Weekly Mailbag: 11/20/17 – 11/26/17
We have an opportunity for you to hit us up with your questions in this, our weekly mailbag feature. Have a question regarding player movement, the salary cap or the NBA draft? Drop us a line at HoopsRumorsMailbag@Gmail.com.
What’s the latest on the potential of a Jahlil Okafor trade/release? — Dennis McDaniels, via Twitter
Okafor is in a difficult position. With the improved health of Joel Embiid and the offseason signing of Amir Johnson, the Sixers no longer need him, and as shown by their decision not to pick up his option for next season, they no longer want him. However, his trade value is very low, so that isn’t an option, and neither is a buyout because of the likelihood that he will sign with the Celtics. Boston was granted an $8.4MM disabled player exception in the wake of the Gordon Hayward injury and could easily fit Okafor on its roster. Plus, Okafor’s salary is a little less than $5MM, so the Sixers wouldn’t save enough to make a difference. Okafor isn’t an asset right now in Philadelphia, but he could be in Boston and the Sixers don’t want to take that chance. It’s a situation that probably won’t be resolved quickly and may linger through the end of the season.
If Derrick Rose retires mid-season, what should the Cavaliers do to replace him? — Dan Vachalek, via Twitter
Don’t look for any move right away. Once Isaiah Thomas returns from his hip injury, which is expected at some point next month, he will take over as the starting point guard. Dwyane Wade runs the second-unit offense, so there’s not a vital need to replace Rose. If the Cavaliers do add someone to the roster, he probably won’t last until January 10, which is the date when all salaries become fully guaranteed for the rest of the season. The Cavs already have luxury tax problems and can’t afford to add salary for a roster filler. Most likely, they will keep a spot open until after the February 8 trade deadline, so they can take advantage of buyout season.
With Larry Nance Jr. ready to return from his broken hand, should we expect a Julius Randle trade soon? — Lakers Lover, via Twitter
There have been rumors for months that Randle is on the way out, and those intensified when his contract wasn’t extended before the October 16 deadline. Randle is a very skilled, if somewhat undersized, big man, but his contract gets in the way for a team hoping to offer two max deals next summer. Randle is heading into restricted free agency and carries a $12.4MM cap hit, and the Lakers need all the cap room they can get to chase LeBron James, Paul George and other stars. Randle has been playing well of late, but Kyle Kuzma‘s emergence makes him more expendable than ever. L.A. would jump on a chance to trade him for expiring contracts.
Hoops Rumors Originals: 11/18/17 – 11/25/17
Every week, the writers here at Hoops Rumors strive to create interesting original content to complement our news feed. Here are those segments and features from the last 7 days:
- We answered your questions in our Weekly Mailbag, including whether the Bulls will trade Nikola Mirotic and the Knicks‘ chances at signing LeBron James in the offseason.
- We revisited several of our Hoops Rumors Glossary entries, focusing on free agent types and the G-League.
- We took a look at five significant 2018/19 Player Options and analyzed the chances of each option being exercised.
- In several different Community Shootaround posts, we asked:
- Is it time for the Clippers to move on from head coach Doc Rivers?
- Should the Clippers be looking to trade DeAndre Jordan in the wake of the team’s early season struggles?
- Do you agree with Bill Simmons’ Top-20 NBA Players for the 2017/18 season?
- Which 2017 free agent signings have represented the best deals so far in the 2017/18 season?
- What’s in store for the future of Derrick Rose?
- We asked you, the readers, to weigh in on two polls:
- Which team is the worst in the NBA this season?
- Will the Nuggets make the playoffs this season?
- We took a look at 25 players still on non-guaranteed 2017/18 contracts.
- As part of our Fantasy Hoops content, we analyzed Tyreke Evans‘ resurgence with the Grizzlies, among other fantasy analysis and notes.
- We analyzed the stock of the Grizzlies‘ 2018 free agents.
Fantasy Hoops: Evans, KCP, Bledsoe, Lamb
Tyreke Evans is enjoying a resurgence in Memphis, fueled by his ability to stay on the court, his talent, and the Grizzlies presenting him with a prominent role off the bench. He ranks third on the team with a usage rate of 26.2 and his 17.9 points per game only trails Marc Gasol among those who call the FedExForum home.
