Pelicans Re-Sign Willy Hernangomez To Three-Year Deal
AUGUST 16: The Pelicans have officially re-signed Hernangomez, the team announced today in a press release. The club also confirmed Didi Louzada‘s new deal, which was finalized last week.
“The passion Willy and Didi have for their teammates and our greater Pelicans community is reflected every day in their approach to the game,” Pelicans head of basketball operations David Griffin said in a statement. “Their joyful outlook, work ethic, attention to detail and desire to grow and evolve as professionals has been infectious and we look forward to continuing towards our goals together deep into the future.”
AUGUST 6: The Pelicans have agreed to a three-year deal with Willy Hernangomez that will keep the veteran big man in New Orleans, agents Jim Tanner and Guillermo Bermejo tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). The third year will be a team option, tweets Christian Clark of NOLA.com.
Hernangomez, 27, spent his first four NBA seasons in New York and Charlotte before joining the Pelicans as a free agent last November. In his first year with the team, he averaged 7.8 PPG, 7.1 RPG, and 1.1 APG in 47 games (18.0 MPG) and was the starting center in the season’s final weeks.
Most recently, Hernangomez represented Spain in the Tokyo Olympics, posting a double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) in the team’s quarterfinal loss to Team USA earlier this week.
Hernangomez was on a minimum-salary contract last season and New Orleans only held his Non-Bird rights, so the team’s ability to offer a raise without using cap room or another exception (ie. the mid-level) was limited. We’ll have to wait for the financial terms on Hernangomez’s deal to get a sense of how the Pelicans are re-signing him.
Rockets Sign Usman Garuba To Rookie Contract
Spanish big man Usman Garuba has officially signed his rookie contract with the Rockets, according to NBA.com’s transactions log.
Garuba had been the last of this year’s 30 first-round picks who remained unsigned. The process was held up a little due to the fact that he was participating in the Tokyo Olympics and had to finalize a buyout agreement with Real Madrid, his team in Spain.
[RELATED: 2021 NBA Draft Pick Signings]
As a result of that team-friendly buyout, Garuba owes Real Madrid in excess of two million Euros, but will be able to pay it off in installments. He should more than make up that amount in the NBA based on the terms of his rookie deal. Assuming he signed for the standard 120% of the rookie scale, Garuba will earn $2.35MM as a rookie and $11.81MM over the course of four seasons.
Garuba, 19, had been a member of Real Madrid since 2017 and was a regular part of the team’s rotation in 2020/21. He was named the ACB Best Young Player and received the EuroLeague Rising Star award, then was one of four prospects selected by Houston in this first round of the 2021 draft.
The No. 23 overall pick, Garuba joins Jalen Green (No. 2), Alperen Sengun (No. 16), and Josh Christopher (No. 24) to make up the Rockets’ promising 2021 draft class.
Grizzlies Trade Bledsoe To Clippers For Beverley, Rondo, Oturu
AUGUST 16: The Grizzlies and Clippers have put out press releases officially announcing the trade.
AUGUST 15: The Grizzlies and Clippers have agree to a trade that will send veteran point guard Eric Bledsoe back to Los Angeles in exchange for Patrick Beverley, Rajon Rondo, and Daniel Oturu, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Bledsoe, who began his NBA career with the Clippers back in 2010, was traded from New Orleans to Memphis earlier in the offseason as part of a salary-dump deal that also sent Steven Adams to the Grizzlies. A report at the time of the agreement indicated that Bledsoe was unlikely to remain in Memphis, though it was unclear if the plan was to trade him or buy him out.
This trade, a three-for-one swap, will help generate some roster flexibility for a Clippers team that had been carrying 16 players on fully guaranteed contracts. Los Angeles will now have 14 players on guaranteed deals, plus Yogi Ferrell on a non-guaranteed salary.
Swapping out Beverley ($14.32MM), Rondo ($8.25MM), and Oturu ($1.52MM) for Bledsoe ($18.13MM) will also save the Clippers some money on a tax bill that was projected to be worth $125MM. According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (via Twitter), that projection will dip to about $95MM.
The three outgoing players are all on expiring contracts, while Bledsoe is on a pseudo-expiring deal — his $19.38MM salary for 2022/23 is only partially guaranteed for $3.9MM. Because only Beverley and Oturu are required for salary-matching purposes, L.A. will generate a trade exception worth Rondo’s $8.25MM salary, Marks notes.
Although the Clippers will sacrifice a little depth in the trade, Bledsoe is a bounce-back candidate who could conceivably provide the club with some of the play-making and defense lost by moving Beverley and Rondo. Bledsoe had a down year with the Pelicans in 2020/21, but he averaged 5.5 assists per game during his time in Milwaukee from 2018-20 and earned All-Defensive nods in both seasons.
