Jazz/Thunder Trade Notes: Draft Pick, Cash, Deck
The 2028 second-round pick the Thunder acquired from the Jazz in Tuesday’s Miye Oni trade was technically already owed to Oklahoma City conditionally, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (via Twitter).
When the Jazz sent Derrick Favors to the Thunder in an offseason deal, Utah included a top-10 protected 2024 first-round pick. If that pick falls in its protected range, the Jazz would instead owe the Thunder their top-10 protected first-round pick pick in 2025. If it still hasn’t changed hands by that point, it would become a top-eight protected 2026 first-rounder.
The conditions of the Favors trade called for the Thunder to get Utah’s 2028 second-round pick if that first-rounder fell in its protected range all three years. Now, Oklahoma City will receive the pick unconditionally. If the Jazz’s 2024 first-rounder isn’t conveyed after 2026, the Thunder will instead receive $890K in cash, according to Marks.
Here’s more on the Jazz/Thunder swap:
- The Thunder sent $1MM in cash to Utah as part of the trade, according to Marks. So not only did the Jazz avoid having Oni’s dead money increase their year-end tax bill — they also received more than enough cash to cover the prorated salary they’d already paid him this season.
- The Thunder, who had to waive Gabriel Deck to make room on their roster for Oni, will carry a cap hit of $1,690,507 in dead money for Deck. His $3,676,852 salary wasn’t guaranteed, but Oklahoma City paid him a portion of that figure prorated across 80 days.
- Sarah Todd of The Deseret News considers how trading away Oni and creating another opening on the roster could affect the Jazz’s plans on the trade market in the coming weeks.
Standard 10-Day Contract Window Opens; Salary Guarantee Date Looms
The 2021/22 NBA season has already been a record-setting one for 10-day signings, but all of the 10-day deals completed prior to today have required a hardship exception. In order to sign a player to a 10-day contract, a team has needed to have either a player in the health and safety protocols or at least four players affected by longer-term injuries.
As of today, January 5, NBA teams can begin signing free agents to standard 10-day contracts without requiring a hardship exception to do so. A 10-day contract allows a team to add a player to its roster for either 10 days or three games (whichever occurs later) without any commitment beyond that.
The differences between standard and hardship 10-day deals are as follows:
- A player can only sign up to two standard 10-day contracts with the same team in a single season — after those two deals, the team must decide whether to sign him to a rest-of-season contract or part ways with him. However, a player can sign more than two hardship 10-day deals with the same team, as Davon Reed has done with the Nuggets.
- A team must have a spot available on its 15-man roster in order to add a player on a standard 10-day contract. But when a team is granted a hardship exception to complete a 10-day signing, it’s also granted an extra roster spot. At one point this season, for instance, the Hawks were carrying nine players on 10-day hardship deals in addition to their 15 players on standard contracts.
- A standard 10-day contract counts against team salary for cap and tax purposes, whereas a hardship 10-day deal does not.
For some teams, the 10-day contract provides an opportunity to take a flier on a young player to see if he deserves a longer-term look. Other clubs may utilize 10-day deals for short-term injury fill-ins, or simply to meet minimum roster requirements. The Jazz, for instance, only have 13 players on standard contracts after trading Miye Oni to Oklahoma City on Tuesday and must fill their 14th spot within the next two weeks.
As always, the NBA’s 10-day signing window will open during the same week that the league-wide salary guarantee deadline arrives. A team that wants to part ways with a player before his full-season salary becomes guaranteed must do so by January 7 so that he clears waivers before the league-wide salary guarantee date of January 10.
The start of the 10-day contract period and the salary guarantee deadline go hand in hand, since teams cutting players before their salaries become fully guaranteed will often sign players to 10-day contracts to fill those newly-opened roster spots — in some cases, the same player who was waived at the salary guarantee deadline returns to his team on a 10-day contract, as clubs looks to maximize their roster flexibility ahead of the trade deadline.
