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Tracking Last Season’s 10-Day Signees

December 22nd, 2015 at 3:45pm CST by Chuck Myron

NBA teams can start signing players to 10-day contracts again two weeks from today. We’ll be keeping tabs on them all with our 10-Day Contract Tracker, which includes data beginning with the 2006/07 season. We also occasionally look at where previous 10-day signees ended up, and much has changed since we made our last check in August.

News regarding one of last season’s 10-day signees surfaced just today, with Jarell Eddie, who signed his 10-day with the Hawks, reportedly set to ink with the Wizards on a non-guaranteed contract. He’s about to join a dozen others currently on NBA rosters among the 48 players who signed 10-day deals last season. Eight of them are still with the teams that signed them to their 10-day pacts, including Lance Thomas of the Knicks, who matched a career high with 24 points against the Magic on Monday.

Here’s a look at all 48 and their current whereabouts:

  • Lou Amundson, Knicks — He re-signed with the Knicks this summer after the expiration of the deal he’d signed for the rest of last season on the heels of his pair of 10-day pacts.
  • Earl Barron, Suns — Barron is a free agent following a training camp stint with the Hawks.
  • Michael Beasley, Heat — Beasley signed with China’s Shandong.
  • Jerrelle Benimon, Jazz — Another China signee, Benimon pulled out of a commitment with the Cavs to join the Foshan Long Lions.
  • Sim Bhullar, Kings — Bhullar is playing with the Raptors D-League affiliate.
  • Jabari Brown, Lakers — Brown is a teammate of Benimon’s on the Foshan Long Lions in China, joining the team after the Lakers let him go at the end of the preseason.
  • Lorenzo Brown, Timberwolves — He lingered with the Wolves until the end of the preseason, then joined the Pistons D-League affiliate.
  • Dwight Buycks, Lakers — Buycks is in China, playing for Fujian.
  • Will Bynum, Wizards — The point guard signed this summer with China’s Guangdong Southern Tigers.
  • Earl Clark, Nets — Clark is with the Suns affiliate in the D-League.
  • Jack Cooley, Jazz — Cooley spent time in the preseason with both the Jazz and the Cavs, joined the Jazz D-League affiliate and most recently jumped to Spain’s Unicaja Malaga.
  • Bryce Cotton, Jazz — He’s with the Suns.
  • Seth Curry, Suns — He’s with the Kings.
  • Andre Dawkins, Celtics — Signed with Italy’s Auxilium CUS Torino.
  • Austin Daye, Hawks — Signed with Italy’s Victoria Libertas Pesaro
  • Toney Douglas, Pelicans — He’s with the Pelicans.
  • Larry Drew II — Signed with AS Monaco Basket of France.
  • Jarell Eddie, Hawks — Eddie is reportedly poised to sign with the Wizards.
  • Tim Frazier, Sixers — He’s with the Trail Blazers
  • Langston Galloway, Knicks — He’s still with the Knicks on the contract he signed following his pair of 10-day deals.
  • JaMychal Green, Spurs, Grizzlies — He’s still with the Grizzlies on the contract he signed following his pair of 10-day deals.
  • Jorge Gutierrez, Bucks — He joined the Cavs D-League affiliate after lasting with Milwaukee into the preseason.
  • Jordan Hamilton, Clippers — He’s a free agent after leaving Russia’s Krasny Oktyabr last month.
  • Lester Hudson, Clippers — Rejoined Liaoning of China and signed an extension that runs until 2018.
  • Bernard James, Mavericks — Signed with the Shanghai Sharks of China.
  • Dahntay Jones, Clippers — Jones is playing for the D-League affiliate of the Pistons after having spent preseason with the Nets.
  • Chris Johnson, Bucks, Jazz — He’s still with the Jazz on the contract he signed following his 10-day deal.
  • Tyler Johnson, Heat — He’s still with the Heat on the contract he signed following his pair of 10-day deals.
  • Sean Kilpatrick, Timberwolves — Kilpatrick joined the D-League affiliate of the Sixers after a preseason stint with the Pelicans.
  • Ricky Ledo, Knicks — Playing for the Kings D-League affiliate.
  • John Lucas III, Pistons — Lucas is a free agent following a preseason stint with the Heat.
  • Jerel McNeal, Suns —  Signed to play for Aris Thessaloniki of Greece.
  • James Michael McAdoo, Warriors — He’s still with the Warriors on the contract he signed following his pair of 10-day deals.
  • Toure’ Murry, Wizards — He joined the D-League affiliate of the Mavs after spending preseason with the Wizards, but the Jazz have reportedly thought about signing him.
  • Kenyon Martin, Bucks — The 37-year-old announced his retirement in July.
  • Quincy Miller, Kings, Pistons — Signed to play in Serbia with Red Star Belgrade after spending the preseason with the Nets.
  • Elijah Millsap, Jazz — He’s still with the Jazz on the contract he signed following his pair of 10-day deals.
  • A.J. Price, Suns — Signed in China with the Shanghai Sharks, where he’s a teammate of fellow former NBA 10-day signee Bernard James.
  • Miroslav Raduljica, Timberwolves — Signed with Panathinaikos of Greece on a deal that includes an NBA out.
  • Nate Robinson, Clippers — Robinson is a free agent after the Pelicans waived him early this season.
  • David Stockton, Kings — Joined the D-League affiliate of the Kings after Sacramento let him go in the preseason.
  • Lance Thomas, Knicks — He re-signed with the Knicks this summer after the expiration of the deal he’d signed for the rest of last season on the heels of his pair of 10-day pacts.
  • Tyrus Thomas, Grizzlies — Signed with Eisbären Bremerhaven of Germany.
  • Henry Walker, Heat —Signed with Cedevita Zagreb of Croatia after a would-be deal with the Amerileague fell through.
  • David Wear, Kings — Signed with Fuenlabrada of Spain.
  • Elliot Williams, Jazz, Hornets, Pelicans — Joined the Warriors D-League affiliate after a preseason stint with Hornets.
  • Reggie Williams, Spurs — He’s been a free agent since the Spurs cut him at the end of the preseason.
  • Nate Wolters, Pelicans — Signed with Besiktas of Turkey.
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The Josh Smith Waiver: One Year Later