Evans’ one-year, $3.3MM pact is one of the NBA’s best bargains from this past offseason and he’s providing just as much value to fantasy owners as he is to Memphis. In ESPN leagues, he was drafted on average with the No. 140 pick, meaning many fantasy owners either nabbed him in the last round of their draft or scooped him off waivers early on.
If we could assume good health, Evans would be a clear top-50 option going forward, and maybe even a top-40 player. Given his injury history though, his season-long value becomes less certain. That doesn’t mean you should necessarily sell high on him, but be aware of the risk and evaluate offers accordingly.
Here’s more fantasy analysis and notes:
- Consistency has always been an issue for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, but it appears the Lakers‘ $18MM man has addressed some of his woes — he’s shooting a career-high from the field (42.5%) and from behind the arc (35.1%). While neither of those rates are otherworldly, they aren’t going to kill you as they have in the past. Caldwell-Pope is averaging 14.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.8 steals over his past 10 games and with his percentages coming in at a respectable level, his value rises for those playing in Roto leagues.
- It’s clear that Eric Bledsoe is going to continue to have a heavy role in Bucks‘ offense going forward. Since arriving in Milwaukee earlier this month, Bledsoe has a 27.6 usage rate, which puts him ahead of Paul George, Harrison Barnes, and Ben Simmons – among others – during that stretch.
- Nicolas Batum re-injured his elbow on Wednesday night and won’t play in Friday’s game against the Cavs. Jeremy Lamb, who will start for the Hornets at the three, should be in fantasy lineups both in daily and in season-long leagues for tonight’s tilt. Cleveland has given up the most points per game to opposing small forwards, allowing them to shoot 50% from the field, which is the worst mark in the league. In 12 starts this season, Lamb is averaging 16.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists per contest while shooting 45.7% from behind the arc.
Fantasy questions? Take to the comment section below or tweet me at @CW_Crouse.
Statistics are current through Friday morning. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Hoops Rumors Glossary: G League Assignments
NBA G League teams have no shortage of ways to stock their rosters. They can add players through the G League draft, carry players on two-way contracts, acquire players via waivers, take on affiliate players from NBA training camps, and sign players they find in preseason tryout camps. Yet perhaps the most noteworthy players to pass through the G League come via NBA assignment.
The players assigned to the G League by NBA teams aren’t quite like other G Leaguers. NBA players receive their full NBA salaries while on G League assignment, whereas the G Leaguers without an NBA contract receive far more modest annual earnings that currently top out at about $26K.
Still, a G League assignment may come at a cost for an NBA player, since performance in the G League doesn’t count toward any incentive clauses built into an NBA contract. So if a player heads down to the G League on a rehab assignment and plays in a couple games for his NBA club’s G League affiliate, none of the numbers he puts up during that assignment would count toward the performance incentives built into his contract with the big club.
Of course, generally speaking, only longer-tenured veteran NBA players have incentives in their contracts, and most of those players won’t be assigned to the G League. Virtually all of the NBA players assigned to the G League have less than three full years of experience. That’s partly because NBA teams want to give their young players some extra seasoning — after all, before being re-branded as part of a sponsorship agreement with Gatorade, the G League was known as the “Development League” (D-League).
More importantly, players in their first, second or third NBA seasons are the only ones whom NBA teams can unilaterally send down to the G League. Otherwise, teams must get the consent of the players’ union as well as the player. It does happen on occasion though — fourth-year Raptors forward Bruno Caboclo has consented to multiple G League assignments so far this season, and Tony Parker has accepted G League assignments from the Spurs as well, as part of his injury rehab.
Once a player has been assigned to the G League, he can remain there indefinitely, and lengthy stints are not uncommon. However, since there’s no limit to the number of times an NBA team can assign and recall a player, assignments can also be very brief, particularly now that many teams are in close geographical proximity with their G League affiliates. In one case this season, the Grizzlies recalled Ivan Rabb from the Memphis Hustle, then assigned and recalled him again, all in the span of a few hours, in order to get him as much practice time as possible.
The Grizzlies are one of 26 NBA teams that either own their G League teams outright or operate the basketball operations of their affiliates in “hybrid” partnerships with local ownership groups. Teams that have these arrangements can set up a unified system in which the G League club runs the same offensive and defensive schemes and coaches dole out playing time based on what’s best for the parent club. That gives these NBA teams an advantage, so it’s no surprise that we’re moving toward every NBA team having a one-to-one affiliation — as recently as 2012/13, only 11 teams had such an arrangement.