Since Christmas Day, Brad Wanamaker, Wayne Selden, Denzel Valentine, and Gabriel Deck have all been waived before their 2021/22 salaries could become fully guaranteed. The Thunder will also reportedly cut Oni after acquiring him from Utah. The rest of the players without fully guaranteed contracts can be found right here — many should be safe, but there will likely be at least a few more released by Friday evening.
As for which teams might be the best candidates to sign a player to a standard 10-day contract, there are currently eight clubs with at least one open 15-man roster spot. The Knicks, who are one of those teams, could be the first to complete a standard 10-day signing — they tried to add Ryan Arcidiacono earlier this week on a 10-day hardship contract, but had that deal voided because they no longer qualified for a hardship exception. Arcidiacono is still expected to join the team on a standard 10-day pact.
Jazz Trade Miye Oni, Second-Round Pick To Thunder
4:51pm: In a press release, the Thunder have confirmed their trade to acquire Oni and the Jazz’s 2028 second-round pick, in addition to the release of Deck. Utah acquired cash in return, according to the announcement.
3:03pm: The Jazz are finalizing an agreement with the Thunder on a trade that will send swingman Miye Oni to Oklahoma City, according to Shams Charania and Tony Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link). The Thunder will also receive Utah’s 2028 second-round pick in the deal, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Oni doesn’t have a fully guaranteed salary for the 2021/22 season, so he can be waived by Friday without his entire $1,782,621 cap hit applying to team salary. Presumably, the Jazz planned to part ways with Oni before Friday’s salary guarantee deadline and will trade him instead of cutting him so that his cap hit won’t apply to team salary at all for cap or tax purposes.
If Utah had released him, Oni would’ve counted against the cap for a prorated portion of his minimum salary — that amount (about $820K as of Monday) would’ve further increased the team’s end-of-season tax penalty. According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link), the Jazz’s projected tax bill would’ve been about $2.4MM higher if Oni had been waived rather than traded.
Instead, the Thunder will be the ones releasing Oni, according to Wojnarowski. They’re well below the salary floor despite technically operating over the cap, so adding a little dead money to their cap is well worth it to acquire a future second-round pick.
With no players headed from Oklahoma City to Utah in the swap, the Jazz will open up a second spot on their 15-man roster, which they’ll have to fill within the next two weeks.
The Thunder will have to waive someone in order to make room on the roster for Oni, even though they don’t plan to keep him. Gabriel Deck, who has a partially guaranteed salary, will be the odd man out in OKC, according to Wojnarowski (via Twitter). Once they officially release Deck and then acquire and waive Oni, the Thunder will have an opening on their 15-man roster too.
Since Oni is in the final season of a three-year contract, he can’t be acquired using the minimum salary exception, so the Thunder will have to use a traded player exception to absorb his salary. They have two sizeable TPEs expiring next month that would work.
The Jazz will create a small traded player exception worth a prorated portion of Oni’s salary in the deal.
2021/22 In-Season NBA Trades
As we did with 2021’s offseason trades and the in-season swaps from 2020/21, we’ll be keeping track of all the NBA trades completed this season, updating this post with each transaction. This post can be found anytime throughout the season on our desktop sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features,” or in our mobile menu under “Features.”
Trades are listed here in reverse chronological order, with the latest on top. So, if a player has been dealt multiple times, the first team listed as having acquired him is the one that ended up with him. Trades listed in italics have been agreed upon but are not yet official. For more details on each trade, click the date above it.
For more information on the specific conditions dictating if and when draft picks involved in these deals will actually change hands, be sure to check out RealGM.com’s breakdown of the details on traded picks.
Here’s the full list of the trades completed during the 2021/22 NBA season:
- Celtics acquire Derrick White.
- Spurs acquire Josh Richardson, Romeo Langford, the Celtics’ 2022 first-round pick (top-four protected), and the right to swap 2028 first-round picks with the Celtics (top-one protected).
- Wizards acquire Kristaps Porzingis and the Mavericks’ 2022 second-round pick (top-45 protected).
- Mavericks acquire Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans.
- Sixers acquire James Harden and Paul Millsap.