December 22nd, 2015 at 10:15am CST by Chuck Myron

The Pistons stunned the NBA a year ago today when they waived Josh Smith less than a year and a half after signing him to a four-year, $54MM contract. It wasn’t altogether surprising in a basketball sense, as Smith, Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond represented an antiquated jumbo frontcourt that ran counter to the league’s prevailing small-ball philosophy, but no one would have guessed the team would have taken such a measure because of the amount of money owed to Smith. The stretch provision helps ease that burden, or at least makes it more manageable on a year-to-year basis, but it also means the Pistons will be paying Smith through the year 2020.

We’re looking back at Smith’s release one year after it happened to see how it affected the Pistons, Smith, and the leaguewide use of the stretch provision:

The effect on the Pistons:

Stan Van Gundy, little more than seven months into his first job as an NBA front office executive, pulled off a remarkably bold maneuver, and the results have proven it a wise move. It didn’t take too long for many to anoint Van Gundy a genius as the Pistons, 5-23 when they released Smith, immediately ripped off seven straight wins. They won 12 of their first 15 games after the move, but Brandon Jennings suffered a torn Achilles tendon in their next outing, and they went only 15-24 the rest of the way. The Jennings injury goaded the Pistons into trading for Reggie Jackson, though the merits of that deal, and the subsequent five-year, $80MM free agent contract the Pistons bestowed upon him this past summer, are only indirectly related to Smith.

The Smith move, and specifically the use of the stretch provision to spread his salary, had a much more attributable effect on the team’s trades for Ersan Ilyasova and Marcus Morris and signing of Aron Baynes. Each of those acquisitions required a sizable chunk of cap space, aided by the extra $8.1MM in flexibility the absence of Smith afforded them. Morris, a former lottery pick, is averaging career highs in points, rebounds and assists in his first season as a full-time starter. Ilyasova is the starting power forward and nailing an un-Smith-like 37.3% of his 3-point attempts. Baynes is the backup center and has helped offset the loss of Monroe. Jettisoning Smith didn’t keep Monroe from bolting Detroit in free agency this past summer, but it became apparent last season that almost nothing could. The departures of Smith and Monroe allow the Pistons to embody Van Gundy’s four-out, one-in philosophy, and the team’s 16-12 start represents its best 28-game record since the 2008/09 season, which is also the last time Detroit made the playoffs.

