Hoops Rumors Originals

Unlike years past, no one in the NBA is carrying a truly sizable partial guarantee into the season. Full guarantees for some were long ago clinched, as was the case for Jamal Crawford, whose $1.5MM partial guarantee became a $5.675MM full guarantee when he remained under contract through June 30th. Others are simply unable to command much guaranteed money, as more than two dozen players have partial guarantees of less than $100K.

Contracts like the one Amir Johnson had with the Raptors last season simply don’t exist this year. Johnson’s deal called for a partial guarantee of $5MM on his $7MM right up until the leaguewide guarantee date in January. Of course, he stuck for the entire season and earned his full salary, but teams and agents are becoming more savvy about inserting early guarantee dates that spur action during the summer, when most player movement takes place and both the team and the player have better opportunity to search for alternatives. Johnson’s latest deal, which he signed in July with the Celtics, is a prime example. His $12MM salary for 2016/17 is non-guaranteed until the end of next July 3rd, when it would become fully guaranteed, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.

Guarantee dates often apply to partially guaranteed salary, too. Today is the day that Langston Galloway locks in $440K of his minimum salary if he avoids hitting waivers. He already triggered a partial guarantee of $220K when he remained with the Knicks through July 1st, under terms that Pincus first reported.

A $440K guarantee is relatively paltry in the world of NBA salaries, but it would mean Galloway would have the fifth-largest partial guarantee in the league. He’d join two Spurs, including Matt Bonner, who tops the list with half of his $1,499,187 minimum salary guaranteed. The partial guarantee on the contract he signed this summer is larger than the full salary for many on this list simply because he falls into the largest minimum salary bracket as a veteran of 11 seasons. Check out the full list of partial guarantees below:

Partial guarantees, ranked from most to least lucrative

• Matt Bonner, Spurs — $749,594
• Toney Douglas, Pacers — $600K
• Jimmer Fredette, Spurs — $507,711
• Mike Muscala, Hawks — $473,638
• Langston Galloway, Knicks — $440K (assuming he remains under contract through today)
• Cameron Bairstow, Bulls — $425K
• Tyler Johnson, Heat — $422,530
• JaVale McGee, Mavericks — $250K
• Markel Brown, Nets — $200K
• Eric Moreland, Kings — $200K
• Scottie Wilbekin, Sixers — $200K
• Jeff Withey, Jazz — $200K
• Melvin Ejim, Magic — $150K
• JaMychal Green, Grizzlies — $150K
• Cliff Alexander, Trail Blazers — $100K
• Erick Green, Nuggets — $100K
• Jonathan Holmes, Lakers — $100K
• Ricky Ledo, Knicks — $100K
• James McAdoo, Warriors — $100K
• Elliot Williams, Hornets — $80K
• Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Knicks — $75K
• Ryan Boatright, Nets — $75K
• Lorenzo Brown, Timberwolves — $75K
• Treveon Graham, Jazz — $75K
• J.J. O’Brien, Jazz — $75K
• Lamar Patterson, Hawks — $75K
• Terran Petteway, Hawks — $75K
• Ronald Roberts Jr., Raptors — $75K
• Adonis Thomas, Pistons — $60K
• Brandon Ashley, Mavericks — $50K
• Bryce Dejean-Jones, Pelicans — $50K
• Michael Frazier, Lakers — $50K
• Quincy Miller, Nets — $50K
• Donald Sloan, Nets — $50K
• Jamil Wilson, Mavericks — $50K
• Christian Wood, Sixers — $50K
• Vince Hunter, Kings — $35K
• Robert Upshaw, Lakers — $35K
• Michale Kyser, Raptors — $25K
• Malcolm Miller, Celtics — $25K
• Darius Morris, Nets — $25K
• Levi Randolph, Celtics — $25K
• Shannon Scott, Raptors — already $25K
• Axel Toupane, Raptors — already $25K
• Corey Walden, Celtics — already $25K
• Jarrid Famous, Mavericks — $10K

The Basketball Insiders Salary Pages were used in the creation of this post.