The Grizzlies, meanwhile, save a little 2022/23 money in the deal while taking on some extra salary for ’21/22. Memphis is now facing a roster crunch of its own, with 17 players on fully guaranteed contracts.
According to Wojnarowsi (Twitter link), the Grizzlies will be “open-minded” in weighing additional roster moves involving Beverley, Rondo, and/or Oturu and will likely consider flipping one or more of them in separate deals.
Memphis is already relatively deep at the point guard spot, with Tyus Jones backing up Ja Morant and De’Anthony Melton also capable of playing the position. As such, it’s hard to imagine both Beverley and Rondo starting the season with the club.
Because they’re on smaller expiring deals, Beverley and Rondo should be easier for the Grizzlies to move in subsequent trades than Bledsoe was. The move to turn one bigger contract into multiple smaller ones is somewhat reminiscent of a trade the team completed during the 2019 offseason, sending out Chandler Parsons‘ oversized expiring deal for Solomon Hill and Miles Plumlee, who were each earning about half of what Parsons was.
Latest On Pascal Siakam
Despite being the subject of several offseason trade rumors, Raptors forward Pascal Siakam likely isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, writes Sam Amick of The Athletic.
Amick, who reported earlier in the summer that the Kings were “definitely” interested in Siakam, spoke in Las Vegas with multiple people close to the situation and says he doesn’t get the sense that the Raptors have any interest in moving the former All-Star this offseason. President of basketball operations Masai Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster have been willing to listen to inquiries, Amick notes, but they aren’t shopping Siakam.
Besides Sacramento, the Warriors and Clippers are among the other teams said to have Siakam on their radar. He remains under contract with the Raptors for $106MM over the next three years.
As Amick outlines, there were multiple reasons why executives around the NBA believed that Siakam might be available via trade this offseason. Toronto’s decision to use the No. 4 pick in the draft on forward Scottie Barnes instead of guard Jalen Suggs was one; Siakam’s friction with Raptors head coach Nick Nurse last season was another.
However, sources tell Amick that any tension between Siakam and Nurse has “long since been smoothed over” and that Ujiri and the Raptors have been in touch with the forward’s camp to make it clear the team has a vision for how he, Barnes, and the rest of the team’s pieces will fit together on the court. And for his part, Siakam wants to remain with the Raptors, Amick adds.
Siakam underwent shoulder surgery in June and isn’t expected to be ready for the start of the 2021/22 campaign, so Toronto may not get to see its full roster in action until at least a month or two into the season. If the fit isn’t as smooth as the Raptors envision, perhaps things will change on the Siakam front at that point, but for now it looks like he’s part of the club’s plans going forward.
2021/22 NBA Roster Counts
Although NBA rosters are limited to 15 players during the regular season, teams are allowed to carry up to 20 players during the offseason. Expanded offseason rosters allow clubs to bring in players on contracts that aren’t fully guaranteed, giving those players a chance to earn a regular season roster spot or getting a closer look at them before sending them to their G League affiliate.
In addition to the usual 15-man rosters, NBA teams are permitted to carry two players on two-way contracts. Two-way deals, which we describe in detail in our glossary, essentially give clubs the NBA rights to two extra players, though they often spend much of the season in the G League rather than with the NBA team. While two-way players don’t count toward the 15-man regular season roster limit, they do count toward the 20-man offseason limit.
Over the course of the 2021 offseason and 2021/22 season, we’ll keep tabs on how many players are on each NBA team’s roster, breaking them down into a few groups. Here are the various categories you’ll find in our list:
- Official: These players are officially under contract with a given team, on guaranteed deals.
- Reported: These are players whose contract agreements have been reported but haven’t been made official. We’re expecting them to be finalized at some point, though it’s possible that some will fall through or were reported erroneously.
- 10-day: These are players officially signed to 10-day contracts, along with the expiry date on those deals.
- Two-way: These are players signed to two-way contracts. Unless otherwise noted, these deals are official. You can find a specific team’s two-way players right here.
- Total: A team’s total roster count, taking into account all of the above.