The effect on Josh Smith:

No one was going to claim Smith’s outsized contract off waivers, but once he cleared, he already had a destination lined up, having chosen to sign with former AAU teammate Dwight Howard and the Rockets for the full value of the $2.077MM biannual exception, an amount only marginally above the minimum salary. Of course, Smith didn’t have much choice, since most teams don’t carry cap space into the season, and the money only went on top of what the Pistons still owed him, minus a small amount Detroit recouped via set-off rights. Smith accepted a backup role in Houston, where the Rockets decided to use him mostly at power forward and occasionally as a small-ball center, rather than shoehorn him into small forward, where the Pistons often played him and where he no longer fits in the modern game. He shot more 3-pointers per contest in Houston’s perimeter-oriented offense, but he made a respectable 33.0% of them in the regular season and a proficient 38.0% in the playoffs. It all appeared to click as Smith and the Rockets made it to the Western Conference Finals, and they reportedly had mutual interest in a new deal.

However, the Rockets decided to stay above the cap this past summer, sharply limiting their financial flexibility with Smith, on whom they had only Non-Bird rights. That left them without much ammo to hold off the Clippers, whom Smith found attractive enough to sign with for only the minimum salary. He drew ridicule for overstating the gravity of the monetary sacrifice, but it was nonetheless a deal below market value and one that cost the Pistons a greater return on their continuing obligation to him via set off. In any case, the move hasn’t paid off for either Smith or the Clippers, as he’s averaging career lows in points and minutes per game and has regressed to 31.5% 3-point shooting. The team reportedly gauged the interest that other clubs have in trading for him, though coach/executive Doc Rivers denied doing so. It’s getting worse, though. The 6’9″ Smith, whom the Clippers are using primarily as the backup to DeAndre Jordan at center, took a DNP-CD on Monday, and Rivers indicated that he’ll keep Cole Aldrich as the backup center instead of Smith going forward, as Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times notes (All Twitter links).

The effect on the stretch provision:

The conventional wisdom would hold that given the revival of the Pistons and the struggles of Smith, more teams would see fit to use the stretch provision, even if they don’t use it in such drastic circumstances. That remains to be seen going forward, but in the year since the Smith waiver, teams have appeared more hesitant to use the stretch provision, at least as measured by the activity around August 31st, a key deadline. That’s the last day that salary for the upcoming season may be spread out. The fact that the Pistons waived Smith after August 31st last year is why his full salary — minus the set off amount — counted against the cap last season. Teams used the stretch provision on four players at the end of August 2014, but it didn’t come into play at all as the deadline approached in August 2015. Still, it’s conceivable that Detroit’s use of the stretch provision inspired the Bucks to do the same with the money they still owed Larry Sanders, who gave up $21,935,296 of his $44MM extension in a February buyout. The length of Sanders’ deal was such that the Bucks were able to cut their obligation to him into $1,865,546 segments they’re set to pay each year for seven years after giving him $9,005,882 last season.

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Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround: 12/21/15

December 21st, 2015 at 11:00pm CST by Dana Gauruder

In any game that involves DeAndre Jordan, Andre Drummond or Dwight Howard, the threat is always there. No, we’re not talking about those centers posting a 20-20 game. We’re talking about opposing coaches employing the “Hack-A-Dre” or “Hack-A-Dwight” strategy.

The tactic is occasionally used as a means to play catchup. Drummond and Jordan are the league’s worst free throw shooters, with both under 40%. Howard is making his free throws at a 51.8% rate, fourth worst among all qualifiers.

Last season’s otherwise highly entertaining Western Conference playoffs sometimes slowed to a crawl, with Jordan and Howard being grabbed off the ball for multiple possessions. That led to a fierce debate about whether the league should change its rules regarding intentional fouls off the ball.

Currently, teams can employ the tactic of sending a poor free throw shooter to the line during the first 10 minutes of a quarter. After that, it results in not only free throws but also possession.

