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2015/16 Salary Cap: Detroit Pistons

By | at November 4, 2015 4:15 pm

The NBA’s salary cap for 2015/16 has been set at $70MM, which is an 11% increase from this past season, and the luxury tax line will be $84.74MM. The last cap projection from the league had been $67.1MM, and the projection for the tax line had been $81.6MM.

With the October 26th cutoff date to set regular season rosters now past, we at Hoops Rumors are in the process of running down the current salary cap commitments for each NBA franchise for the 2015/16 campaign. Here’s the cap breakdown for the Detroit Pistons, whose regular season roster can be viewed here:

  • 2015/16 Salary Cap= $70,000,000
  • 2015/16 Luxury Tax Line= $84,740,000
  • Fully Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $76,594,794*
  • Partially Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $60,000
  • Non-Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $0
  • Total Salary Cap Commitments= $76,654,794
  • Remaining Cap Room= -$6,654,794
  • Amount Below Luxury Tax Line= $8,085,206

*Note: This amount includes the $5,400,000 owed to Josh Smith, and the $452,049 owed to Aaron Gray, both of whom were waived using the stretch provision. This amount also includes the $2,170,465 due Danny Granger, and the $1,270,964 owed to Cartier Martin, both of whom were waived.

Cap Exceptions Available:

  • Room Exception= $2,814,000

Cash Available to Send Out In Trades= $3,400,000

Cash Available to Receive Via Trade= $3,400,000

Last updated: 11/4/15 @ 4:15pm

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

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Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript

By | at November 4, 2015 4:04 pm

4:04pm: We hosted the weekly live chat.

3:00pm: The season is barely a week old, but already a fairly significant trade rumor has landed, with the Grizzlies reportedly having talked about acquiring Mario Chalmers from the Heat. It came after Memphis suffered a 50-point loss to the Warriors, who haven’t broken stride even as they failed to reach an extension with either Harrison Barnes or Festus Ezeli. Nearly two-thirds of the players eligible for rookie scale extensions didn’t end up with one, but the Raptors and Hornets doubled up, adding extensions for Terrence Ross and Jeremy Lamb, respectively, after having extended Jonas Valanciunas and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist over the summer.

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Offseason In Review: Denver Nuggets

By | at November 4, 2015 11:33 am

Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees and more will be covered as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.

Signings

Extensions

Trades

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

NBA: Preseason-Denver Nuggets at Dallas Mavericks
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The Nuggets clearly determined that a change in leadership was key. The optimism that surrounded the team when it won 57 games in 2012/13 had disappeared amid injuries, underwhelming play and disillusionment by the time the Nuggets fired coach Brian Shaw nearly two years later. Interim coach Melvin Hunt had the support of the players, but Michael Malone, who was seemingly on the right track for the Kings before they fired him last December, won over team president Josh Kroenke and GM Tim Connelly in interviews for the job. The Denver brass consulted with the new coach a few months later when they traded point guard Ty Lawson to the Rockets for four players the team waived prior to opening night, a move that cleared the way for No. 7 overall pick Emmanuel Mudiay to take the reigns.

New coach and new point guard aside, the Nuggets largely remain the same, and judging by their moves this summer, they actively sought to keep it that way. A late September deal with Mike Miller was their only free agent signing that wasn’t a re-signing, and they took advantage of a salary cap rule that no other team has used since the existing collective bargaining agreement went into effect in 2011 to secure Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler for the long term. Thus, the fate of Malone and Mudiay will largely define the 2015 offseason for Denver.

Malone is a hard-nosed coach whose Kings teams played at a relatively controlled pace, but he acknowledges that the Nuggets want an up-tempo attack and insists he can direct one. He also sought to dispel the notion that he has any hard feelings toward Pete D’Alessandro, whom the Nuggets hired to a front office role this summer and who was Sacramento’s GM when the Kings fired Malone. Conflicting reports painted different pictures of the role D’Alessandro played in Malone’s dismissal.

Still, that relationship is likely secondary to the bond that Malone and Mudiay must form. The coach has expressed an understanding that while he doesn’t have much stomach for losing, it behooves the future of the team that he give Mudiay every opportunity to learn this season. Jameer Nelson will be around to help, thanks to the deal the Nuggets gave the 33-year-old point guard who initially had his doubts about Denver. The Steve Mountain client opted out but re-signed with the Nuggets at a raise, even though he was coming off a career-low 8.3 points per game. He’s embraced the leadership role that the Nuggets value him highly for, as Matt Moore of CBSSports.com detailed. Nelson can also mentor another developing point guard, as the Nuggets elected to eat two fully guaranteed seasons on Nick Johnson‘s deal to keep former second-round pick Erick Green on his partially guaranteed contract.

