And-Ones: Faried, Injuries, Revenue Sharing, Ignite
Former NBA big man Kenneth Faried signed with Puerto Rican team Leones de Ponce last week, as our JD Shaw tweets.
Faried, who will turn 32 next month, hasn’t played in the NBA since the 2018/19 season, but hasn’t given up on getting back into the league. He reportedly received some consideration from the Knicks in the spring, then played for Portland’s Las Vegas Summer League team in August and worked out for the Lakers in September. For now though, Faried’s professional career will continue outside the NBA.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- ESPN’s team of basketball writers took a league-wide look at the injuries that will (or could) compromise players’ availability for opening night, checking in on where in the recovery process those players are and when we might see them back on the court.
- Within a larger story about the Pelicans‘ ownership situation and succession plan, team president Dennis Lauscha shared an interesting tidbit, telling Jeff Duncan and Lee Zurik of NOLA.com that commissioner Adam Silver has said the NBA’s next Collective Bargaining Agreement will include an “enhanced revenue sharing model” to further assist smaller-market teams. Kurt Helin of NBC Sports has more details.
- Paolo Uggetti of The Ringer takes a deep dive into the G League Ignite, exploring where the NBA G League’s developmental team stands after its first season and how the league envisions the program growing in the coming years.
NBA, NBPA Agree On Penalty For Players Who Miss Games Due To Vaccine Mandates
The NBA and NBPA have agreed that unvaccinated players who can’t play in games due to local governmental vaccine mandates will be docked 1/91.6th of their salaries for each game missed, according to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, Bobby Marks, and Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Typically, when a player is suspended, he loses 1/145th of his salary per game or 1/110th of his salary per game if the suspension exceeds 20 games, so this penalty is a little harsher than that. It appears that last season’s fine for games missed due to COVID-19 protocol violations was used as a guideline for determining this rate — missing a game during last year’s 72-game season for violating COVID-19 protocols cost a player 1/81.6th of his salary.
For now, New York and San Francisco are the two primary municipalities worth monitoring, since each city has a vaccine mandate for individuals entering indoor venues. The Knicks are reportedly fully vaccinated and Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins recently became vaccinated as well. That leaves Nets guard Kyrie Irving as perhaps the lone unvaccinated player on the three teams based in those cities — it’s possible he’s not the only one, but no others have been reported to date.
Irving’s cap hit for the 2021/22 season is just over $35MM, so he’d lose about $383K per home game if he remains unvaccinated and can’t play in Brooklyn.
Those executive orders in New York and San Francisco aren’t expected to apply to unvaccinated visiting players, who will receive an exemption. The one exception would be Nets vs. Knicks games — since both teams are based in New York, they’d both presumably be subject to local restrictions.
As we noted last week when we first wrote that players would lose salary for games missed due to local vaccine mandates, it was also crucial to determine whether a player’s lost salary would reduce his team’s tax bill for the season, since the Nets and Warriors are both far over the tax line. However, according to Marks (Twitter link), teams won’t receive any tax savings for any players who miss games due to vaccine mandates.
Spurs Release Nate Renfro, Aric Holman
The Spurs waived a pair of recent roster additions over the weekend, cutting guard Nate Renfro and big man Aric Holman, according to NBA.com’s transactions log.
Neither move comes as a surprise. San Antonio signed both players to non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contracts with an eye toward having them eventually join the Austin Spurs in the G League. The Exhibit 10 deals will ensure that both players receive bonuses worth up to $50K if they spend at least 60 days with Austin.
Renfro, who went undrafted in 2019 out of San Francisco, spent the 2019/20 season recovering from a torn ACL, then played for the Austin Spurs – San Antonio’s G League affiliate – during the 2021 NBAGL bubble season.
Holman, who also went undrafted in 2019, played for the Texas Legends as a rookie and for Ratiopharm Ulm in Germany during his second professional season. The former Mississippi State standout suited up for Boston during the 2021 Las Vegas Summer League.