Here are the NBA’s roster counts for 2021/22, which we’ll continue to update through the rest of the regular season:
Updated 4-10-22 (11:00pm CT)
Atlanta Hawks
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Boston Celtics
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Brooklyn Nets
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 1
- Total: 16
Charlotte Hornets
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Chicago Bulls
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Cleveland Cavaliers
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Dallas Mavericks
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Denver Nuggets
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Detroit Pistons
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Golden State Warriors
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Houston Rockets
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Indiana Pacers
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Los Angeles Clippers
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Los Angeles Lakers
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Memphis Grizzlies
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Miami Heat
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Milwaukee Bucks
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Minnesota Timberwolves
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
New Orleans Pelicans
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
New York Knicks
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Oklahoma City Thunder
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Orlando Magic
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Philadelphia 76ers
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Phoenix Suns
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 1
- Total: 16
Portland Trail Blazers
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Sacramento Kings
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 1
- Total: 16
San Antonio Spurs
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Toronto Raptors
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
Utah Jazz
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 1
- Total: 16
Washington Wizards
- Official: 15
- Two-way: 2
- Total: 17
2021/22 Non-Guaranteed Contracts By NBA Team
As the NBA regular season approaches and teams reduce their rosters from the 20-player offseason limit to the 15-man regular season max, the best way to determine which players will survive preseason cuts is to consider their contracts. Players with guaranteed salaries for 2021/22 are far more likely to earn spots on 15-man rosters than players whose contracts aren’t fully guaranteed.
Keeping that in mind, we’re using the space below to keep tabs on the players on each NBA team who don’t have fully guaranteed contracts, using information from Basketball Insiders and Spotrac, as well as our own data. The players listed here have non-guaranteed salaries, partially guaranteed salaries, or Exhibit 9 or Exhibit 10 contracts, which essentially function like non-guaranteed deals.
Unless otherwise noted, these players are on minimum-salary contracts. Some players on this list have partial guarantees, which we’ve also mentioned below.
Not all of these players will be waived before the regular season begins, so we’ll maintain this list for the next several months, up until January 10, 2022. That’s the day that all players still under contract will have their salaries fully guaranteed for the rest of the 2021/22 season.
Only players who have formally signed contracts are listed below, so if a player has reportedly reached an agreement with a team on a non-guaranteed deal, we’ll add him to our list when that deal becomes official.
Without further ado, here’s the full list of players without fully guaranteed salaries for 2021/22, broken down by team:
Updated 1-8-22 (7:58am CT)
Atlanta Hawks
- None
Boston Celtics
- None
Brooklyn Nets
- None
Charlotte Hornets
- None
Chicago Bulls
- None
Cleveland Cavaliers
- None
International Notes: Petrusev, Madar, Giedraitis, Jokubaitis
Turkish club Anadolu Efes, the reigning EuroLeague champion, is expected to sign 6’11” forward/center Filip Petrusev for the coming season, a source tells Emiliano Carchia of Sportando.
Petrusev was the 50th player selected in the 2021 draft, and while he spoke earlier this month of wanting to join his new NBA team – the Sixers – as soon as possible, the plan was always to stash him overseas for at least one more seasons.
The 21-year-old is coming off a big year (23.6 PPG, 7.6 RPG) for Mega Basket in the Adriatic League and will get an opportunity to face a higher level of competition in EuroLeague play in 2021/22.
Here are a few more notes from around the international basketball world:
- If the Celtics opt not to sign 2020 second-rounder Yam Madar for the 2021/22 season, the expectation is that he’ll play for Ratiopharm Ulm in Germany, according to reports out of Israel (hat tip to Sportando). Madar remains a candidate to come stateside, but Boston already has 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts (plus Jabari Parker on a non-guaranteed deal) for ’21/22, so it may be another year before the Israeli guard signs his first NBA contract.
- Lithuanian wing Rokas Giedraitis has turned down a one-year, minimum-salary offer from an NBA team and will remain with Baskonia in Spain, according to Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com. Giedraitis averaged 12.7 PPG, 3.0 RPG, and 1.6 APG on .485/.405/.824 shooting in 33 EuroLeague games (28.7 MPG) last season. It’s unclear which NBA team attempted to sign him.
- Marc Berman of The New York Post explores the roles that the Knicks‘ European scouts, Adam Tatalovich and Kevin Wilson, played in the team’s decision to draft Lithuanian guard Rokas Jokubaitis. As Berman notes, Wilson is based in Barcelona, so he’ll get an opportunity to continue scouting Jokubaitis in 2021/22 — the No. 34 pick is set to spend the season with FC Barcelona in Spain.
Udonis Haslem Re-Signs With Heat
AUGUST 15: The Heat have officially re-signed Haslem, the team announced today (via Twitter).
AUGUST 11: Veteran big man Udonis Haslem will return for another season with the Heat, according to Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel, who says that an official announcement from the team is expected soon. It will be Haslem’s 19th season with the franchise.
A regular rotation player in Miami when the team won championships in 2006, 2012, and 2013, Haslem hasn’t appeared in more than 16 games or logged more than 130 minutes in a single season since 2015/16.
In 2020/21, he played just once, earning a cameo during the final week of the regular season. He memorably earned an ejection for a dust-up with Dwight Howard just three minutes after checking into the game.
