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Hoops Rumors Originals: 6/24/17 – 6/30/17

June 30th, 2017 at 11:59pm CST by Joshua Fischman

Every week, the Hoops Rumors writing team compiles original content to complement our news feed. Here are some of our favorite segments and features from the past seven days:

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2017 Qualifying Offers Recap

June 30th, 2017 at 9:07pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Players eligible for restricted free agency don’t become restricted free agents simply by default. In order for a team to make a player a restricted free agent, a qualifying offer must be extended to him. The qualifying offer, which is essentially just a one-year contract offer, varies in amount depending on a player’s service time and previous contract status. A qualifying offer is designed to give a player’s current team the right of first refusal. Because the qualifying offer acts as the first formal contract offer a free agent receives, his team then receives the option to match any offer sheet the player signs with another club. You can read more about qualifying offers here.

If a player is not tendered a qualifying offer, he becomes an unrestricted free agent and is free to sign with any team that were to come calling with his previous squad unable to prevent such a transaction. Listed below is the complete list of players who were eligible to receive qualifying offers this season and whether or not one was tendered. Players are listed in alphabetical order by category:

Players Receiving Qualifying Offers

Players Not Receiving Qualifying Offers

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Top 50 NBA Free Agents Of 2017

June 30th, 2017 at 9:47am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s new league year will officially begin on Saturday at 12:01 am eastern time, and while this year’s free agent period may not be as wild as last year’s, when the salary cap jumped by $24MM, there are several teams with the ability to splash around this July, and several players worth significant investments.

Listed below are our top 50 free agents for the 2017/18 NBA season. The players on this list will definitely become free agents on July 1 (or are free agents already), which is why we haven’t included any players who may remain under their current contracts. Rajon Rondo, for instance, is considered likely to be waived, but could still be traded or retained, so he’s on our list.

Our rankings take into account both a player’s short-term and long-term value. If we were to consider solely a player’s worth for the 2017/18 season, veterans like Dirk Nowitzki and Pau Gasol would likely place higher, while younger free agents with upside, such as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Nerlens Noel would be ranked a little lower.

In addition to the 50 players listed below, there are plenty of other notable free agents available this summer. You can check out our breakdowns of free agents by position/type and by team for the full picture.

Here are our top 50 free agents of 2017:

1. Kevin Durant, F (Warriors)"<strong
2. Stephen Curry, G (Warriors)
Durant and Curry stand on their own above the rest of 2017’s free agent class. They’re both former MVPs. They’re both members of the NBA champion Warriors. And they’re both not going anywhere this summer. The NBA offseason is unpredictable, and anything could happen once the new league year opens on Saturday and Durant and Curry officially become free agents. But the expectation is that the duo will have no desire to talk to any team besides Golden State. Because the Warriors hold Curry’s Bird rights, he’s expected to get a five-year deal worth the max ($200MM+) if he wants it, while Durant will likely sign a shorter-term pact, possibly worth a little less than the max.

3. Gordon Hayward, F (Jazz)
An effective scorer heading into 2016/17, Hayward elevated his game to another level in his contract year, earning his first All-Star nod and averaging a career-high 21.9 PPG. Hayward contributes on both ends of the floor and is an efficient scorer, with a shooting line of .471/.398/.844 last season — he’s also just 27 years old, meaning his next contract should cover his prime years. Hayward’s choice this summer appears likely to come down to a move to South Beach, a reunion with his former coach Brad Stevens in Boston, or a return to Utah with a rising Jazz team coming off a 51-win season.

4. Blake Griffin, F/C (Clippers)
Griffin had been on track to hit free agency alongside fellow star Clipper Chris Paul, but CP3 unexpectedly opted into the final year of his contract as part of a trade to the Rockets this week, making Griffin’s situation more intriguing. It’s not clear yet if Paul’s departure will make Griffin more or less likely to return to Los Angeles, but it will be interesting to see how high the Clippers and other suitors are willing to go. Griffin is certainly worth a maximum salary offer based on talent alone, but his injury history will make teams proceed with caution — the former first overall pick has averaged just 54 regular season games played over the last three seasons.