Four NBA teams – the Nuggets, Pelicans, Trail Blazers, and Wizards – don’t have a G League affiliate of their own in 2017/18. However, those teams can still assign players to the G League via the “flexible assignment” rule. If, for instance, the Nuggets want to send Tyler Lydon to a G League team, any of the 26 teams may volunteer to accept him. Denver can choose from those clubs if there are multiple volunteers, but if no G League team raises its hand, the G League will randomly choose one of its teams to accept Lydon.
For more on the G League, check out our list of affiliations for this year and bookmark our G League news archive to track the latest updates on NBA players being assigned to or recalled from the G League. Be sure to check out our FAQ on two-way contracts as well — players on two-way deals can’t technically be assigned to and recalled from the G League, but they can be transferred back and forth between the NBA and the G League on a limited basis.
Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.
Versions of this post were initially published in 2012, 2013, and 2014 by Luke Adams and Chuck Myron.
2018 Free Agent Stock Watch: Memphis Grizzlies
The Grizzlies are in an interesting place as a franchise and how they fare over the course of the next few seasons will have an impact on the team’s lasting legacy.
With $160MM tied up in franchise cornerstones Marc Gasol (32 years old) and Mike Conley (30), the good-but-not-exactly-great club has little choice but to keep retooling its rotation with low-cost players capable of possibly contributing to a second-tier Western Conference squad. More importantly, the Grizzlies have to be ready to promptly move on if those experiments don’t pan out.
Memphis isn’t expected to have any cap space next season, so any progress or roster development will have to come from within. Here’s a look at the team’s players who will hit free agency this summer and which way their value is trending.
Mario Chalmers, PG, 32 (Up) – Signed to 1-year, $2.1MM deal in 2017
The Grizz brought Chalmers back on board after waiving him in the spring of 2016. After spending last season out of the NBA altogether recovering from an Achilles injury, the former Heat punching bag has stepped into a role as a backup point guard and spot starter. Chalmers lacks the ceiling of a younger prospect and doesn’t contribute consistently enough to qualify as a reliable go-to bench option, so don’t expect any teams to offer big money. Still, that doesn’t mean he’s not capable of landing slightly more than the veteran’s-minimum contract he signed for last summer. If he stays healthy, Chalmers could find other suitors around the league. But with little reliable point guard depth under contract, the Grizzlies may be among those most eager to sign him.
James Ennis, SF, 28 (Down) – Signed to 2-year, $5.9MM deal in 2016
Memphis isn’t afraid to give Ennis a sizable workload, as evidenced by the 23.5 minutes per game he saw last year (which has risen to 26.5 so far in 2017/18), but the small forward isn’t particularly effective with that time on the court. With so many other swingmen on the roster, three of whom were signed just last summer, it doesn’t make much sense for the Grizzlies to commit long-term to the gritty veteran.
Tyreke Evans, SG/SF, 28 (Up) – Signed to 1-year, $3.3MM deal in 2017
The Grizzlies got one of the biggest bargains of the summer when they signed Evans with their bi-annual exception. The biggest issue with Evans, however, is health — he played just 65 games over the course of the previous two seasons. That said, Evans has shown no signs of lingering ailments so far this season and has averaged a head-turning 17.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game in just 28.2 minutes per contest. If Evans keeps up his trademark versatile play for a full season, he’ll yield plenty more on the open market than what Memphis will be able to cover with his Non-Bird rights.
Brandan Wright, PF/C, 30 (Down) – Signed to 3-year, $17.2MM deal in 2015
Having played in just 40 games over the course of the past two seasons – and having been traded twice mid-season the year before that – it’s hard to know what to expect out of Wright. While the big man was once a surprisingly productive reserve, he suddenly qualifies as a 30-year-old journeyman who has made six forgettable stops over the course of 10 NBA seasons. Wright has done an admirable job trying to fill holes in Memphis’ depleted 2017/18 rotation, averaging 13.8 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per 36 minutes, but given his spotty track record, don’t expect him to net more than the veteran’s minimum next summer.
Player ages as of July 1, 2018. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
25 Players Still On Non-Guaranteed 2017/18 Salaries
There are 25 players around the NBA playing on 2017/18 salaries that aren’t yet fully guaranteed. While having those salaries guaranteed will be a mere formality for some players, others may be at risk of losing their roster spot with decision day nearing. If teams keep non-guaranteed players under contract beyond January 7, their salaries will become guaranteed for the season on January 10, so clubs still have more than a month to decide whether to lock in these players’ full-season salaries.
