA nod in two of the previous three seasons when he meets the service time criteria next summer, making him super-max eligible. It seems likely the Celtics will offer him a Designated Veteran extension at that time.
Here are some other candidates to watch during the 2023/24 season:
2024
- Bam Adebayo (Heat)
- De’Aaron Fox (Kings)
- Brandon Ingram (Pelicans)
- Jamal Murray (Nuggets)
- Pascal Siakam (Raptors)
Because a player become ineligible for a Designated Veteran extension if he’s traded after his first four years in the NBA, prime candidates like Donovan Mitchell and Domantas Sabonis won’t be able to qualify. Still, there’s an intriguing group of candidates in play for next summer.
Ingram, Murray, and Siakam, members of the 2016 draft class, would have become super-max eligible if they had made an All-NBA team this year. They’ll get another chance in 2024.
Ingram averaged a career-best 24.7 points and 5.8 assists per night in 2022/23, but injuries limited him to just 45 games. While he’s not one of the best 15 players in the NBA, it’s not impossible to imagine the 26-year-old earning an All-NBA spot if he stays healthy and helps lead the Pelicans to a top-four seed in the West. He’s probably a long shot, but we can’t rule him out entirely.
Murray was making his way back from an ACL tear last season, which meant he was subject to load management and wasn’t necessarily at his best from day one. But his postseason performance – 26.1 points per game on .473/.396/.926 shooting en route to a championship – served as a reminder that he has All-NBA upside.
Siakam made the All-NBA Second Team in 2020 and the Third Team in 2022 and received some votes in 2023. However, he still needs one more All-NBA nod in 2024 to become eligible for a Designated Veteran deal. He’ll be a candidate to watch as long as he remains in Toronto for the 2023/24 season. A trade – which would make him ineligible – still looms as a possibility.
Adebayo and Fox are 2017 draftees with just six years of NBA experience, which means that Fox didn’t meet the Designated Veteran performance criteria by earning All-NBA honors in May — he’ll need to do it again in 2024 to qualify for a super-max deal. His performance this past year showed that he’s capable of it.
Adebayo’s path to an All-NBA berth is complicated by the fact that the All-NBA teams will become positionless beginning in 2024. That means voters won’t necessarily have to choose three centers, which may reduce his odds of making the cut.
Still, the field of All-NBA candidates may be more wide open than usual in 2024, since the league is also requiring players to appear in at least 65 games in order to be eligible for one of the 15 spots. That means a player who misses a few weeks with an injury might be out of the running. If Ingram, Murray, Siakam, Fox, and Abebayo can stay healthy and play at least 65 times, their All-NBA odds will increase.
It’s worth noting too that being named Defensive Player of the Year is another way to qualify for a super-max. Adebayo has finished in the top five in voting for that award in each of the last four seasons and is a legitimate candidate to win it at some point.
2025
- Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder)
- Jaren Jackson Jr. (Grizzlies)
Doncic, Gilgeous-Alexander, and Jackson were drafted in 2018 and have just five years of NBA experience, so they’re still two years away from having the service time required for a Designated Veteran contract — none of them would be able to sign a super-max extension until 2025. However, they all have an opportunity to meet the performance criteria in 2024.
Doncic and Gilgeous-Alexander made up the All-NBA First Team backcourt in 2023, so if they make an All-NBA team again next year, they’ll have done so in at least two of the three years leading up to the 2025 offseason.
As for Jackson, he missed out on All-NBA honors in 2023, but was the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. It’s a tall order, but if he can win a second DPOY award in either of the next two seasons, he’ll make himself eligible to sign a super-max contract in 2025.
The rookie scale extension recipients
- LaMelo Ball (Hornets)
- Anthony Edwards (Timberwolves)
- Tyrese Haliburton (Pacers)
Ball, Edwards, and Haliburton have all signed five-year, maximum-salary rookie scale extensions this offseason that project to start at 25% of the 2024/25 cap. If we assume the cap will rise by the maximum allowable 10%, those deals would be worth just shy of $217MM.
However, all three extensions include Rose Rule language. This is another form of the super-max — we can call it the “mini” super-max, paradoxical as that may sound. Unlike a player who signs a Designated Veteran contract, which starts at 35% of the cap instead of 30%, a player who meets the Rose Rule criteria can receive a starting salary worth 30% of the cap rather than 25%.
The performance criteria for a Rose Rule salary increase are essentially the exact same as for a Designated Veteran bump, but must be achieved by the end of the player’s four-year rookie contract. That means Ball, Edwards, and Haliburton would have to make the All-NBA team in 2024 in order to increase the projected value of their respective extensions to $260MM over five years — an All-NBA berth in 2025 or 2026 would be too late.
Each of these three players has an All-Star berth under his belt, so making the leap to All-NBA certainly isn’t inconceivable. Edwards may be the best bet of the three to qualify for the mini super-max, but if Ball and Haliburton can lead their teams to playoff spots, they’d certainly have a case.