Read more

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Breakdown Of Math Behind Rockets’ Trades

June 28th, 2017 at 1:14pm CST by Luke Adams

Earlier today, news broke that the Clippers will be sending Chris Paul to the Rockets in a blockbuster trade, with Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley, and Sam Dekker heading to Los Angeles. However, that trade is not yet official, and can’t be made official based on the terms reported, since it doesn’t meet the NBA’s salary-matching rules.

The Rockets are currently a little below the cap, but Paul’s salary would take them above the cap, with means they’d need to take advantage of the traded player exception to complete the deal. Based on NBA rules, Houston needs to include enough outgoing salary to get within $5MM of Paul’s 2016/17 salary, which is $22,868,827. So, if Paul is willing to waive the 15% trade kicker in his contract, the Rockets’ magic number for outgoing salary is $17,868,827.

Here are the 2016/17 cap numbers for Williams, Beverley, and Dekker:

  • Williams: $7,000,000
  • Beverley: $6,000,000
  • Dekker: $1,720,560
  • Total: $14,720,560

That package leaves the Rockets $3,148,267 short of the outgoing salary required to land Paul before the new league year begins. It’s possible Houston could wait until after July 1 to complete the deal, but the team would need to include even more salary at that point, since CP3 will get a raise, while the total value of the Rockets’ value decreases due to a slight pay cut for Beverley.

The Rockets have reportedly now added Montrezl Harrell and his $1,045,000 salary to their trade package, and have other pieces on their roster that they could include, but the majority of those players are either too valuable to move or don’t earn enough money to make up the difference.

That’s why, as David Aldridge of TNT tweets, the Rockets have been calling teams all over the league in an effort to find non-guaranteed salaries to include in the deal. A “horde” of teams is involved or trying to get involved in those discussions, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (Twitter links), who adds that the Rockets are telling teams they’ve assembled the necessary pieces. Since rosters expand to 20 players in the offseason, roster limits haven’t stopped Houston from adding extra players.

Because the Rockets finished the season about $3.1MM below the cap, the team can acquire players in trade using that cap space. Typically, the CBA restricts teams from trading for a player, then flipping him right away in another deal that aggregates his salary with other salaries. However, that rule doesn’t apply to players acquired using cap room.

Here’s what the Rockets have done so far today:

Liggins, Quarterman, and Kelly all have fully or heavily non-guaranteed salaries for the 2017/18 season, making them ideal trade pieces. If we assume all three of those players – plus the original four Rockets – will be included in the Paul trade, Houston now appears to be just $257,315 away from having enough salary to make the deal work, and the club still has enough cap room left to absorb up to about $1.27MM in salary.

Unless our math is slightly off, it seems the Rockets will need to include one more salary in their trade. If that’s the case, I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear by the end of the day about one last player who will make up that difference. And if Houston is able to include a little more salary than the absolute minimum required, Paul could also potentially hang onto part of his trade bonus.

[Update #1: The Rockets have reportedly agreed to acquire Darrun Hilliard ($874,636) from the Pistons. Houston now has enough players to send out for Paul, though the Clippers don’t have enough roster spots to take them all back, so the Rockets may end up involving a third team in the deal.]

[Update #2: The Rockets have reportedly included Liggins, Hilliard, and Kyle Wiltjer ($543,471) in the trade for Paul, reaching the required outgoing salary threshold without using Quarterman or Kelly.]

Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.

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Notable CBA Changes That Will Affect Free Agency

June 27th, 2017 at 3:20pm CST by Luke Adams

With July 1 just a few days away, the NBA is almost ready to turn the calendar and officially begin the 2017/18 league year. At the same time as the new league year gets underway, the league will also implement its new Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NBA and the players’ union.