Last week, Clippers coach Doc Rivers not only employed the “Hack-A-Dwight” tactic but also intentionally fouled his frontcourt partner Clint Capela. We’ve also seen the strategy used against the league’s poorest foul-shooting guard, Rajon Rondo.

The argument to change the rule is to preserve the entertainment value of the game. No one buys a ticket to see a bad free throw shooter go to the line 15-20 times.

Those in the favor of the status quo believe it’s up to the poor free throw shooters to improve their game, so that opposing coaches won’t be so eager to order their players to foul them.

This leads us to our question of the day: Should the league change the rules regarding intentional fouls off the ball in order to remove “Hack-A” tactics?

Please take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the subject. We look forward to what you have to say.

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Few Teams Carry Cap Space Into Trade Season

December 21st, 2015 at 5:33pm CST by Chuck Myron

The vast majority of NBA teams operate above the salary cap during the regular season each year, and this season is no different. Only four teams currently have space beneath the $70MM cap, and only three of them have any truly significant amount. Those teams have advantages on the rest of the league, not the least of which is the ability to trade for players without having to match salaries.

The Trail Blazers, who lead the league with more than $20MM in cap space, can trade for David Lee, whom the Celtics are reportedly making available, without relinquishing any salary in return. No other team in the NBA has enough cap space or a trade exception large enough to do that, given Lee’s salary of nearly $15.494MM. The Sixers, Jazz and Nuggets would have to match salaries for Lee, since trading for him straight up would take them over the cap.

Here’s a quick glance at each team with cap space, along with a look at the additional space they can open if they release players on non-guaranteed deals. Note that players with non-guaranteed deals account for a prorated cap hit if they’re waived midseason, so each team’s precise amount of cap flexibility changes daily.

  • Trail Blazers — Portland has $20.625MM in cap space, with the flexibility to open up about $1.071MM more if they waive the non-guaranteed contract of Tim Frazier and the partially guaranteed contracts of Cliff Alexander and Luis Montero.
  • Sixers — Philadelphia has about $10.838MM in cap space, with the flexibility to open up about $2.077MM more if they waive the non-guaranteed contracts of Robert Covington, Hollis Thompson, JaKarr Sampson, Christian Wood and T.J. McConnell. (They can only waive as many as four of them, since the NBA doesn’t allow rosters to shrink beyond 11 at any point during the regular season. That fact is reflected in the amount of additional cap flexibility calculated here.)
  • Jazz — Utah has about $7.264MM in cap space, with the flexibility to open up about $1.66MM more if they waive the non-guaranteed contracts of Chris Johnson, Jeff Withey and Elijah Millsap.
  • Nuggets — Denver has about $1.384MM in cap space, with the flexibility to open up about $450K more if they waive Kostas Papanikolaou‘s partially guaranteed deal.

One more team is above the cap but has the flexibility to sneak below it. The Magic have a payroll of less than $70MM, but because they claim a trade exception worth nearly $1.6MM, slightly more than their $1.54MM margin beneath $70MM, they’re an over-the-cap team. They could renounce the exception at any time and dip below the cap by that approximately $1.54MM figure, however.

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Where Are They Now?: Ex-Sixers From Hinkie Era

December 21st, 2015 at 2:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

Sixers GM Sam Hinkie likes to point to Robert Covington, whom the team signed in mid-November last year, as symbolic of the value in trolling the fringes of the NBA’s talent pool for overlooked talent. The team has had other successes, notably with camp invitee T.J. McConnell, but it’s taken a lot of work to sort through the chaff. A whopping 45 players are no longer with the Sixers after having appeared on their regular season roster at some point since the team hired Hinkie in May 2013, and only 16 of them, barely more than a third, are still in the NBA. Eleven of the 45 are playing overseas, 10 are in the D-League, six are free agents and two have announced their retirements.

Hinkie inherited Lavoy Allen, Spencer Hawes, Evan Turner and Thaddeus Young, so if you discount them, he’s cycled a dozen current NBA players through his regular season roster. A few, like former Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams and Ish Smith, have played prominent roles for other NBA teams this season, but none is approaching stardom.