Not every veteran the Nuggets kept this summer is around merely for leadership purposes. Denver clearly wants to benefit on the court from the rejuvenated Gallinari, who looked strong down the stretch last season and over the summer while playing for the Italian national team. The Nuggets “absolutely could have” traded for multiple first-round picks for either Gallinari or Chandler, as Zach Lowe of ESPN reported, and while they explored the idea of a Gallinari swap at the deadline and apparently at draft time, too, Gallinari’s affection for Denver helped secure his place there, Lowe wrote. Indeed, Gallinari has said he wants to finish his career with the Nuggets, and thanks to the team’s deft use of the renegotiation-and-extension rule, he’s set to remain under contract until 2018, unless he opts out a year early. The former No. 8 overall pick was previously poised to hit free agency in 2016, just as the cap is set to surge.

Chandler also could have elected free agency in 2016, but he decided against wading into a lucrative market to lock in as many as four eight-figure annual salaries on his new deal with the Nuggets. He’s been the subject of frequent trade rumors the past year, and as a 28-year-old role player on a rebuilding team, those aren’t necessarily going to go away, even though the Nuggets can’t trade him until January. The combo forward gave up the chance to choose another team that might offer a more logical fit, but he was well-compensated for that choice.

Darrell Arthur also had financial motivation to stick with Denver. He admits he almost bolted for the Clippers in free agency this past summer, but the Clips could only have paid him the minimum salary, and the Jerry Hicks client wound up with almost twice that to stay in Denver. It’s a pay cut from the more than $3.457MM he made last season, but he remains in place as part of a crowded frontcourt. So, too, does Kenneth Faried, in spite of trade rumors that have surrounded him the past couple of years, and chatter about the idea of a Faried trade hasn’t stopped, Lowe wrote recently. Stability marked the Nuggets offseason, but that doesn’t mean the same will be true going forward.

Denver invested in youth as well as its veterans, locking in Will Barton on a three-year deal and signing draft-and-stash prospect Nikola Jokic to a four-year deal. Both are in the rotation to start the season. Barton originally came via last season’s Arron Afflalo trade, a positive signal that if the Nuggets do start offloading more of their veterans, the front office is savvy enough to identify prospects who can become contributors. Jokic also proves Denver’s acumen for drafting big men, as he and Jusuf Nurkic, a product of the 2014 draft, form an intriguing combination at center.

The Nuggets seemingly have one foot in the future and the other planted firmly in the present. That’s a challenge for Malone to navigate, but it’s clear that player development is a priority even as the Nuggets hesitate to strip down their roster and go for a full-scale rebuild. The strength of the Western Conference will likely keep them out of the playoffs, enhancing their chances in a draft in which they could have as many as four first-round picks. The Nuggets, if they continue to draft well, have a decent chance to climb back into the Western Conference elite before the deals they made with their vets this summer run to term.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of it.

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Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround 11/3/15

By | at November 3, 2015 11:00 pm

Monday was the leaguewide cutoff for teams to exercise their 2016/17 rookie scale options on any eligible players. If a team passed on exercising its option on a player, that player will now become an unrestricted free agent next summer, instead of a restricted free agent, as would have been the case if the team had exercised the option and allowed the player’s contract to run its full course. Any team that declines a rookie scale team option will only be permitted to re-sign that player for no more than the option amount next offseason, a rule in place to prevent teams from circumventing the salary cap to funnel higher paydays to star young players after two or three seasons. You can see the full list of players who were eligible this fall, as well as the status of their options here:

This brings me to the question/topic for today: Which rookie scale team option that was exercised prior to this year’s deadline was the biggest surprise, and why?

These rookie scale options are bargains for the teams in most instances, and as a result franchises will usually exercise them, even if the player hasn’t quite lived up to his potential during his time in the league thus far. But there are cases where it may be evident that a player isn’t cut out for the NBA, and the team may be better served to decline the option and move on. Browsing the list of eligible players linked above, were there any who fell into the latter category whose team may have been better served to have cut its losses and declined that player’s option? Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions. We look forward to what you have to say.