For the most part, that CBA looks a lot like the previous CBA. There are very few major changes to the way players can be signed or otherwise acquired by NBA teams. However, the new agreement features several tweaks to existing rules, and many of those small changes will be noticeable once the 2017 free agent period officially opens on Saturday.

Below, we’ve rounded up most of the notable CBA changes that will affect this year’s free agent period. This list isn’t comprehensive. For more details, you can check out the NBA’s recap of key changes to the CBA, or – if you have a bit of a masochistic streak – you can even read the full CBA document. The changes we’ve listed below, however, are the ones that should be most important in the next few weeks.

Let’s dive in…

Salary cap management:

  • The salary cap and tax line for the new league year will be set by June 30. The cap and tax are currently projected to land at $99MM and $119MM, respectively.
  • The July moratorium will end on July 6 at 11:00am CT.
  • The tax apron will now be $6MM above the tax line instead of $4MM above the line. The apron represents a threshold that teams aren’t allowed to cross at any time for the rest of the league year if they’ve used the full mid-level exception or the bi-annual exception, or acquired a player via sign-and-trade.
  • The cap holds for first-round picks are now worth 120% of their rookie scale amounts, instead of 100%, slightly reducing available cap room for teams with first-rounders to consider. Those figures can be found here.

Restricted free agency:

  • Teams will now have two days instead of three days to match an offer sheet.
  • Restricted free agents will be able to formally sign offer sheets during the July moratorium. However, the clock for a player’s previous team to match his offer sheet won’t start until the moratorium ends. If a player signs an offer sheet during the moratorium, the player’s previous team will have until July 8 at 10:59am CT to match the offer.
  • The deadline to withdraw a qualifying offer to a free agent is now July 13, instead of July 23.

Other free agency:

  • Annual raises on new contracts can now be as high as 8% (Bird or Early Bird contracts) or 5% (all other contracts), instead of 7.5% and 4.5%.
  • The amounts of the mid-level, bi-annual, and minimum salary exceptions are increasing significantly. Mid-level and bi-annual figures can be found here, while 2017/18’s minimum salaries can be found right here.
  • The “over-36 rule,” which affected a player who signed a contract that extended beyond his 36th birthday, has been changed to the over-38 rule. This change may be beneficial for players like Chris Paul and Paul Millsap.
  • NBA teams now have the ability to sign a pair of players apiece to two-way contracts. Full details on these new two-way contracts can be found here.
  • Two-way contracts and minimum salary contracts can be officially signed during the July moratorium.

Trades:

  • As of July 1, each team will be able to receive and send $5.1MM in trades for the 2017/18 league year. The limit for 2016/17 was $3.5MM. Cash paid and cash received in trades are two separate entities, meaning a team can’t exceed $5.1MM in cash paid by taking back money in another deal — if a team has paid $5.1MM and received $5.1MM, it can no longer use cash in trades.
  • The traded player exception will now allow non-taxpaying teams to take back up to 175% of the outgoing salary in a simultaneous trade. However, over-the-cap teams still can’t take back more than the outgoing salary plus $5MM for any amount up to $19.8MM, or more than 125% of the outgoing salary for any amount over $19.8MM.

Contract extensions:

  • Veteran players will now be eligible to sign contract extensions if two years have passed since they signed their last veteran contract. Previously, veterans didn’t become extension-eligible until three years had passed since their last signing date.
  • Veterans signing an extension are now eligible for an initial raise of up to 20%, instead of 7.5%.
  • The Designated Veteran Extension will be available for players who met a specific set of criteria related to years of experience, contract history, and All-NBA (or other award) honors. Stephen Curry, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook will be the players to watch for the DVE this summer.
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Community Shootaround: Awards Show

June 26th, 2017 at 6:15pm CST by Dana Gauruder

In past seasons, the winners of all the major NBA awards would have been unveiled weeks ago. The league traditionally announced the biggest awards one-by-one while the playoffs were going on.