Listed below is the team-by-team breakdown of the players who are still on non-guaranteed salaries or partially guaranteed salaries. Unless otherwise indicated, each of these players is set to earn the minimum. Partial guarantees are noted if they exceed a player’s prorated salary to date. Any teams not listed below are only carrying players with fully guaranteed salaries.
Atlanta Hawks
- Luke Babbitt: Partial guarantee of $987,080.
- Isaiah Taylor
Brooklyn Nets
Charlotte Hornets
Chicago Bulls
- Kay Felder: Partial guarantee of $456,529.
- David Nwaba
Dallas Mavericks
- Dorian Finney-Smith
- Devin Harris: Partial guarantee of $1,339,662.
- Full salary: $4,402,546
- Jeff Withey: Partial guarantee of $350,000.
Detroit Pistons
- Eric Moreland: Partial guarantee of $1,000,000.
- Full salary: $1,739,333
Houston Rockets
Indiana Pacers
Los Angeles Lakers
Milwaukee Bucks
Minnesota Timberwolves
- Marcus Georges-Hunt: Partial guarantee of $275,000.
New York Knicks
Oklahoma City Thunder
Orlando Magic
- Khem Birch: Partial guarantee of $407,808.
Philadelphia 76ers
Phoenix Suns
San Antonio Spurs
Toronto Raptors
Utah Jazz
Washington Wizards
- Sheldon Mac
- Note: Mac is recovering from a torn Achilles and will continue to be paid his full-season salary until he’s cleared to return.
To keep tabs on these 25 players over the next several weeks, be sure to check back on our regularly-updated lists of salary guarantee dates and of non-guaranteed contracts.
Photos courtesy of Getty Images and USA Today Sports Images. Information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.
Hoops Rumors Glossary: Non-Bird Rights
Players and teams have to meet certain criteria to earn Bird rights and Early Bird rights, but Non-Bird rights are something of a given. They apply to a player who has spent a single season or less with his team, as long as he finishes the season on an NBA roster. Teams can also claim Non-Bird rights on Early Bird free agents if they renounce them. The primary utility in doing so would be so that the team could sign the free agent to a one-year contract, a move that’s not permitted via Early Bird rights.
Teams are eligible to sign their own free agents using the Non-Bird exception for a salary starting at 120% of the player’s previous salary, 120% of the minimum salary, or the amount of a qualifying offer (if the player is a restricted free agent), whichever is greatest. Contracts can be for up to four years, with 5% annual raises.
The cap hold for a Non-Bird player is 120% of his previous salary, unless the previous salary was the minimum. In that case, the cap hold is equivalent to the two-year veteran’s minimum salary, which in 2018/19 will be $1,499,698.
The salary limitations that apply to Non-Bird rights are more severe than those pertaining to Bird rights or Early Bird rights, so in many cases, the Non-Bird exception isn’t enough to retain a well-regarded free agent. For instance, the Heat had Non-Bird rights for James Johnson and Dion Waiters this past summer, since those players had signed one-year deals with Miami in 2016.
The Heat technically would have been able to use Non-Bird rights to go over the cap to sign Johnson and Waiters, but because their 2016/17 salaries were only about $4MM and $3MM, respectively, the club’s ability to offer raises using the Non-Bird exception was extremely limited — 120% of Johnson’s previous salary was just $4.8MM, which wouldn’t have been a competitive offer. In order to get up to the $14MM and $11MM respective starting salaries that Johnson and Waiters received on their new contracts, Miami had to use cap space.
Holding Non-Bird rights on their top free agents didn’t help the Heat, but there are cases in which the exception proves useful. Nene, for example, signed a three-year, $10.95MM deal with the Rockets this offseason using his Non-Bird rights. Nene had initially signed a one-year, $2,898,000 contract with Houston in 2016, so the Non-Bird exception allowed the team to give him 120% of that amount ($3,477,600) in the first year of his new contract, without having to dip into the mid-level or bi-annual exception.
Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.
Earlier versions of this post were published in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 by Luke Adams and Chuck Myron.
Community Shootaround: DeAndre Jordan
A disastrous November got even rougher for the Clippers today with the news that Patrick Beverley will miss the rest of the season after undergoing knee surgery.