This list of ex-Sixers who’ve appeared on the team’s regular season roster during Hinkie’s tenure includes players who never actually suited up for the team, like Andrei Kirilenko, but it doesn’t include camp invitees or players who passed through the team’s hands during the offseason. Still, it demonstrates the volume of moves the team has made and the lack of eye-popping names involved. Their current whereabouts are noted, with bold text marking those still in the NBA:

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Length Of Minimum Deals Key To Trade Feasibility

December 21st, 2015 at 9:59am CST by Chuck Myron

NBA teams have incentive to sign minimum salary players to contracts of at least three years when they can, as I’ve examined in the past. The investment of the cap space or the exception money necessary to do so can pay off when a player exceeds expectations. That keeps him under a bargain contract for a longer period of time than the two years, at most, allowed under the minimum salary exception. Still, those longer contracts come with a catch, since they’re often harder to trade.

Teams over the cap that trade for players on one- or two-year minimum salary deals don’t have to count them toward the amount of incoming salary in the deal, thus lowering the amount of salary they must relinquish in return. Let’s say a non-taxpaying, capped-out team wants to trade a player making $10MM in exchange for a player making $14.5MM and another player on a two-year, minimum salary contract with a salary of $947,276 for this season. Such a deal would be kosher, since the team can slip the player on the minimum salary deal into the minimum salary exception. That allows the team to count only the $14.5MM as incoming salary, which is less than the extra $5MM of salary the team is allowed to accept in return for the player making $10MM.

Now, let’s say the player with the minimum salary contract is on a three-year deal instead of a two-year deal. The same trade wouldn’t work, because the $947,276 would count as incoming salary and be added to the $14.5MM, pushing the total past the $5MM matching range.

Nearly half the teams in the league have at least one player on a minimum salary contract of more than two years. It’s no surprise that the Sixers lead in this category with six, since under GM Sam Hinkie, they’ve consistently pursued a strategy of signing prospects to long-term deals. The Grizzlies have the next most, with three, though they and the Heat found a way around this issue when they each sent out a player making the minimum salary on a three-year contract, with Jarnell Stokes going to Miami and James Ennis to Memphis, to make the Mario Chalmers trade function. The Kings managed to trade Ray McCallum and his three-year deal to the Spurs this summer because San Antonio was under the cap and thus able to accept him without sending anyone in return.

It’ll be difficult for the Cavaliers to pull off a similar maneuver with Joe Harris. Cleveland, with an eye on shedding salary, has reportedly made Harris available. He’s making the minimum in year two of a three-year deal, so they could only send Harris out for no salary in return to a team with cap space or a trade exception. That wouldn’t be the case if the Cavs had signed Harris to only a two-year deal for the minimum. If that were so, the Cavs could trade him for no salary in return to any team in the league, since whoever would take him in could do so via the minimum salary exception.

Such a scenario would have also required the Cavs to have paid Harris only the minimum last year, when he made nearly $400K more than that. It’s common for teams to sign recent second-round draftees to deals that cover three or four years and feature an above-minimum salary in year one and the minimum salary thereafter. Even if those contracts covered only two years, they couldn’t be done with the minimum salary exception, and thus a team can’t use that exception to trade for the player, even if he’s in his second year and is currently making the minimum.

It’s a complicated issue, as ever with the vagaries of NBA trades. Still, it worth noting that some players making the minimum are more tradeable than others. Here’s a look at each player making the minimum salary this year as part of a contract that spans three or more seasons, thus making them harder to trade than their two-year counterparts:

Bucks

Bulls

Cavaliers

Grizzlies

Hawks

Heat

Jazz

Lakers

Magic

Mavericks

Pistons

Sixers

Spurs

Trail Blazers

The Celtics, Clippers, Hornets, Kings, Knicks, Nets, Nuggets, Pacers, Pelicans, Raptors, Rockets, Suns, Thunder, Timberwolves, Warriors and Wizards don’t possess one of these contracts.