The regular season has been over for nearly 2 1/2 months but the league has kept the voting under wraps, except for announcing the finalists for each prize. We’ll finally learn tonight who captured the most votes for Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Most Improved Player along with the biggest individual honor, the Most Valuable Player.

The NBA decided to hold back those announcements this year until after the draft by putting together a two-hour extravaganza on TNT.

All of the awards were based on regular-season performance. The two that hold the most intrigue are the Rookie of the Year and MVP selections. Joel Embiid posted by far the best stats among first-year players but appeared in just 31 games. We’ll find out if that was enough games in the voters’ minds or if his Sixers teammate Dario Saric or the Bucks’ Malcolm Brogdon brings home the hardware. Saric and Brogdon were the only unanimous selections for the All-Rookie Team, which was unveiled earlier today.

Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Kawhi Leonard are the three finalists for MVP but most people expect a tight race between Westbrook and Harden. Westbrook broke Oscar Robertson‘s triple-double record, while Harden put up monster numbers of his own after becoming the primary ballhandler in Mike D’Antoni‘s attack.

This leads us to our question of the day: Do you like the idea of having a postseason awards show following the playoffs or would you prefer that the NBA go back to announcing the major awards during the postseason?

Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to what you have to say.

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NBA Minimum Salaries For 2017/18

June 26th, 2017 at 2:12pm CST by Luke Adams

While some NBA teams will head into free agency with more than enough cap room to add a maximum salary player, others clubs will be totally capped out. However, each of the NBA’s 30 clubs will be on common ground in one respect: No team will be ineligible to sign a player to a minimum salary contract.

Teams with cap room available will have a little more flexibility to sign players to longer-term minimum salary contracts, but over-the-cap clubs will still be able to use the minimum salary exception to add as many players as they want. Unlike other exceptions, such as the mid-level or the bi-annual, the minimum salary exception can be used multiple times, for contracts of up to two years.

[RELATED: Values of 2017/18 mid-level, bi-annual exceptions]

Undrafted free agents and late second-round picks are often recipients of minimum salary contracts, but there are plenty of veterans who end up settling for the minimum too. Of course, because a player’s minimum salary is determined by how much NBA experience he has, many veterans will earn more than twice as much money as a rookie will in 2017/18 on a minimum salary contract.

Listed below are 2017/18’s minimum salary figures, sorted by years of NBA experience. If a player spent any time on an NBA club’s active regular season roster in a given season, he earned one year of experience. So any player with zero years of experience has not yet made his NBA debut.

Here’s the full breakdown:

Years of Experience Salary
0 $815,615
1 $1,312,611
2 $1,471,382
3  $1,524,305
4 $1,577,230
5 $1,709,538
6 $1,841,849
7 $1,974,159
8 $2,106,470
9 $2,116,955
10+ $2,328,652

Because the NBA doesn’t want teams to avoid signing veteran players in favor of cheaper, younger players, the league reimburses clubs who sign veterans with three or more years of experience to one-year, minimum salary contracts. Those deals will only count against the cap – and against a team’s bank balance – for $1,471,382, the minimum salary for a player with two years of experience.

For instance, if David Lee – who has 12 years of NBA experience – signs a one-year, minimum salary contract with a new team, that team would only be charged $1,471,382 for Lee’s contract. He’d earn $2,328,652, but the NBA would make up the difference. This only applies to one-year contracts, rather than multiyear deals.

If a player signs a minimum salary contract after the regular season begins, he’ll earn a pro-rated portion of the amount listed above.

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Values Of 2017/18 Mid-Level, Bi-Annual Exceptions

June 26th, 2017 at 9:29am CST by Luke Adams

The salary cap for the 2017/18 NBA league year won’t be finalized and announced for several more days, which means we’re still relying on the NBA’s $99MM projection when we calculate the value of maximum salary contract or attempt to determine how much cap room teams will have.