Beverley’s return Monday after missing five games was supposed to help L.A. right its ship. Instead, doctors determined that he needed surgery for a microfracture and a meniscus injury. His rehab is expected to take nine months.
With fellow opening-night backcourt starter Milos Teodosic sidelined indefinitely with a plantar fascia injury to his left foot and Danilo Gallinari out with a strained left glute, the Clippers have cratered. They entered tonight’s game with a nine-game losing streak and a 5-11 record.
Amid all this misery comes a report from Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post that several teams have made inquiries about center DeAndre Jordan. The 10-year veteran remains one of the league’s best rebounders and shot blockers, but there’s no guarantee his future will be in L.A. Jordan has a player option for next season worth nearly $24.12MM and could be tempted to test the market come July.
Jordan’s decision will go a long way in shaping the future of the franchise. The Clippers could have roughly $40MM in cap space next summer if Jordan, Teodosic, Austin Rivers and Wesley Johnson all opt out, or they could be well above the cap if everyone opts in. Beverley’s salary of slightly more than $5MM for 2018/19 is non-guaranteed, so it’s not certain that the team will bring him back.
The Clippers could wait for Jordan to determine their fate or they could make that decision themselves with a trade. L.A. is only two games out of a playoff spot, but it’s hard to envision a quick turnaround with Beverley already lost for the season and the other injuries continuing to linger.
What do you think? Should the Clippers try to trade Jordan now and get some young talent to rebuild around Blake Griffin or should they hold onto him and the other veterans and hope to turn the season around? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
An Early Look At Five 2018/19 Player Options
Back in 2016, player option decisions were essentially mere formalities. With the NBA salary cap set to spike, nearly every veteran with a player option on his contract decided to opt out and explore the free agent market. Only three players – Tim Duncan, Mo Williams, and Caron Butler – exercised their player options that year, and none of those players have appeared in the NBA since then.
The market shifted a little in 2017, as five players picked up their player options, and several other players perhaps should have. Dante Cunningham, Rudy Gay, Aron Baynes, and Nick Young are among the players earning less this season than they would have if they’d exercised their options, and David Lee opted out of his deal only to announce his retirement a few months later.
The NBA’s salary cap continues to increase, but it’s no longer jumping at nearly the same rate it was in 2016, which means veterans holding player options for 2018 may be less inclined to explore the market — there simply aren’t as many teams willing to throw money around.
A look at the list of player options for 2018/19 reveals several options that will likely be picked up. For instance, Wesley Matthews ($18.6MM), Darrell Arthur ($7.5MM), Wesley Johnson ($6.1MM), Jason Smith ($5.5MM), and Ron Baker ($4.5MM) are unlikely to find offers on the open market that are more lucrative than their option salaries. Of course, there are also still plenty of options that will be quickly declined — the odds of Paul George exercising his $20.7MM player option are slim.
Somewhere in between those two extremes, there are several 2018/19 player option decisions that remain unclear. These players may be leaning one way or the other right now, but the decision isn’t so obvious that it should be considered a lock quite yet. Here are five of those player option decisions worth keeping an eye on this season:
Carmelo Anthony, Thunder ($27,928,140): The Thunder’s new-look roster has been dubbed a one-year experiment, but even if things go south in Oklahoma City this season, there’s little reason not to expect two of the team’s “Big Three” players back next year. Russell Westbrook is on a long-term extension, and Anthony’s $27.9MM option is probably too lucrative to pass up, considering he’s 33 years old and is seeing his production decline. If the season goes really poorly for the Thunder, maybe Anthony opts out just to get a change of scenery, but at this point, I’d count on him opting in.- Jeremy Lin, Nets ($12,516,746): After an injury-plagued 2016/17 season in which he appeared in just 36 contests, Lin had high hopes for the 2017/18 campaign. However, he didn’t even make it through a single game this year, rupturing his patellar tendon in the Nets’ opener. When Lin is healthy, he’s a dynamic point guard who could command a solid long-term deal. But he’ll be 30 next summer and will be coming off a major injury. It might make sense to just play it safe and opt in for one more year in Brooklyn.
