The Nuggets were quiet in free agency, but added a few more intriguing young players to their core this offseason, including Jamal Murray, Juan Hernangomez, and Malik Beasley. As Shaun Powell of NBA.com writes, Denver may not be a playoff contender quite yet, but time is still on the team’s side.
- The Nuggets have named Chuck Hayes as their Associate of Basketball Operations, Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated reports (on Twitter).
While NBA teams are limited to carrying 15 players on their regular-season rosters (with a few exceptions), roster limits expand to 20 players during the offseason. The five extra roster slots allow clubs to bring in veterans hopeful of earning a place on the regular-season roster, or young players who may eventually be ticketed for D-League assignments.
Most teams will fill up their 20-man rosters for training camp, but at this point in the NBA offseason, it can be difficult to determine which clubs still have room on their rosters. Many potential camp invitees have reportedly reached agreements with teams, but those signings haven’t yet been officially announced.
By our count, there are currently just two team at the 20-man offseason roster limit. One is the 76ers, who were at the 20-man limit for much of the offseason before waiving Carl Landry and Tibor Pleiss. Since then, they’ve added Elton Brand and Cat Barber, though it appears only 11 of the club’s 20 players have fully guaranteed salaries for 2016/17.
Meanwhile, on their official website, the Nuggets list 14 players who have guaranteed contracts, plus Axel Toupane, JaKarr Sampson, and D.J. Kennedy, who are on non-guaranteed or partially-guaranteed deals. In addition to those 17 players, the team has also reportedly reached agreements with Nate Wolters, Robbie Hummel, and Jarnell Stokes, bringing Denver’s total roster count to 20.
Still, not all of Denver’s signings are official, and even once they are, the Nuggets could easily make room for another player by cutting a non-guaranteed salary from their books. The same can be said for Philadelphia. While their rosters may technically be “full,” it’s not as if the Nuggets and the Sixers don’t have the flexibility to replace a camp invitee with a veteran free agent, if they so choose.
A more productive way of determining which teams’ rosters are “full” at this point in the offseason might be to examine the number of guaranteed salaries on their books. The deadline for teams to stretch the 2016/17 salary of a waived player is now behind us, so any team that cuts a player with a guaranteed salary won’t be able to reduce that cap hit unless the player agrees to a buyout. Most teams are reluctant to add much dead money to their cap with such a move, so if a club has 15 guaranteed contracts on its cap, we can assume its regular-season roster is fairly set, barring a trade or a surprise cut.
Here are the NBA teams that currently have 15 (or more) guaranteed salaries on their roster:
- With Joffrey Lauvergne no longer in the mix, the Nuggets will likely have one open spot on their 15-man roster, so Adam Mares of DenverStiffs.com conducts a Q&A with D-League expert Chris Reichert to discuss the six prospects vying for that opening. Former Bucks and Pelicans guard Nate Wolters would be Reichert’s pick for the 15th spot on Denver’s roster.
On Tuesday, we examined the teams in – or near – luxury tax territory. Due to the size of those teams’ payrolls, they could face penalties at year’s end, paying a few extra tax dollars in addition to the salaries they’ll pay their players.
On the other end of the spectrum are six clubs whose team salaries continue to sit below the minimum salary floor, which is set at 90% of the cap. For the 2016/17 league year, that salary floor works out to $84.729MM. Every franchise will have to spend at least that much on players for the year, so if any team payrolls remain below that figure at season’s end, those teams have to make up the difference by paying a little extra to their own players.
Often, clubs sitting below the salary floor at this point in the year will get over that threshold at some point during the season. Taking on salary in a trade is one possibility — in the past, when cap room has been a rarer and more valuable commodity, teams like the Sixers have agreed to take on other clubs’ bad salaries as long as they can get something out of the deal themselves, such as second-round picks. That could still happen this year, but that sort of trade may be rarer now that the cap is at an all-time high and teams have more flexibility to maneuver.