[RELATED: NBA Maximum Salary Projections for 2017/18]

However, while some contract figures won’t be finalized until we know where the salary cap ultimately lands for 2017/18, others have already been established. In the case of the mid-level, bi-annual, and room exceptions, the NBA’s latest Collective Bargaining Agreement includes specific figures for the ’17/18 season, so we already know what the values of those exceptions will be next year.

Listed below are the maximum annual and total values of each of these exceptions, along with a brief explanation of how they work and which teams will have access to them.

Mid-Level Exception (Non-Taxpayer):

Year Salary
2017/18 $8,406,000
2018/19 $8,826,300
2019/20 $9,246,600
2020/21 $9,666,900
Total $36,145,800

The non-taxpayer mid-level exception is the primary tool available for over-the-cap teams to add free agents. As long as a team hasn’t dipped below the cap and doesn’t go over the tax apron (currently projected to be $127MM) at all, it can use this MLE, which runs for up to four years with 5% annual raises.

In 2016/17, this exception was only worth up to $5,628,000 in year one, so it will rise in value significantly next season. That makes it a legitimate option to land second- or third-tier free agents who would have required cap room to sign in the past.

Mid-Level Exception (Taxpayer):

Year Salary
2017/18 $5,192,000
2018/19 $5,451,600
2019/20 $5,711,200
Total $16,354,800

If an over-the-cap team currently projects to be a taxpayer, or expects to move into tax territory later in the 2017/18 season, it will have access to this smaller mid-level exception for taxpaying teams. If a team uses more than $5.192MM of its mid-level exception, it is forbidden from surpassing the tax apron (projected at $127MM) at any time during the league year. So even if a team isn’t above the apron when it uses its MLE, it might make sense to play it safe by avoiding using the full MLE and imposing a hard cap.

In 2016/17, the taxpayer mid-level exception – which was only used by the Cavs – was worth $3,477,000. The taxpayer MLE can be used to sign a player for up to three years, with 5% annual raises.

Room Exception:

Year Salary
2017/18 $4,328,000
2018/19 $4,544,400
Total $8,872,400

Although this is also a mid-level exception of sorts, it’s colloquially known as the “room” exception, since it’s only available to teams that have used cap room. If a club goes under the cap, it loses its full mid-level exception, but gets this smaller room exception, which allows the team to go over the cap to sign a player, once the team has used up all its cap space.

In 2016/17, this exception was worth $2,898,000, and resulted in some valuable signings, including Seth Curry (Mavericks), Dion Waiters (Heat), Zaza Pachulia (Warriors), and Nene (Rockets). It can be used to sign players for up to two years, with a 5% raise for the second season.

Bi-Annual Exception:

Year Salary
2017/18 $3,290,000
2018/19 $3,454,500
Total $6,744,500

The bi-annual exception, as its name suggests, is only available to teams once every two years. Of the NBA’s 30 clubs, only the Clippers used it in 2016/17, signing Luc Mbah a Moute to a deal that started at $2,203,000. That means the league’s other 29 teams could theoretically use it this season.

Still, even if a team didn’t use its BAE in ’16/17, that club doesn’t necessarily have access to it for the coming year. As is the case with the non-taxpayer MLE, this exception disappears once a team goes under the cap. It’s also not available to teams over the tax apron — using the BAE creates a hard cap at the apron.

The BAE can be used to sign players for up to two years, with a 5% raise after year one.

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Weekly Mailbag: 6/19/17 – 6/25/17

June 25th, 2017 at 4:01pm CST by Arthur Hill

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. Here are this week’s inquiries:

What happens to LaMarcus Aldridge? — Terrance, via Twitter

Words like “unhappy” and “frustrated” were used this week to describe Aldridge, who signed with San Antonio two years ago in hopes of winning a title, but now appears to be looking for a way out of town. The Spurs made some calls ahead of the draft to see if they could land a top 10 pick in exchange for Aldridge, but came away empty. That’s not surprising, as lottery teams in the midst of rebuilding don’t have much need for a 31-year-old who might be a short-term rental. If San Antonio can get a commitment from Chris Paul, look for Aldridge and his $21.46MM contract to be shipped somewhere, along with a generous sweetener, to clear cap room. More likely, he spends another unhappy season with the Spurs, then opts out next summer.