- Nets acquire Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, the Sixers’ 2022 first-round pick (unprotected), and the Sixers’ 2027 first-round pick (top-eight protected).
- Note: The Nets have the option to defer the 2022 first-round pick to 2023.
- Celtics acquire Daniel Theis.
- Rockets acquire Dennis Schröder, Bruno Fernando, and Enes Freedom.
- Suns acquire Torrey Craig and cash.
- Pacers acquire Jalen Smith and the Suns’ 2022 second-round pick.
- Kings acquire Donte DiVincenzo, Josh Jackson, Trey Lyles, the Kings’ 2024 second-round pick (from Pistons), and the draft rights to David Michineau.
- Pistons acquire Marvin Bagley III.
- Clippers acquire Rodney Hood, Semi Ojeleye, and the draft rights to Vanja Marinkovic.
- Bucks acquire Serge Ibaka, either the Warriors’ or Cavaliers’ 2023 second-round pick (whichever is less favorable; from Pistons), the Trail Blazers’ 2024 second-round pick (from Kings), and cash ($3,285,000; from Clippers).
- Note: The Kings traded away their own 2024 second-round pick in a previous deal.
- Hornets acquire Montrezl Harrell.
- Wizards acquire Ish Smith, Vernon Carey, and the Celtics’ 2023 second-round pick (top-45 protected).
- Suns acquire Aaron Holiday.
- Wizards acquire cash.
- Raptors acquire Thaddeus Young, Drew Eubanks, and either the Pistons’ or Bulls’ 2022 second-round pick (whichever is more favorable).
- Spurs acquire Goran Dragic and the Raptors’ 2022 first-round pick (top-14 protected).
- Magic acquire Bol Bol, PJ Dozier, the Celtics’ 2028 second-round pick (top-45 protected), and cash.
- Celtics acquire the Magic’s 2023 second-round pick (top-55 protected).
- Jazz acquire Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Juan Hernangomez.
- Spurs acquire Tomas Satoransky and either the Thunder’s, Rockets’, Pacers’, or Heat’s 2027 second-round pick (whichever is least favorable; from Jazz).
- Trail Blazers acquire Joe Ingles, Elijah Hughes, and the Grizzlies’ 2022 second-round pick (from Jazz).
- Thunder acquire KZ Okpala and amended terms of a first-round pick owed to them by the Heat.
- Heat acquire either the Thunder’s, Mavericks’, or Sixers’ 2026 second-round pick (whichever is least favorable).
- Note: The Heat previously owed the Thunder their 2023 first-round pick (top-14 protected). They now owe their 2025 first-round pick (top-14 protected).
- Kings acquire Domantas Sabonis, Justin Holiday, Jeremy Lamb, and the Pacers’ 2023 second-round pick (56-60 protected).
- Pacers acquire Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield, and Tristan Thompson.
- Pelicans acquire CJ McCollum, Larry Nance Jr., and Tony Snell.
- Trail Blazers acquire Josh Hart, Tomas Satoransky, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Didi Louzada, the Pelicans’ 2022 first-round pick (top-four protected and 15-30 protected), either the Pelicans’ or Trail Blazers’ 2026 second-round pick (whichever is more favorable), and the Pelicans’ 2027 second-round pick.
- Note: The Pelicans had previously acquired the Trail Blazers’ 2026 second-round pick.
- Cavaliers acquire Caris LeVert and the Heat’s 2022 second-round pick.
- Pacers acquire Ricky Rubio, the Cavaliers’ 2022 first-round pick (top-14 protected), the Rockets’ 2022 second-round pick, and the Jazz’s 2027 second-round pick.
- Clippers acquire Norman Powell and Robert Covington.
- Trail Blazers acquire Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson, and the Pistons’ 2025 second-round pick.
- Nuggets acquire Bryn Forbes.
- Spurs acquire Juan Hernangomez, the Nuggets’ 2028 second-round pick (top-33 protected), and cash ($2.15MM from Celtics; $200K from Nuggets).
- Celtics acquire Bol Bol and PJ Dozier.
- Knicks acquire Cam Reddish, Solomon Hill, the Nets’ 2025 second-round pick, and cash ($834,589).