Renegotiating a player’s contract and signing him to an extension is another way teams can use up their remaining salary cap space at this point in the season. As we saw with Russell Westbrook and the Thunder, and James Harden and the Rockets, clubs with room under the cap can rework a player’s contract to increase their current-year salary up to the max, while tacking on additional years — but only certain players are eligible.
Of course, signing free agents is another way a team can quickly add salary and reach the floor, but at this point in the offseason, most of the players still available are minimum-salary guys, and most teams’ rosters are fairly set anyway.
Here are the six teams currently below the salary floor:
- Total team salary: $82,752,308
- Guaranteed team salary: $80,791,446
- Eligible for renegotiation/extension: Nikola Pekovic
Utah Jazz
- Total team salary: $81,817,624
- Guaranteed team salary: $79,332,496
- Eligible for renegotiation/extension: Derrick Favors (eligible as of October 19), George Hill
Phoenix Suns
- Total team salary: $80,900,983
- Guaranteed team salary: $79,850,022
- Eligible for renegotiation/extension: None
- Total team salary: $76,948,637
- Guaranteed team salary: $75,563,224
- Eligible for renegotiation/extension: None
- Total team salary: $76,719,065
- Guaranteed team salary: $74,039,362
- Eligible for renegotiation/extension: None
- Total team salary: $70,341,137
- Guaranteed team salary: $65,159,265
- Eligible for renegotiation/extension: Hollis Thompson (eligible as of September 24)
Information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.
With training camp still a few weeks away, Danilo Gallinari was in Italy this past week, and attended an event called NBA-Evolution. As relayed by Jeffrey Morton of DenverStiffs.com, Gallinari revealed at the press conference for the event that the Nuggets explored trading him at the 2016 trade deadline, but he declined the opportunity to be moved.
“In Denver I am very well,” Gallinari said, per a translation, when he was asked about the possibility of leaving Denver and potentially returning to Europe. “There was a chance last year to go to some other team before the deadline in February, but I refused. If I return to Italy would be back to Olympia but with the intention of winning, I don’t like the idea of nostalgic revisiting.”
Gallinari didn’t go into specifics, and it’s possible something was lost in translation, but as Morton observes, it sounds like the Nuggets had potential trade opportunities involving the veteran forward and asked him if he wanted to be dealt — he apparently declined. The Celtics were among the teams believed to have strong interest in Gallinari at the deadline, so he certainly attracted attention around the NBA.
Unlike teammate Darrell Arthur, Gallinari didn’t have the ability to formally block a trade at last year’s trade deadline. The contract extension he signed last August prevented him from being dealt for six months, since the raises on that deal exceeded 4.5%, but the Nuggets still had a window at the deadline to move him if they wanted to. Still, the fact that Gallinari signed that extension in the first place was an indication that he likes playing in Denver and wants to stick around there.
Gallinari remains under contract for two more years, though he can opt out of his deal next summer. He’ll earn $15.05MM in 2016/17, with a player option worth $16.1MM for 2017/18.
The Nuggets have signed Robbie Hummel to a two-year deal, according to GoldandBlack.com (Twitter link). It will be a partially guaranteed deal, likely for the minimum.
Hummel played in Italy last season for Emporio Armani Milano. He suffered a shoulder injury midseason and he was released by the team. The Wolves selected the former Purdue star with the No. 58 overall selection in the 2012 draft. He spent two season in Minnesota, averaging 3.9 points and 2.7 rebounds in 14.3 minutes per game.
Entering the day, the Nuggets had 19 players under contract, as the team’s depth chart at Roster Resource indicates. Hummel will face stiff competition for a regular season roster spot.
- Today’s trade of Joffrey Lauvergne will allow the Nuggets to free up some valuable minutes in the frontcourt, with Darrell Arthur the likely recipient of the extra playing time, Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post writes. Arthur, who inked a three-year, $23MM deal with the team this offseason, has the full confidence of the coaching staff and front office, Dempsey notes. Another player who could benefit from Lauvergne’s departure is rookie Juan Hernangomez, the scribe adds.