Following their cuts, the Spurs have 18 players under contract, including 17 on guaranteed standard contracts. They’ll have to trade or waive at least two of those players before the start of the regular season, and may continue shuffling players through their last two roster spots for G League purposes.
Raptors Notes: Roster Battles, Mykhailiuk, Bjorkgren, Banton, Achiuwa
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse cited COVID-19 and injuries as reasons why the battles for the last two or three spots on the team’s regular season roster are more important than ever, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. As Nurse pointed out, even if a player makes the team as a 13th or 14th man, he may end up being thrust into a rotation role if others ahead of him are sidelined.
Ishmail Wainright, Yuta Watanabe, Freddie Gillespie, Sam Dekker, and Isaac Bonga are the five players believed to be fighting for spots on the 15-man squad. Toronto has 12 players with fully guaranteed salaries — assuming none of those players are traded or cut, there would be room on the roster for up to three players from that five-player group.
Here’s more on the Raptors:
- Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk said on Friday that he received interest in free agency from the Trail Blazers and Lakers before deciding to sign with the Raptors, per Eric Koreen of The Athletic (Twitter link). Mykhailiuk likes the opportunity he has to earn playing time and develop his game in Toronto.
- Former Pacers head coach Nate Bjorkgren is at the Raptors’ training camp as a consultant, tweets Koreen. Bjorkgren was an assistant on Nurse’s staff before being hired by Indiana.
- Raptors rookie Dalano Banton has been able to recognize two dreams this year — being selected in the NBA draft and joining his hometown team in Toronto. Lori Ewing of The Canadian Press (via The Toronto Star) has the story on the first Torontonian to be drafted by the Raptors.
- Doug Smith of The Toronto Star and Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca lay out what newly-acquired big man Precious Achiuwa can bring to the Raptors. The franchise is hoping that Achiuwa – who was the centerpiece of the Kyle Lowry sign-and-trade – can become a long-term cornerstone.
Jazz Release Justin James
The Jazz have waived swingman Justin James, the team announced today in a press release. James had been occupying one of Utah’s two-way slots.
James spent his first two NBA seasons with the Kings after being selected 40th overall in the 2019 draft out of Wyoming. He didn’t play a regular role for Sacramento, but appeared in 72 games across two seasons, averaging 3.2 PPG and 0.9 RPG with a shooting line of .446/.343/.544 in 7.5 minutes per contest. The 24-year-old was waived by the Kings earlier this offseason and signed a two-way deal with Utah last week.
The decision to waive James comes as a bit of a surprise, given how recently he was signed. If the Jazz had been aiming to secure his G League rights, they would’ve inked him to an Exhibit 10 contract, so perhaps the team had a change of heart about how it wants to fill its second two-way slot. Trent Forrest is Utah’s other two-way player.
With James on waivers, the Jazz now have 19 players under contract.
Wizards’ Bradley Beal Becomes Extension-Eligible
2:35pm: As expected, the Wizards have offered Beal an extension, reports Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington.
8:21am: All-Star guard Bradley Beal is now eligible to sign a contract extension with the Wizards that would tack on up to four years and $181.3MM to his current deal, starting in 2022/23, as Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets.
Beal signed his last contract extension on October 17, 2019. Typically, a player has to wait at least two years to become eligible for another extension, but the two-year anniversary for extensions signed between October 2 and the start of the regular season is considered to be October 1.
According to Ava Wallace of The Washington Post, general manager Tommy Sheppard said last month that the Wizards planned to offer Beal a max extension “at dawn” on October 1. While Sheppard may have been exaggerating a little for effect, it seems safe to assume an offer will be on the table for Beal very soon, if it’s not already.
Beal’s agent Mark Bartelstein said this week that his client is “really excited about the team and the direction the team is going,” adding that “everything is pointing in the right direction,” according to Wallace. However, the 28-year-old doesn’t sound like he’s in a hurry to lock in a new long-term deal quite yet, telling reporters on Monday that he’ll let the team and Bartelstein figure out his contract while he focuses on what happens on the court.