Despite the fact that he no longer sees much action for the Heat, Haslem is a well-respected locker room presence who essentially has a standing invitation to continue signing minimum-salary contracts with the club until he decides to retire.
That day hasn’t arrived yet. The 41-year-old will spend at least one more season in the NBA and, as Winderman points out, will become the 21st player in NBA history to play in 19 seasons as long as he appears in at least one game for the Heat in 2021/22.
Once Haslem officially signs his deal, the Heat will have 14 players on guaranteed contracts. Miami could perhaps use another guard or wing, but a 15th man would put team salary over the tax line, so it’s unclear if the club intends to fill that spot, tweets Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.
The Heat do have a pair of open two-way slots, which will likely be filled by undrafted free agents who impress the team in Summer League and training camp.
Celtics Sign Dennis Schröder To One-Year Deal
AUGUST 13: The Celtics have officially signed Schroder, according to a team press release.
“We are really excited to welcome Dennis and his family to Boston,” president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said in a statement. “Dennis is a high-level player and competitor, who has consistently impacted winning with his play on both ends of the court.”
AUGUST 10: The Celtics and free agent point guard Dennis Schröder are in agreement on a one-year contract, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), the deal will be worth the $5.89MM taxpayer mid-level exception.
Schröder has officially confirmed in an Instagram story that he’s joining the Celtics.
“This is one of the best franchises in NBA history and it will be a honour to put on the green and white and do what I love!” Schröder wrote. “I’m going out there every night and leaving it all on the floor for the city!! Who’s ready?!”
We first heard last week that the Celtics and Schröder were engaged in contract discussions, with a report earlier today indicating the team had offered him a one-year, $5.9MM deal.
Today’s report suggested Schröder was seeking a second-year player option and the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception (worth about $9.5MM), but the C’s wanted to maintain cap flexibility in 2022 and avoid hard-capping themselves this season. It appears Schröder relented.
Schröder had an up-and-down season for the Lakers in 2020/21 after being acquired from the Thunder last fall. His scoring average dipped to 15.4 PPG, his lowest mark since 2015/16, and his shooting numbers (.437 FG%, .335 3PT%) also fell off a little following a career year in Oklahoma City.
The 27-year-old struggled in the Lakers’ first-round playoff loss to Phoenix, putting up just 14.3 PPG and 2.8 APG on .400/.308/.846 shooting in six games (32.7 MPG), though he was coming off a case of COVID-19 near the end of the regular season.
Despite Schröder’s inconsistent play in Los Angeles, the extent to which his market collapsed is still surprising. He reportedly turned down a four-year extension offer worth in excess of $80MM during the season. When the Lakers agreed to trade for Russell Westbrook, it closed one door for Schröder, and the teams seeking a point guard in free agency didn’t have the German atop their lists of targets.
As a result, the Celtics – who traded away starting point guard Kemba Walker in June – will get a bargain for the 2021/22 season, while Schröder will look to rebuild his value in Boston before re-entering the free agent market in 2022.
As Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston notes (via Twitter), if the Celtics remain committed to not using more than the taxpayer portion of their mid-level exception, they’ll be limited to one- or two-year minimum-salary deals for any other signings, including draft-and-stash prospect Yam Madar.
Wizards Notes: Dinwiddie, Bryant, Holiday, Hachimura, Avdija
Speaking today to reporters, Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard said that Spencer Dinwiddie is further along in his recovery from an ACL tear than Thomas Bryant is, as Fred Katz of The Athletic tweets. Dinwiddie sustained a partially torn ACL in late December, while Bryant suffered the same injury just a couple weeks later.
According to Sheppard, Dinwiddie is on track to progress to 2-on-2 and 3-on-3 scrimmages, while Bryant has not been fully cleared for basketball activities yet.
“I can’t see Thomas necessarily being in our first game,” Sheppard said.
A previous report indicated that the Wizards may be targeting a December return for Bryant.
Here’s more out of D.C.:
- Sheppard confirmed a report that the Wizards tried to trade for Aaron Holiday in the past before acquiring him this offseason. “Usually, trade deadline calls, trades that don’t work out kinda resurface in the summer,” Sheppard said (Twitter link via Katz).
- Sheppard was asked today about whether the roles for young forwards Rui Hachimura and Deni Avdija will changes in 2021/22 as a result of the Wizards’ influx of depth. As Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington relays (via Twitter), the Wizards’ GM said he thinks Hachimura will remain in the starting lineup, but Avdija – who started 32 of his 54 games as a rookie – is more likely to be part of the second unit.
- Montrezl Harrell and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, acquired from the Lakers in the Russell Westbrook blockbuster, will bring specific skill sets to a revamped Wizards roster, writes Kareem Copeland of The Washington Post. Caldwell-Pope, in particular, is the kind of three-and-D wing the team has been lacking.