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Hoops Rumors Weekly Mailbag 12/13/15-12/20/15

December 20th, 2015 at 4:07pm CST by Will Joseph

In addition to our weekly chat, which Chuck Myron facilitates every Wednesday, we have a second 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:

“ESPN has mentioned Joe Harris is being shopped. What say you folks?” — Eric

HR: Actually, it was Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal who wrote that the Cavs would like to obtain a second-round pick in exchange for Harris. As a result, Harris has been showcased in the D-League this month, moving up and down a handful of times. The Cavs are looking to move Harris because of the surprising play of Jared Cunningham and the team’s looming luxury tax bill, according to Lloyd. Harris has not played much in the league since being drafted in 2014 and, while this is just my speculation, it seems likely the Cavs will shed his fully guaranteed $845,059 salary as soon as possible since he is now looking more expendable than ever.

Do you think the Lakers will consider trading players such as Roy Hibbert and Lou Williams for picks? What kind of value do you think they hold? — Aaron

HR: Hibbert, in my opinion, has a better chance of being dealt because he is set to be a free agent after the season. Williams, on the other hand, signed a three-year, $21MM deal with the Lakers in the summer after he scored 15.5 points per game on 40.4% shooting last season in Toronto. I really think that the Lakers are committed to Williams, who could help lure more talent into the fold next season. Hibbert has helped the Lakers has a veteran mentor on a young team. While he is not the player he was a couple of years ago, Hibbert has re-established himself as a serviceable starting option in the league and there is a decent chance he could help the Lakers land a future second-round pick of sorts, in my estimation.

Can the Lakers get a first-round pick from a team for Hibbert? — Aaron

HR: I highly doubt it. Hibbert just turned 29, has experienced down seasons already and is likely past his prime. I credit him for having a decent comeback season now, but it’s just not enough to warrant exchanging a first-round pick for. That is unless, perhaps, he is part of a larger package, of course.

Do you think DeMar DeRozan and Hassan Whiteside are realistic options for the Lakers? — Isaac
HR: Not really, but maybe. I know that is an ambiguous answer, but until the Lakers show they should be taken seriously, it will have to do. DeRozan, who is eligible to opt out of his current deal with the Raptors and become an unrestricted free agent next summer, grew up in California and played college ball at USC so there might be an attraction there. Plus, he might want to play with former Raptors teammate Lou Williams. Whiteside, who is set to be a free agent this summer, seems more like a wild dream because I would imagine the Heat will do everything possible to re-sign him.
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Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround 12/19/15

December 19th, 2015 at 11:30pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Ty Lawson hasn’t impressed in 26 games with the Rockets and if the point guard’s camp has its way, the North Carolina product will be playing for another team before the end of the season. Although Lawson’s trade value has arguably never been lower, he is still a starting-caliber point guard and the Rockets should be able to garner a respectable return if they trade him. So tonight’s shootaround is about finding a new home for the troubled 28-year-old and here’s what I would do if I was sitting in GM Daryl Morey’s chair:

Rumors surfaced earlier in the week that Dwight Howard is unhappy with the current state of the franchise and although the center has since refuted those reports, the team expects him to turn down his player option, which would have paid him slightly more than $23.282MM next season. Signing a 30-year-old center with injury history to a long-term, possibly maximum salaried deal may not be the best option for the franchise, yet neither is losing him to another team in free agency.

The Rockets should attempt to trade both Howard and Lawson and build a new team around James Harden. The Nets were on Howard’s list of suitors when he was pushing for a trade from the Magic back in 2011 and while it’s unclear if Brooklyn remains a preferable destination, GM Billy King has the pieces to make a logical trade.

If Houston sends Howard, Lawson and Corey Brewer, who won’t be eligible to be traded until January 15th, to Brooklyn for Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez, who also isn’t eligible to be traded until January 15th, both teams would be better off, even if the Rockets have to include another reserve in the deal to make the salaries align. The Nets would get a new face of the franchise in Howard and a talented point guard in Lawson, who could play beside Jarrett Jack to give the Nets a somewhat exciting backcourt, something they lacked for quite some time. The Rockets would add two proven scoring options to help ease Harden’s burden on the offensive end and they would get younger at the center position. Adding Lopez, whose Player Efficiency Rating is 20.49 this season, would give the team an All-Star whose career is on the same trajectory as Harden’s and they would form a more lethal duo than the Harden-Howard pairing.

The parameters around this trade are purely speculative, as there have been no reports linking the Nets and Rockets in trade discussions.