“My biggest thing is getting us off going to a good start,” Beal said. “We worry about the contract money and all that later. I’ll let them deal with it when the time comes, for sure. I got all year to sign, too. So I’m not in a rush.”
Beal’s point is a good one — unlike a number of other players around the NBA who face an October 18 extension deadline, he’ll still be able to finalize a contract extension anytime during the 2021/22 league year.
It’s also worth noting that waiting until he can become a free agent in 2022 would be more advantageous for Beal from a financial perspective, even if he already knows he wants to be with the Wizards long-term. As a free agent, he’d be eligible to sign a five-year contract worth $241.6MM with Washington, or a four-year deal worth $179.1MM with another team. Those figures are based on a projected $119MM salary cap.
Beal’s decision to accept a two-year extension back in 2019 was a surprising one, so it’s possible he’ll surprise us again by how he handles his upcoming contract year. For now though, it sounds like he’s content to see how the new-look Wizards’ roster performs under new head coach Wes Unseld Jr. before he makes any major decisions about his future.
Sixers Reportedly Withholding Advance Payment For Ben Simmons
The terms of Ben Simmons‘ contract with the Sixers call for him to receive 25% of his $33MM salary for the 2021/22 season on October 1, after he received the first 25% on July 1. However, according to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, the 76ers don’t intend to give Simmons that advance payment of roughly $8.25MM on Friday.
Philadelphia’s stance is that Simmons is not fulfilling the terms of his contract by not reporting to training camp, according to Fischer, who says that league-office personnel and players’ union officials believe the Sixers are within their rights to withhold that payment.
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, Brian Windhorst, and Bobby Marks confirm (via Twitter) that the Sixers won’t give Simmons that $8.25MM today, noting that the team has put that money into an escrow account. The fines he accrues will come out of that amount going forward, per the ESPN trio.
There had been some uncertainty about whether the 76ers would take this route, since refusing to pay such a large sum would escalate the standoff with Simmons and perhaps make a resolution less likely. However, a resolution has never seemed especially likely anyway, and there has also been a sense that the league – and other team owners – would want to see Philadelphia take a strong stance to discourage other players from holding out in the same manner.
One source close to the situation told Marc Stein of Substack (Twitter link) that Simmons’ camp believes he’ll get the money one way or another — even if the Sixers withhold that $8.25MM for the time being, Simmons could still eventually get it (minus fines) via an arbitration process or by reaching a resolution with the team. Additionally, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN noted on his latest Hoop Collective podcast, if and when a trade gets completed, Simmons’ new club would likely do all it can to make sure he gets paid in full to avoid starting the relationship off on the wrong foot.
Interestingly, Fischer says there have been “growing whispers” among his sources this week that Simmons could respond by reporting to the 76ers and saying that he’s injured. If he’s found to have a legitimate injury, Simmons wouldn’t be compelled to actually take the court for Philadelphia, but the team would still be required to pay him. However, Fischer’s sources may simply be speculating — Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link) suggests that Simmons still isn’t showing up and understands the ramifications of his absence.
A trade remains the best way to end this staredown between the Sixers and their three-time All-Star, but Fischer reiterates that no deal appears close.
According to Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link), new Timberwolves head of basketball operations Sachin Gupta has touched base with Philadelphia since receiving his promotion, but the Sixers have never seemed enthused about Minnesota’s trade assets, and that hasn’t changed since Gersson Rosas‘ dismissal.
Blazers Exercise 2022/23 Option On Nassir Little
The Trail Blazers have picked up the fourth-year option on Nassir Little‘s rookie scale contract, a source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). The move locks in Little’s $4,171,548 salary for the 2022/23 season.
The 25th pick in the 2019 draft, Little has appeared in 48 games in each of his first two NBA seasons, but has played a limited role. In those 96 total NBA regular-season contests (12.6 MPG), the 21-year-old forward has averaged a modest 4.1 PPG and 2.5 RPG on .450/.302/.719 shooting.