Magic Sign Mac McClung To Exhibit 10 Contract
SEPTEMBER 13: The signing is official, the Magic announced in a press release.
AUGUST 22: Free agent guard Mac McClung has agreed to a deal with the Magic, league sources Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). According to Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link), it’ll be an Exhibit 10 contract.
McClung only appeared in four NBA games in 2022/23 after signing a two-way contract with the Sixers. However, it was an eventful season for the 24-year-old, who earned a spot in the Rising Stars event and the G League’s Next Up game at All-Star weekend. Of course, he also competed in the Slam Dunk Contest and won it with a series of memorable dunks.
McClung appeared in 31 G League regular season games for the Delaware Blue Coats – Philadelphia’s affiliate – and averaged 19.8 points, 4.9 assists, and 2.7 rebounds in just 26.8 minutes per game. He posted an impressive .550/.474/.823 shooting line during the NBAGL regular season and helped lead the Blue Coats to a G League title.
An Exhibit 10 contract can be converted to a two-way deal, so it’s possible McClung will earn a spot on the Magic’s extended (18-man) roster with a strong training camp. If he’s waived before the regular season and then spends at least 60 days with the Osceola Magic, Orlando’s affiliate, he’d earn a bonus worth up to $75K.
Orlando previously agreed to Exhibit 10 deals with Trevelin Queen and Miye Oni.
Teams Limited To Minimum Salary Contract Offers
There won’t be many free agents who sign for more than the veteran’s minimum between now and the end of the NBA’s regular season. The majority of the players whose markets exceeded the minimum came off the board pretty quickly in July, and teams aren’t looking to spend big on the players who are still available.
Still, that doesn’t mean every signing for the next seven months will be of the minimum-salary variety. In certain cases – especially on the buyout market in February – being able to offer a couple million dollars more than the minimum could be the difference between a team landing a free agent and missing out on him.
With that in mind, it’s worth checking in on which teams don’t currently have the ability to offer more than the minimum. By our count, about a third of the NBA is in this boat, though some of those clubs could generate some spending flexibility by making cost-cutting trades.
Here’s a breakdown of the teams currently limited to minimum-salary contract offers for free agents:
Teams above the second tax apron:
- Golden State Warriors
- Los Angeles Clippers
- Miami Heat
- Phoenix Suns
Beginning this offseason, the NBA added a second tax “apron” and introduced new restrictions for the teams whose salaries exceed that apron. In 2023/24, the second apron is set at $182,794,000 ($17.5MM above the tax line) — it will increase along with the cap in future years.
In addition to being prohibited from using the standard mid-level exception and the bi-annual exception, teams whose salaries are above the second apron aren’t permitted to make use of the taxpayer mid-level exception, which is worth $5MM. The Warriors, Clippers, Heat, and Suns all fall into that group and therefore don’t have any cap exceptions available to use on free agents besides the minimum exception.
Teams very close to the second tax apron:
- Boston Celtics
- Milwaukee Bucks
The Celtics and Bucks may be able to start the season with team salaries below the second apron, but from a practical standpoint, it will be extremely difficult for them to make use of the taxpayer mid-level exception, which would hard-cap them at that second apron.
Milwaukee, in particular, has several contract bonuses to account for and would find its team salary well above the second tax apron if certain players earn those unlikely incentives. Boston has slightly more cap flexibility, but will still almost certainly be limited to minimum-salary offers for the rest of 2023/24, barring a cost-cutting move.
Over-the-cap teams that have used all their cap exceptions:
- Denver Nuggets
- Oklahoma City Thunder
- Toronto Raptors
The Nuggets are the only team this season to use the taxpayer mid-level exception. It’s the lone cap exception available to them in free agency, since their team salary is above the first apron, so they can’t offer more than the minimum to free agents.
The Thunder, meanwhile, used their entire room exception, while the Raptors used their non-taxpayer mid-level exception and bi-annual exception. Both teams are now over the cap and only have the minimum salary exception left to sign a free agent outright (a sign-and-trade remains possible, but is unlikely at this stage of the offseason).
Over-the-cap teams whose remaining exception money is less than the two-year veteran’s minimum:
- Los Angeles Lakers
- Sacramento Kings
The Lakers have $1,905,000 remaining on their non-taxpayer mid-level exception, while the Kings have $1,381,536 left on their room exception. Both figures fall short of the full-season minimum salary for a two-year veteran ($2,019,706), so neither club could offer more than the minimum to a veteran free agent at this time.
However, that leftover exception money isn’t useless. Los Angeles and Sacramento could each offer more than the minimum to a rookie free agent, for instance. And their remaining exception money won’t begin prorating downward until after the trade deadline. So if L.A. wants to sign a veteran free agent in December, it could use its MLE to offer more than the player’s prorated minimum salary at that point.