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2015/16 Salary Cap: Denver Nuggets

By | at November 3, 2015 9:30 pm

The NBA’s salary cap for 2015/16 has been set at $70MM, which is an 11% increase from this past season, and the luxury tax line will be $84.74MM. The last cap projection from the league had been $67.1MM, and the projection for the tax line had been $81.6MM.

With the October 26th cutoff date to set regular season rosters now past, we at Hoops Rumors are in the process of running down the current salary cap commitments for each NBA franchise for the 2015/16 campaign. Here’s the cap breakdown for the Denver Nuggets, whose regular season roster can be viewed here:

  • 2015/16 Salary Cap= $70,000,000
  • 2015/16 Luxury Tax Line= $84,740,000
  • Fully Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $67,715,421*
  • Partially Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $450,000**
  • Non-Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $450,321
  • Total Salary Cap Commitments= $68,615,742
  • Remaining Cap Room= $1,384,258
  • Amount Below Luxury Tax Line= $15,572,347

*Note: This amount includes the $440,000 owed to Pablo Prigioni, the $815,421 owed to Joey Dorsey, as well as the $845,059 due Nick Johnson, all of whom were waived by the team.

**Note: This amount includes the $100,000 due Erick Green, who was waived by the team.

Cap Exceptions Available:

  • None

Cash Available to Send Out In Trades= $3,400,000

Cash Available to Receive Via Trade= $2,960,000

Last updated: 11/7/15 @ 8:00am

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

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2015/16 D-League Assignments, Recalls

By | at November 3, 2015 7:30 pm

The NBA’s relationship with the D-League continues to grow, and this season a total of 19 NBA teams will have one-to-one affiliations with D-League clubs. The 11 NBA teams without their own D-League squads this season will need to assign players to D-League clubs associated with other NBA franchises. D-League teams can volunteer to take on the assigned players, and if no volunteers emerge, the players will be assigned at random. This significant change from the 2014/15 season came about after the Pacers purchased the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and turned them into their one-to-one partner.

The Raptors avoided the disappearance of their shared affiliate this summer when they created Raptors 905, a D-League expansion team, to serve as their one-to-one affiliate. Other NBA teams have interest in following suit in the years ahead, and the NBA’s ultimate goal for the D-League is for all 30 NBA franchises to have their own D-League squads. You can view the complete list of D-League affiliates here.

Players assigned to and recalled from the D-League differ from those who receive D-League “call-ups.” A “call-up” happens when a player on a D-League contract signs a new contract with an NBA team. Those whom NBA teams assign and recall are already under contract with NBA teams, and they remain on NBA rosters even while they toil on the farm team.

We’ll use this space to track this year’s assignments and recalls, team by team, throughout the season. You can find this page, which we’ll update throughout the season, anytime on the right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features.” Here are the NBA’s D-League assignments and recalls for 2015/16:

Atlanta Hawks (No Affiliate)

Boston Celtics (Maine Red Claws)

Charlotte Hornets (No Affiliate)

Chicago Bulls (No Affiliate)

Cleveland Cavaliers (Canton Charge)

Dallas Mavericks (Texas Legends)

Detroit Pistons (Grand Rapids Drive)

Golden State Warriors (Santa Cruz Warriors)

Houston Rockets (Rio Grande Valley Vipers)

Indiana Pacers (Fort Wayne Mad Ants)

Los Angeles Clippers (No Affiliate)

Los Angeles Lakers (Los Angeles D-Fenders)

Memphis Grizzlies (Iowa Energy)

Miami Heat (Sioux Falls Skyforce)

Milwaukee Bucks (No Affiliate)

Minnesota Timberwolves (No Affiliate)

New York Knicks (Westchester Knicks)

Oklahoma City Thunder (Oklahoma City Blue)

Orlando Magic (Erie BayHawks)

Philadelphia 76ers (Delaware 87ers)

Phoenix Suns (Bakersfield Jam)

Portland Trail Blazers (No Affiliate)

Sacramento Kings (Reno Bighorns)

San Antonio Spurs (Austin Spurs)

Toronto Raptors (Raptors 905)

Utah Jazz (Idaho Stampede)

*Note: The numbers in parentheses after each player’s name are a running total denoting how many D-League assignments the player has this season.