- Hawks acquire Kevin Knox and the Hornets’ 2022 first-round pick (top-18 protected).
Pistons acquire Bol Bol.Nuggets acquire Rodney McGruder and the Nets’ 2022 second-round pick.
This trade was voided when Bol didn’t pass a physical with the Pistons.
- Thunder acquire Miye Oni and the Jazz’s 2028 second-round pick.
- Jazz acquire cash.
- Cavaliers acquire Rajon Rondo.
- Knicks acquire Denzel Valentine, the draft rights to Wang Zhelin, the draft rights to Brad Newley, and cash ($1.1MM; from Lakers).
- Lakers acquire the draft rights to Louis Labeyrie.
Kyrie Irving Expected To Return On Wednesday
JANUARY 4: Irving isn’t listed on the Nets’ injury report for Wednesday’s game in Indiana, tweets Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. That means the plan is for him to be available for the first time this season.
JANUARY 3: Nets point guard Kyrie Irving is expected to make his season debut on Wednesday vs. the Pacers, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that Irving has targeted the game in Indiana for his return.
Irving has been held out of action for most of the first half because he’s ineligible to play games in New York due to the city’s COVID-19 vaccinate mandate and the Nets initially didn’t want him to be a part-time player only active for road games. However, after being hit by a flurry of injuries and COVID-related absences in December, the team reversed course on that stance.
Irving was immediately placed in the health and safety protocols due to a positive COVID-19 test when he reported to the team last month, which may have further delayed his debut. Still, he would have required a week or two of ramp-up work to get back in game shape.
The Nets, who are hosting Memphis tonight, will play just two road games in the next couple weeks — Wednesday in Indiana and January 12 in Chicago. However, the team will begin a four-game road trip on January 17, which should give Irving an opportunity to be a regular part of the lineup for a little while.
With no indication that Irving plans to get vaccinated or that New York City plans to change its vaccination guidelines any time soon, it’s unclear how long the new arrangement may continue for Kyrie and the Nets.
Joel Embiid, Donovan Mitchell Named Players Of The Month
Sixers big man Joel Embiid has been named December’s Player of the Month for the Eastern Conference, while Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell has earned the honor for the Western Conference, the NBA announced today (via Twitter).
It was a healthy month for Embiid, who appeared in all but one of Philadelphia’s 14 games in December and led the team to an 8-5 record in those contests — the 76ers were blown out by 35 points in the only game he missed. The star center averaged 29.2 PPG, 11.2 RPG, 3.9 APG, 1.5 SPG, and 1.3 BPG on .496/.391/.845 shooting in 34.5 minutes per game for the month.
Mitchell, meanwhile, appeared in 12 of Utah’s 14 December games, putting up 30.2 PPG, 5.0 APG, 3.2 RPG, and 1.2 SPG with a shooting line of .502/.377/.870 in 34.2 minutes per night. The Jazz had a 12-2 month, including 10-2 in games with Mitchell available.
Embiid beat out fellow nominees Giannis Antetokounmpo, DeMar DeRozan, Kevin Durant, Darius Garland, Kyle Lowry, and Fred VanVleet in the East. The other Western nominees were Stephen Curry, LeBron James, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Twitter link).
The NBA also announced the Rookies of the Month for December today, with Magic forward Franz Wagner and Thunder guard Josh Giddey earning the honors in the Eastern Conference and Western Conference, respectively.
Wagner’s Magic went just 3-11 in December, but he solidified his position as a legitimate Rookie of the Year candidate, averaging 19.5 PPG, 5.1 RPG, and 3.1 APG on .476/.404/.889 shooting in 34.0 MPG. Giddey, who won his second straight Rookie of the Month award, missed five games, including the Thunder’s 73-point loss to Memphis. In the 10 games he played, Oklahoma City went 6-4 and he averaged 11.8 PPG, 7.1 RPG, and 6.7 APG.