Be the Rockets’ GM tonight. Let us know what you would do with Lawson and Howard if you were running Houston and tell us what you think about this hypothetical trade. Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the matter. We look forward to what you have to say.

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2016/17 Salary Cap Projection: Trail Blazers

December 19th, 2015 at 5:10pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The NBA’s salary cap for 2015/16 has been set at $70MM, which is an 11% increase from last season, and the luxury tax line is fixed at $84.74MM. The last cap projection from the league prior to the official numbers being announced had been $67.1MM, and the projection for the tax line had been $81.6MM. Many league executives and agents believe that the salary cap will escalate to a whopping $95MM for 2016/17, a higher figure than the league’s last projection of $89MM. This significant bump is a result of the league’s new $24 billion TV deal that kicks in just in time for next season.

The increase in the salary cap will almost assuredly set off a flurry of activity in the free agent market next summer, and it will also make it easier than ever for teams to deal away their higher-priced stars. Prudent executives are acutely aware of exactly how much cap room they have to play with, not just for the current campaign, but for next season and beyond as well. While the exact amount of 2016/17’s salary cap won’t be announced until next summer, it always pays to know just how much salary is on the books for each franchise. With this in mind, we at Hoops Rumors will be breaking down the projected 2016/17 financial commitments for each franchise, and we’ll continue onward with a look at the Portland Trail Blazers:

  • Fully Guaranteed Salary Commitments: $44,468,987
  • Partially Guaranteed Salary Commitments: $0
  • Non Guaranteed Salary Commitments: $1,749,272
  • Total Projected Salary Cap Commitments: $46,218,259

If the salary cap were to fall in line with the projection of $89MM, Portland would have approximately $42,781,741 in cap space, or $48,781,741 if the cap were to be set at the higher mark of $95MM. Again, these are merely predictions until the exact cap amounts are announced, and they are not meant to illustrate the exact amount that the team will have available to spend this coming offseason.

Portland will also need to make decisions regarding Meyers Leonard, Maurice Harkless, Allen Crabbe and Tim Frazier, all of whom are eligible to become restricted free agents next summer. If the Blazers wish to retain the right to match any offer sheets the players were to receive, the team would need to submit qualifying offers to each, with Leonard’s being worth $4,210,880, Harkless’ valued at $4,045,894, Crabbe’s set at $1,215,696, and Frazier’s at $1,180,431. These numbers would merely be  placeholders until the players either inked new deals or signed their qualifying offers, which would then set them up for unrestricted free agency the following offseason.

Trades and long-term free agent signings made during the season will also have a significant impact on the figures above, and we’ll be updating these posts to reflect the new numbers after any signings and trades have been made official.

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Hoops Rumors Originals 12/13/15-12/19/15

December 19th, 2015 at 1:05pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Here’s a look back at the original analysis generated by the Hoops Rumors staff this past week…

  • If you missed the week’s live chat, you can view the transcript here.
  • As a part of our continuing series, “The Beat,” Chuck Myron interviewed Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post.
  • We released our latest 2016 Free Agent Power Rankings. Click here to see who came out on top.
  • Zach Links highlighted some of the better basketball blogs around in his weekly installment of Hoops Links.
  • Chuck looked at front office changes made since the 2013 offseason.
  • Will Joseph answered reader questions in our Weekly Mailbag.
  • Chuck took a look at the number of trades each team has executed since December 15th, 2014.
  • If you missed any of our daily reader-driven discussions, be sure to check out the Community Shootaround archives.
  • Here’s how you can follow Hoops Rumors on social media and RSS feeds.
  • Chucked looked at how trades made in December of 2014 turned out for each of the teams involved.
  • I looked at the 2016/17 projected salary cap numbers for the Knicks, Thunder, Sixers, Suns and Magic.
  • We answered reader questions in our Weekly Mailbag.
  • Chuck ran down the scenarios for future second round picks that have been traded.
  • You can keep track of where your favorite team currently stands in relation to the 2016 NBA Draft lottery with our reverse standings tracker.
  • We reviewed our commenting policy. Play nice everyone.
  • Here’s how you can follow specific players on Hoops Rumors.
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