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Offseason In Review: San Antonio Spurs

By | at November 3, 2015 11:58 am

Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees and more will be covered as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.

Signings

Extensions

  • None

Trades

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The Spurs could have stopped with the LaMarcus Aldridge deal, and they still probably would have had the most successful offseason of any team in the league. Still, the true measure of San Antonio’s summer is reflected in the rest of the moves that the Spurs made. The addition of David West at the minimum salary and the retention of all three members of the starting lineup who reached free agency, plus Manu Ginobili, give this year’s Spurs team extra depth and weapons that could prove key, given the age of the team’s mainstays and the thin margin of error in the Western Conference. The signing of West, in particular, underscored the allure of the winning culture that coach/president of Spurs basketball Gregg Popovich and GM R.C. Buford preside over, and it clearly played a role in allowing the team to snag Aldridge, too.

Family ties also swayed the former Trail Blazer, a Texas native, but regardless of his motivation, his arrival is as transformative for the Spurs as it is for him. Aldridge acknowledged that he had concerns about San Antonio’s egalitarian offense, given his long track record of high scoring in Portland, but assistant coach Ime Udoka reassured him that the Spurs wouldn’t ask him to make wholesale changes to the way he plays. Still, a significant on-court adjustment is taking place for the former No. 2 overall pick, who was averaging only 16.0 points per game through his first four regular season appearances with the Spurs, a mark that would be his lowest since he put up 9.0 points per game as a rookie. That’s a small sample size, of course, but the Spurs, as witnessed by Aldridge’s off-kilter 44.6% shooting in those four games, have yet to find a way to properly utilize their most talented inside counterpart to Duncan since they had David Robinson.

West presents yet another challenge, since the Spurs have to figure out to squeeze the most out of what he has to offer without that many minutes to go around. Much has changed on the inside, where centers Tiago Splitter and Aron Baynes are no longer around and Aldridge and West, who are power forwards, have replaced them. Splitter’s departure was necessary if the team was to both sign Aldridge and re-sign Danny Green, and thus San Antonio sent Splitter to the Hawks for virtually nothing aside from cap space. Popovich admitted it wasn’t a move he particularly enjoyed making, and he executed the trade without yet knowing that Aldridge would sign, making for a nervous few days in the Spurs front office.

Still, the salary cap math didn’t give San Antonio much of a choice, and the team had even less recourse with Baynes, who left for a tidy $19.5MM over three years with the Pistons. The Spurs recruited 7’3″ All-Euroleague First Team center Boban Marjanovic with a sliver of their cap room, but out of all the adjustments going on in San Antonio, none may be more profound than the ones Marjanovic must endure as the 27-year-old receives his first taste of the NBA.

The Green deal that played such a significant role in the team’s decision to shed Splitter was a surprise, given all the teams lined up to poach the swingman and the report that identified him as “a goner.” Green expressed platitudes toward the Knicks, about whom he told Marc Berman of the New York Post, “anybody turning down a meeting with them would be crazy,” but he doesn’t think the Knicks were as interested in him as he thought they’d be, Green said to Chris Mannix of SI.com. The Mavericks, Pistons, Blazers and Kings were also linked to the Bill Duffy client, but the Spurs won out in part because he was attracted to the idea of playing with Aldridge, who consulted Green about his own free agency. Once more, the signing of Aldridge proved a catalyst for another of the team’s summer moves.

Of course, the Aldridge deal couldn’t have come about unless the Spurs had elected against signing Kawhi Leonard to an extension in the fall of 2014, a maneuver that kept his cap hold as small as possible and allowed the Spurs to use cap space until they circled back to re-sign Leonard for the max. Leonard could have sought out and signed a short-term offer sheet with another team to punish the Spurs for making him wait, and he even could have signed his qualifying offer, but neither such option was truly in play for the unassuming client of agent Brian Elfus. Such was Leonard’s commitment to the Spurs that he agreed to the framework of what would become a five-year max deal within the first 15 minutes of free agency. The Spurs waited to formalize the arrangement until after they’d used the cap space that the Leonard maneuver gave them the chance to create.

Like Leonard, Duncan and Ginobili weren’t going to make their respective free agencies competitive affairs. It was Spurs or retirement for both, and while it took until July for them to announce their intentions, publicly at least, they came back to San Antonio, with Duncan’s choice — the first among the two — seemingly influencing Ginobili’s to some degree. Each took a significant pay cut, with Duncan consenting to play for about half of his salary from last season and Ginobili taking just the $2.814MM room exception this season after he made $7MM in 2014/15.