12:48pm: The Thunder and Nuggets have each issued press releases confirming the deal.
12:25pm: The two draft picks heading to the Nuggets are 2017 second-rounders, according to Royce Young of ESPN.com (via Twitter). That means Denver will be receiving the Grizzlies’ pick and the Thunder’s pick.
12:01pm: The Nuggets and Thunder have agreed to terms on a trade, according to reports from Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post and Adrian Wojnarwoski of The Vertical. Per Dempsey and Wojnarowski, Denver has agreed to send Joffrey Lauvergne to Oklahoma City in exchange for two future second-round picks.
Lauvergne, who will turn 25 in a month, was a role player for the Nuggets last year, appearing in 59 contests and starting 15 of them. For the season, he averaged 17.6 MPG, chipping in 7.9 PPG, 4.9 RPG, and 0.9 APG for Denver, while shooting 51.3% from the floor and 89.9% from the free-throw line. Lauvergne also played for France in the Olympics this summer.
The Thunder figure to work Lauvergne into their frontcourt rotation off the bench, with Serge Ibaka and Nazr Mohammed no longer on the roster. Steven Adams, Enes Kanter, Domantas Sabonis, Nick Collison, Andre Roberson, and Ersan Ilyasova are among the other players who will look to earn minutes at the four or five this season in OKC, while Mitch McGary may not end up on the regular-season roster, as ESPN’s Royce Young tweets. The Thunder already had 15 guaranteed salaries on their cap for 2016/17 prior to Lauvergne’s arrival.
Meanwhile, with Lauvergne no longer in the mix in Denver, the Nuggets now have 14 guaranteed salaries on their books for ’16/17, plus JaKarr Sampson, D.J. Kennedy, and Axel Toupane on non-guaranteed contracts.
The Thunder have just enough room to fit Lauvergne’s salary in under their cap without waiving or trading any other players. Per Basketball Insiders’ data, Oklahoma City’s team salary for 2016/17 was at $92,403,967 before the trade. Lauvergne is on the books for $1,709,719 this season, while the league-wide salary cap is $94,143,000 — the Thunder should be able to complete the deal with about $30K in cap space to spare.
Lauvergne’s salary for this season is only half guaranteed so far, with $854,859 still non-guaranteed. However, the fact that the Thunder were willing to give up two draft picks for him suggests that the team doesn’t intend to waive him before guaranteeing the rest of that salary.
It’s not clear yet which picks the Nuggets will be receiving in the swap, but OKC had extra second-rounders in 2017 (from Memphis; protected from 31-35) and 2018 (from Boston; protected from 31-55).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
3:31pm: Mudiay isn’t the only young player making the move to Wasserman. According to Marc J. Spears of The Vertical (via Twitter), Raptors forward Bruno Caboclo is also being represented by the agency now. Caboclo has two years remaining on his rookie contract, and will be extension-eligible next summer.
2:45pm: Emmanuel Mudiay has a new agent, according to a report from Sportando (via Twitter). A source tells Sportando that Mudiay, who had been repped by Jason Martin of Rival Sports, has now hired Wasserman for representation.
Mudiay, the seventh overall pick in last year’s draft, is coming off a solid rookie season in Denver in which he averaged 12.8 PPG, 5.5 APG, and 3.4 RPG. Mudiay will need to improve his 36.4% shooting percentage from the floor going forward, but he’s still just 20 years old, and is a key part of a Nuggets roster that features several talented young players.
Because Mudiay is currently playing on his four-year rookie deal, his new representatives shouldn’t have to do much work on the contract front anytime soon. Denver will make decisions on Mudiay’s 2017/18 and 2018/19 team options this offseason and next offseason, but the young point guard won’t be eligible for a contract extension until the summer of 2018.
Assuming the Nuggets exercise Mudiay’s 2017/18 team option before this year’s deadline, which should be a lock, he’ll be in line for a $3,381,480 salary a year from now. He’s set to earn $3,241,800 in 2016/17.