COVID-19 Updates: Raptors, Thunder, Stewart, Freedom, Strus
After briefly having no players in the NBA’s health and safety protocols for the first time in weeks, the Raptors placed Svi Mykhailiuk and Yuta Watanabe in the protocols today, tweets Eric Koreen of The Athletic.
According to Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (via Twitter), only three players on the Raptors’ roster have avoided entering the protocols in the last month. Two of those players – David Johnson (injury) and Goran Dragic (personal) – have been away from the team, leaving Chris Boucher as the lone active player not to be affected.
Here are a few more protocol-related updates:
- Thunder guard Tre Mann and big man Darius Bazley have cleared the health and safety protocols, acting head coach Mike Wilks said today (Twitter link via Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman). That leaves rookie Jeremiah Robinson-Earl as the only Oklahoma City player still in the protocols.
- Celtics center Enes Freedom returned to practice today, having exited the COVID-19 protocols, per Jared Weiss of The Athletic (Twitter link). Aaron Nesmith is the only Celtic who remains in the protocols.
- Isaiah Stewart has cleared the protocols and met the Pistons in Charlotte, tweets James Edwards III of The Athletic. It’s unclear if the big man will be available on Wednesday vs. the Hornets or if he’ll need more time to get back into game condition.
- Heat guard Max Strus is no longer in the protocols, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link). Miami now has four players in the protocols, with six hardship additions on 10-day deals, so not all of those players will be able to be active going forward.
- The full list of players in the COVID-19 protocols can be found right here.
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript: 1/4/2022
Hoops Rumors’ first live chat of 2022 took place today at noon central time.
Click here for today’s chat transcript.
Our next live chat will be on Tuesday, January 11 at 12:00pm CT.
Clippers Re-Sign Xavier Moon To Second 10-Day Deal
The Clippers have signed wing Xavier Moon to a second 10-day contract via a hardship exception, the team announced today. Moon’s initial 10-day deal with the club expired overnight.
The nephew of former NBA forward Jamario Moon, Xavier Moon appeared in four games during his first 10 days with the Clippers, averaging 5.8 PPG, 2.3 RPG, and 1.3 SPG in 16.8 minutes per contest.
Those numbers were buoyed significantly by a strong showing on Monday night, when Moon recorded 13 points, four assists, four rebounds, and four steals in 26 minutes vs. Minnesota. Prior to that game, he had scored just 10 points on 5-of-17 shooting (0-for-4 on threes), but acting coach Brian Shaw has been impressed by what he’s seen from the 27-year-old.
“He belongs in this league, he has a good feel for the game and I think you saw that tonight,” Shaw said on Monday, per Mirjam Swanson of The Southern California News Group (Twitter link). “He plays hard, gets off the ball at the right time and he competes. Just a matter of finding the right fit, but I do believe he belongs on an NBA roster.”
The Clippers still have three players in the health and safety protocols and Moon is their third hardship replacement, along with James Ennis and Wenyen Gabriel.
COVID-19 Updates: Randle, Williams, Nurkic, Burke, Bradley
Knicks forward Julius Randle has exited the NBA’s health and safety protocols, the team announced today (via Twitter). Randle, who only entered the protocols last Thursday, will be listed as questionable for Tuesday night’s game vs. Indiana.
The Knicks were hit hard in December by COVID-19, but are in pretty decent shape for the time being. Nerlens Noel is the only player on the roster who is still in the protocols.
Here are more protocol-related updates from around the NBA:
- Suns head coach Monty Williams has cleared the COVID-19 protocols and will return to the club for Tuesday’s game against New Orleans, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Kevin Young, who temporarily replaced Williams as Phoenix’s head coach, will revert to his assistant role.
- Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic broke the news on Monday that he had cleared the health and safety protocols and would be back in Portland’s starting lineup. He logged 26 minutes on Monday in his first game since December 21.
- Mavericks guard Trey Burke took part in the team’s shootaround on Monday, a pretty good indication that he has exited the protocols, tweets Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News. Burke didn’t play on Monday, but could be back later this week.
- Bulls center Tony Bradley apparently cleared the protocols on Monday, having been listed as out due to return to competition conditioning on the team’s injury report.