Ginobili might have been able to command more, though his game, unlike Duncan’s, is showing its age. That underscored the importance of retaining Green, since Ginobili, at 38, probably isn’t fit for the starting job at two guard. The other incumbent, Marco Belinelli, seemed an unlikely candidate to inherit the job, and the Spurs never appeared in the mix to re-sign him as he departed for Sacramento.

The Spurs wound up with a guard in exchange from Sacramento, in a roundabout way, relinquishing only a second-rounder (and likely a late one at that) for Ray McCallum, who takes over the third point guard duties from Cory Joseph, who signed with Toronto. Most third point guards don’t see much playing time, but with Tony Parker, like Ginobili, seemingly in decline, and given San Antonio’s penchant for resting its veterans, McCallum figures to get his chance. So, too, should Rasual Butler, who made the team out of camp over Jimmer Fredette and others. Butler has played significant minutes for the Pacers and Wizards the past two years despite having signed non-guaranteed deals with them, too.

Butler is 36, and like so many of the Spurs, his days in the NBA are numbered. Yet Aldridge showed with his commitment of at least three years that the end for the team’s lengthy run as a title contender remains a ways off. Perhaps even more significantly, Leonard is locked in through at least 2019, when he’ll only be turning 28. The Spurs spent the offseason trying to build a champion for this season, but they also put together a bridge to championship opportunities in the future.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of it.

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NBA Teams Commit Close To $475MM In Extensions

By | at November 3, 2015 8:59 am

The money spent on rookie scale extensions continues to rise, with the total that teams agreed to pay to this year’s class likely to eclipse the approximately $458MM committed to last year’s rookie scale extension signees. This year, the seven players who signed rookie scale extensions before Monday’s deadline will earn an estimated $473.725MM. It’s further testament to the influence of the league’s $24 billion TV deal, and it’s a number that reflects the projected rises in the salary cap and in the maximum salaries, which are tied to the cap.
The $473.725MM number is contingent on the projected maximum salaries for 2016/17 of $20.4MM for Damian Lillard and $24.9MM for Anthony Davis. Their extensions call for them to make the max, whatever it might be when the NBA announces its maximum salaries for the 2016/17 season in July. If either of them makes an All-NBA team or wins MVP this season, they’d trigger the Derrick Rose rule and fall into the higher maximum salary tier that’s currently projected to yield a $24.9MM max. Our number is based on the idea that Davis, an All-NBA First Team selection last season, will again be so honored. Lillard was a Third Team All-NBA pick in 2013/14, but he didn’t make an All-NBA team last season. Thus, we cautiously estimate that he won’t this year. If he does, it would add a projected $25.875MM to the value of his extension and to the total amount of rookie scale extension money for the 2015 class.
We also split the difference between the numbers on the extension the Raptors gave Terrence Ross late Monday, since Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reported it was worth nearly $33MM while Michael Grange of Sportsnet hears it comes in at $10.5MM a year, which would work out to $31.5MM. We went with $32.25MM. Further changes to the payouts might occur based on whether the signees trigger incentive clauses.
Here’s a look at the seven players who signed rookie scale extensions and the value of their respective deals. For the sake of historical comparison, we’ll also link to the extensions from 2014, 2013, 2012 and the preceding five years.
The following extension-eligible players didn’t sign new deals and will hit the open market next summer. They’ll be restricted free agents, assuming their teams tender qualifying offers.
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2015/16 Salary Cap: Dallas Mavericks

By | at October 31, 2015 5:15 pm

The NBA’s salary cap for 2015/16 has been set at $70MM, which is an 11% increase from this past season, and the luxury tax line will be $84.74MM. The last cap projection from the league had been $67.1MM, and the projection for the tax line had been $81.6MM.

With the October 26th cutoff date to set regular season rosters now past, we at Hoops Rumors are in the process of running down the current salary cap commitments for each NBA franchise for the 2015/16 campaign. Here’s the cap breakdown for the Dallas Mavericks, whose regular season roster can be viewed here:

  • 2015/16 Salary Cap= $70,000,000
  • 2015/16 Luxury Tax Line= $84,740,000
  • Fully Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $71,163,485*
  • Partially Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $860,000**
  • Non-Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $520,964
  • Total Salary Cap Commitments= $72,544,449
  • Remaining Cap Room= -$2,544,449
  • Amount Below Luxury Tax Line= $12,195,551

*Note: This amount includes the $315,759 owed to Gal Mekel, who was waived via the stretch provision, as well as the $1,499,187 due Samuel Dalembert, who was also waived.