Who will Gordon Hayward sign with? — Peter Chiu, via Twitter

The Celtics and Heat are the top threats to the Jazz. Boston offers an instant contender, along with a reunion with his college coach, Brad Stevens. Miami has a clear need at small forward, a history of swinging for the fences in free agency and no state income tax, which lessen’s Utah’s financial advantage. It’s going to be interesting to watch how many big-name free agents leave the Western Conference over the next few years if the Warriors continue to dominate. Hayward might lean that way, but he reportedly likes the security of a five-year deal that only the Jazz can offer. The best guess is he stays in Utah.

The Timberwolves were clearly the draft day winners with the acquisition of Jimmy Butler. With Butler in the fold, is Minnesota a legitimate free agent destination? If so, what are some potential free agent targets to complement the trio of Butler, Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins? — Matt Trapp

The Wolves plan to pursue point guards, with Kyle Lowry as the top choice, followed by Jrue Holiday, Jeff Teague and George Hill. Lowry will demand a maximum deal for sure, and the others will be at least close. Minnesota needs to shed roughly $10MM in salary to be able to afford that, and the obvious candidate is Ricky Rubio, who will make $14.25MM next season. If they can’t find a taker for Rubio and don’t want to part with Gorgui Dieng, the Wolves will have to find someone willing to deal for Cole Aldrich ($7.3MM) and Jordan Hill (a little more than $4M).

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Five Key Offseason Questions: Golden State Warriors

June 25th, 2017 at 1:38pm CST by Luke Adams

The Warriors set a new NBA record by winning 73 regular-season games in 2015/16, but 2016/17 was truly their scorched-earth season. Golden State kicked off the NBA’s new league year last summer by landing Kevin Durant, the top free agent on the market, then cruised to a 67-win regular season and turned it up another notch in the playoffs — the Dubs won 16 of 17 postseason contests en route to their second title in three years.

In the wake of the Warriors’ NBA Finals win over the Cavaliers, NBA observers fretted over Golden State’s dominance, wondering if it’s even worth it for 80% of the league’s teams to make win-now moves this summer. That means this offseason should be a cakewalk for the Warriors, right? Well… maybe not. Although they don’t expect to lose any stars, the Dubs only have five players under contract heading into July, so there’s still plenty of work to do.

Here are five key questions facing the Warriors this offseason:

1. Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant will definitely be back, right?Stephen Curry Kevin Durant vertical

Yes. As fun it would be to have either of these guys lining up a handful of free agent meetings like Durant did last July, they’re not going anywhere. Both former MVPs will technically become unrestricted free agents on July 1, but they’ll quickly come to terms on new deals with the Warriors. It’s just a matter of figuring out what those new agreements will look like.

For Curry, who is eligible for a Designated Veteran Extension, there’s no reason to think that the Warriors will offer him any less than the full super-max, which currently projects to pay him just over $200MM for five years. The two-time MVP has been one of the NBA’s best bargains on his current four-year, $44MM contract, and the Warriors won’t gain any additional cap flexibility by asking him to accept less than the max.

Durant’s case is a little trickier, but it sounds like he’s willing to settle for less than a maximum salary contract in 2017/18. A true max for Durant is currently projected to be worth $34.5MM next season, but the Warriors would have to create cap room to make such a deal work. By signing another short-term deal and settling instead for about $31.85MM, a 20% raise on last year’s salary, the 28-year-old would let the Warriors to stay over the cap. That would allow the team to hang onto its Bird rights for key contributors like Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston.

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