- Wilson Chandler, Nuggets ($12,800,562): Chandler has been a Nugget since 2011, making him the team’s longest-tenured player, but it has been a bumpy ride at times. Although Chandler has averaged between 30.9 and 31.7 minutes per contest in every season since 2013/14, he hasn’t always been happy with his role over the years, with a report back in February suggesting he was hoping for a trade. Chandler has struggled this season, and his three-point efficiency has been on the decline, but if he can bounce back, he’d be an appealing free agent target for teams in need of a wing with some size or a small-ball power forward. He probably wouldn’t earn more than $12.8MM per year, but he should be able to exceed that figure in terms of total salary.
- Cory Joseph, Pacers ($7,945,000): Long regarded as one of the NBA’s top backup point guards, Joseph’s numbers in Toronto and now Indiana have been fairly modest. Still, it might make sense for him to pass up an $8MM salary in search of a larger payday and perhaps a chance to earn a slightly larger role. An improved outside shot figures to make Joseph more appealing to potential suitors — in his first five NBA seasons, he made just 29.4% of his three-point attempts, but he has increased that mark to 38.5% since the start of the 2016/17 season.
- Enes Kanter, Knicks ($18,622,514): Kanter’s option decision was considered so obvious that his probable opt-in was reported back in August, with his decision deadline still 10 months away. Has his strong play in New York changed that? Probably not. Despite averaging a double-double with 13.8 PPG and 10.6 RPG so far, Kanter remains an average defender at best, and big men who don’t either protect the rim or shoot three-pointers have limited upside in free agency. Although the future for Kanter looks brighter than it did a few months ago, it’s still hard to imagine him turning down an $18.6MM salary for next season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Hoops Rumors Glossary: Early Bird Rights
Bird rights offer teams the chance to sign their own free agents without regard to the salary cap, but they don’t apply to every player. Other salary cap exceptions are available for teams to keep players who don’t qualify for Bird rights. One such exception is the Early Bird, which applies to players formally known as Early Qualifying Veteran Free Agents.
The Bird exception is for players who have spent three seasons with one club without changing teams as a free agent, but Early Bird rights are earned after just two such seasons. Virtually all of the same rules that apply to Bird rights apply to Early Bird rights, with the requirements condensed to two years rather than three. Players still see their Bird clocks restart by changing teams via free agency, being claimed in an expansion draft, or having their rights renounced.
The crucial difference between Bird rights and Early Bird rights involves the limitations on contract offers. Bird players can receive maximum-salary deals for up to five years, while the most a team can offer an Early Bird free agent without using cap space is 175% of his previous salary or 105% of the league-average salary in the previous season, whichever is greater. These offers are also capped at four years rather than five, and the new contracts must run for at least two years (with no second-year options).
Kevin Durant (Warriors), Patrick McCaw (Warriors), and Seth Curry (Mavericks) are among the notable free agents who will have Early Bird rights at the end of the 2017/18 season. In Durant’s case, the Warriors would be able to offer 175% of his current $25MM salary using Early Bird rights, though the team’s offer can’t exceed the maximum salary. Durant’s max salary projects to be just over $35MM, comfortably within the Early Bird limit. However, he would only be able to sign a four-year contract rather than a five-year deal, since he won’t have full Bird rights.
In some instances, teams can benefit from having Early Bird rights instead of full Bird rights if they’re trying to preserve cap space. The cap hold for an Early Bird player is 130% of his previous salary, significantly less than most Bird players, whose cap holds range from 150-300% of their previous salaries.
That helps the Mavericks, since the cap hold for Curry, who is earning just over $3MM this season, will only be about $4MM. If the Mavs reach an agreement to re-sign Curry next July, they could hold off on making it official, keeping his modest cap holds on the books until they use the rest of their cap room. Then they could go over the cap to finalize Curry’s deal using the Early Bird exception.
As for McCaw, he’ll be subject to a special wrinkle involving Early Bird rights, called the Gilbert Arenas Provision, which applies to players who’ve only been in the league for one or two years. We cover the Gilbert Arenas Provision in a separate glossary entry (that glossary entry will soon be updated to reflect changes made in the 2017 CBA, but most of the basic details remain the same).
Finally, one more distinction between Bird rights and Early Bird rights applies to waivers. Players who are claimed off waivers retain their Early Bird rights, just as they would if they were traded. Those who had Bird rights instead see those reduced to Early Bird rights if they’re claimed off waivers. This rule stems from a 2012 settlement between the league and the union in which J.J. Hickson was given a special exception and retained his full Bird rights for the summer of 2012 even though he had been claimed off waivers that March.
Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.
Earlier versions of this post were published in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 by Luke Adams and Chuck Myron.