**Note: This amount includes the $50K owed to both Jamil Wilson and Brandon Ashley, as well as the $10K owed to Jarrid Famous, all of whom were waived by the team.

Cap Exceptions Available:

  • Room Exception= $2,814,000

Cash Available to Send Out In Trades= $3,400,000

Cash Available to Receive Via Trade= $3,400,000

Last updated: 10/31/15 @ 5:10pm

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

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Offseason In Review: New York Knicks

By | at October 31, 2015 3:06 pm

Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees and more will be covered as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.

Signings

Extensions

  • None

Trades

  • Acquired the draft rights to Jerian Grant, the No. 19 overall pick in the 2015 Draft, in exchange for Tim Hardaway Jr.
  • Acquired Kyle O’Quinn from the Magic via sign-and trade in exchange for cash and the option to switch second-rounders with New York in 2019. O’Quinn inked a four-year, $16MM deal that includes a player option for the final season.
  • Acquired the draft rights to Guillermo Hernangomez, the No. 35 overall pick in the 2015 Draft, from the Sixers in exchange for cash and New York’s second-round picks in 2020 and 2021. Hernangomez is playing overseas.

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

  • None
Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The Knicks entered this offseason fresh off a disastrous 2014/15 campaign that saw the team notch only 17 victories, flush with approximately $28MM in available cap space, and possessing some lofty free agency dreams of adding a star player or two. LaMarcus Aldridge, Greg Monroe, Marc Gasol, DeAndre Jordan, and Goran Dragic were among those available to pair alongside returning star Carmelo Anthony. But things rarely seem to go as planned in New York, and the franchise was forced to go with Plan B, adding a collection of role players whom team president Phil Jackson hopes will mesh together and lay the groundwork for the Knicks’ return to relevance.

The organization put a different spin on missing out on some of the top names, with GM Steve Mills insisting that the team didn’t strike out in free agency but instead focused on building a solid team around Anthony. “We tried to be as clear as we could possibly be that we weren’t chasing the biggest stars,” Mills told Mitch Abramson of The New York Daily News. “That’s not how we’re trying to build this team. Obviously, when LaMarcus Aldridge says he wants to meet with you and he’s going to meet with six teams, we agree to go meet with him. DeAndre Jordan was willing to meet with us, so of course we go and meet him. And when you go in, you want guys to say yes. But our goal starting out with this was to spend our money wisely and to get guys in who we thought would bring this team along together and fill holes and as it turned out, we were better suited going with multiple guys as opposed to just going after one.”

Whether or not Mills’ statements were truly indicative of the team’s offseason strategy or merely face-saving bravado is up for debate, but he was correct in his assertion that the Knicks filled a number of holes with their additions this summer. New York is unquestionably a superior team to the one that took the court in 2013/14, but that isn’t necessarily a ringing endorsement considering the D-League-quality roster the Knicks trotted out a season ago.

New York’s offseason rebuild began with the NBA draft, where the team held a top-five pick for the first time since 1986, and Jackson used the No. 4 overall pick to nab Latvian big man Kristaps Porzingis. The wisdom or folly of selecting Porzingis will take some time to assess, as the player is most certainly a project who will require a few seasons to develop. The early signs have been positive, and Porzingis has shown flashes of talent that portend good things to come for the player and his new team.

But the addition of Porzingis may have had an unintended downside for the franchise, possibly shutting the door on any chance that the Knicks had to land Aldridge via free agency. New York had reportedly informed Aldridge that due to the presence of Porzingis, it wanted him to play center full-time, an idea that nixed the scheduled meeting between New York and the marquee free agent. “If they’re going to tell me that I have to play center and I don’t want to play center, then of course it’s mutual after that. But before that I was excited to meet with them. I was interested,” Aldridge said in regard to the canceled powwow. “But they wanted to have their draft pick play and I get it.”