A report last week indicated that Little has been turning heads this offseason and that team officials are intrigued by his development and his potential to contribute to the Blazers. We’ll have to wait for the games to begin to see whether that positive chatter is warranted, but it sounds as if Little should be given the opportunity to play a bigger role in 2021/22.
NBA clubs must make decisions by the end of October on the 2022/23 team options for players on rookie scale contracts. So far, only a handful of those options have been picked up, as our tracker shows, but most of them will likely be exercised in the coming weeks.
Northwest Notes: Morris, MPJ, Powell, Beverley
The Nuggets haven’t made it official yet, but it certainly appears that Monte Morris is on track to claim a spot in the team’s starting lineup while Jamal Murray recovers from ACL surgery. As Mike Singer of The Denver Post writes, head coach Michael Malone said this week that he’s “extremely confident” in Morris’ ability and wants the 26-year-old point guard to get comfortable running the first-team offense.
“It’s just a matter of (Morris) playing with aggression and confidence, playing with that attack mindset and being more vocal on the floor to run his team,” Malone said. “And that’s not easy, especially when you’re playing with the reigning MVP. And I tell him sometimes, ‘Hey, tell Nikola (Jokic) where you want him.’ I say, ‘That’s your job as a point guard,’ and I think he’s embracing that.”
There’s no set timeline for Murray’s return, and it seems unlikely that we’ll see him back on the court until at least the spring, so assuming Morris is named the Nuggets’ starting point guard, it’s a job he could hang onto all season.
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Instagram video) provides some more details on how Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. can bump the $12MM partial guarantee on the fifth year of his new contract extension to a full $39.3MM guarantee. Porter could get that full guarantee if he earns two All-Stars berths or a single All-NBA or All-Defense nod before then. He’d also get the full fifth-year amount if Denver wins a title and he meets certain games-played thresholds during that season.
- After initially arriving in Portland with less than two months left in the 2021/22 season, Norman Powell said this week that life with the Trail Blazers is “starting to feel natural and normal to me,” per Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian. Like some of his teammates, Powell is excited about how new head coach Chauncey Billups plans to use him. “It’s only the first two days but I’m definitely feeling included on the offensive side of the ball,” Powell said.
- New Timberwolves guard Patrick Beverley said on Thursday that when he and the Clippers couldn’t agree on an extension this summer, the team asked him where else he might like to play and he put Minnesota “in my top three, my top two I believe” (link via Chris Hine of The Star Tribune). While it’s a little hard to believe Beverley was so bullish on the idea of joining a small-market team that has made the postseason just once since 2004, he expressed enthusiasm this week about being a mentor to the Wolves’ young guards and bringing some “intensity” to the team.
Spurs To Sign Nate Renfro To Exhibit 10 Deal
The Spurs are signing free agent guard Nate Renfro to an Exhibit 10 contract, a source tells Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Renfro, who went undrafted in 2019 out of San Francisco, spent the 2019/20 season recovering from a torn ACL, then played for the Austin Spurs – San Antonio’s G League affiliate – during the 2021 NBAGL bubble season.
Although he didn’t provide much offense (4.4 PPG on .422/.150/.417 shooting), Renfro contributed in other ways, averaging 5.3 RPG, 3.8 APG, 1.9 BPG, and 1.4 SPG in 15 games (24.9 MPG). He subsequently suited up for the Spurs’ Summer League team in Las Vegas this August as well.
Based on the terms of Renfro’s deal, it sounds like he’ll likely just be on San Antonio’s 20-man roster briefly before returning to Austin for the 2021/22 season. The Exhibit 10 language in his contract would put him in line for a bonus worth up to $50K if he spends at least 60 days with the Spurs’ G League squad.
Since the Spurs have two openings on their 20-man roster, no corresponding move will be required to sign Renfro.