The Knicks also made a significant trade on the day of the draft, flipping Tim Hardaway Jr., whose game had regressed during his sophomore campaign, to the Hawks for No. 19 overall pick Jerian Grant, who fills a major need for New York in the backcourt. Anthony was reportedly upset at the loss of Hardaway, one of the team’s few offensive threats, but it was a solid trade for New York, and I expect ‘Melo to sing the rookie’s praises by the end of the 2015/16 season. New York’s other draft day addition, Guillermo Hernangomez, expressed his desire to continue playing for Real Madrid of Spain for many years before considering a move to the NBA, so he’s not likely to help the franchise anytime soon.

It’s doubtful that the Knicks were ever a realistic option for many of this summer’s free agents, though the team was linked to many of the biggest available names in the weeks leading up to July’s signing period. The one miss that stung the most for the team and its fans was Monroe passing on the glitz and glamour of playing in New York City to instead join the Bucks in Milwaukee, especially after Monroe’s agent, David Falk, had indicated strongly back in April that the Knicks would be one of the big man’s top choices.

Jackson moved on from Monroe and instead added veteran center Robin Lopez, whose rebounding, toughness and defense are all traits that last year’s Knicks squad lacked, especially in the pivot. Lopez can no doubt help the Knicks, though he’s definitely not the marquee name the franchise had designs on landing when the offseason commenced. Lopez’s deal is a fair one for both sides, with a $13.5MM average annual salary certainly being in line with Lopez’s production. Plus, this contract will likely look better once next offseason’s deals are signed, since the cap is expected to increase significantly as a result of the league’s new TV deal kicking in. The only major concern is Lopez’s injury history, with the big man averaging 66 games per season over his NBA career, including just 59 appearances in 2014/15.

New York made four other significant additions over the offseason, signing shooting guard Arron Afflalo, combo forward Derrick Williams, center Kevin Seraphin, and executing a sign-and-trade with Orlando for power forward Kyle O’Quinn. Of the three, O’Quinn has the highest upside, with his energy and hustle certainly making him an intriguing prospect, though his minutes will be limited thanks to the Knicks’ current frontcourt logjam. Inking Williams was the riskiest move of the offseason for Jackson, with the player struggling mightily since entering the league as the No. 2 overall pick in 2011. While nearly $4.5MM per season isn’t an exorbitant amount in today’s NBA, the team may need every bit of cap space next summer when it hopes to be in contention for the likes of Kevin Durant and Mike Conley. Williams also doesn’t appear to be a great fit for the triangle offense, and he’s never quite carved out a defined position for himself in the league, a factor that presents its own set of problems for coach Derek Fisher‘s rotation plans.

Afflalo certainly fills a need for the Knicks, who will count on him to help take some of the scoring burden off Anthony. How he’ll mesh with Anthony and the rest of the roster still remains to be seen, with the 30-year-old having been severely limited in training camp and the preseason thanks to a hamstring injury. He has yet to make it onto the court in the regular season. Afflalo can opt out of his deal after this season, and I’ll go on record and say that the franchise should hope that he does so. As a one-season stopgap, I like adding a healthy Afflalo to the mix, especially given the Knicks’ other remaining free agent options. While Afflalo has been a solid, if unspectacular, performer for the bulk of his career, he’s on the wrong side of 30, and he’s not a building block the franchise can count on to help lure big name free agents.

One of the Knicks’ major missteps this summer was failing to upgrade their point guard position, with holdover Jose Calderon well into his decline. Thus far, it hasn’t appeared like he’ll be able to guard any of the league’s top playmakers. New York was reportedly trying to find a taker for the veteran this offseason as the team attempted to free up cap space, but with Calderon still possessing one more year on his deal beyond this one, and scheduled to earn approximately $7.7MM in 2016/17, it was no surprise the Knicks couldn’t find a taker. I wouldn’t be surprised if the two sides agreed to a buyout at some point this season, though that may be just wishful thinking on my part.

New York desperately needs this summer’s signings to pan out so that the franchise can demonstrate some forward progress. This isn’t just so Jackson can be validated as an NBA executive, or Fisher as an NBA-caliber head coach. It’s also vital for the way pending free agents around the league perceive the team. If the Knicks hope to land the top names, not just next summer, but over the next few seasons, the team will need to prove to players that inking a deal to play in Madison Square Garden isn’t going to be a dead-end career move. Until then, it looks like Plan B is the best the fanbase can look forward to.

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

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