Determining the longest-tenured executives in the NBA isn’t nearly as straightforward as running down the longest-tenured coaches or each team’s longest-tenured player. Many front offices run chiefly as committees, with a chorus of voices carrying weight. That’s the case for the Warriors, and apparently for the Bucks, where coach Jason Kidd‘s has no shortage of influence. Still, the Bucks clearly value GM John Hammond, having signed him to an extension Monday. Hammond’s job description indicates that he does the bulk of the day-to-day work to construct and maintain Milwaukee’s roster, even if he’s merely on equal footing with Kidd when it comes to player personnel input, as co-owner Marc Lasry indicated to Chris Mannix of SI.com in December.

Judgment calls abound when it comes to identifying a single person as each team’s primary basketball executive. Coach and president of basketball operations Flip Saunders is atop the organizational chart in Minnesota, but he’s away from the team on a leave of absence while he recovers from cancer treatments. So, we’ll go with GM Milt Newton, who’s calling the shots in his stead. Pat Riley is the unquestioned chief executive for the Heat, but he was the team’s coach for much of his tenure in Miami, and Randy Pfund served as GM for several seasons while Riley manned the bench. However, the Heat bestowed the title of team president on Riley the day they hired him September 1995, a title he still holds, and little room for doubt has existed about his level of power over the Heat’s roster since his arrival. Thus, he tops the list below as the NBA’s longest-tenured primary basketball executive.

We’ve given credit to Suns GM Ryan McDonough and Hornets GM Rich Cho for all the time they’ve spent within their respective organizations, even though both of them previously served alongside others who held the title of president of basketball operations. GM Dennis Lindsey gets the nod in Utah despite the presence of executive vice president of basketball operations Kevin O’Connor. Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird and Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace are farther down this list than they could be, since we’re counting only from when they returned to power after an absence, in the case of Bird, and an exile, in the case of Wallace.

It’s a tricky undertaking, but the point is to identify the go-to player personnel decision-maker for each team and the length of time each has served. Here’s the complete list, spanning an even 20 years:

1. Pat Riley, Heat: September 1995
2. Mitch Kupchak, Lakers: August 2000
3. R.C. Buford, Spurs: July 2002
4. Danny Ainge, Celtics: May 2003
5. Ernie Grunfeld, Wizards: June 2003
6. Donnie Nelson, Mavericks: June 2005
7. Daryl Morey, Rockets: May 2007
8. Sam Presti, Thunder: June 2007
9. John Hammond, Bucks: April 2008
10. Gar Forman, Bulls: May 2009
11. Billy King, Nets: July 2010
12. Dell Demps, Pelicans: July 2010
13. Rich Cho, Hornets: June 2011
14. Bob Myers, Warriors: April 2012
15. Neil Olshey, Trail Blazers: June 2012
16. Rob Hennigan, Magic: June 2012
17. Dennis Lindsey, Jazz: August 2012
18. Ryan McDonough, Suns: May 2013
19. Sam Hinkie, Sixers: May 2013
20. Masai Ujiri, Raptors: May 2013
21. Tim Connelly, Nuggets: June 2013
22. Doc Rivers, Clippers: June 2013
23. Larry Bird, Pacers: June 2013 (returned to organization)
24. David Griffin, Cavaliers: February 2014
25. Phil Jackson, Knicks: March 2014
26. Stan Van Gundy, Pistons: May 2014
27. Chris Wallace, Grizzlies: May 2014 (returned to power)
28. Mike Budenholzer, Hawks: September 2014
29. Vlade Divac, Kings: March 2015
30. Milt Newton, Timberwolves: September 2015 (interim)

Which tenure do you think will be the next to end? Leave a comment to let us know.

The vast majority of verbal agreements between players and NBA teams turn into signed contracts, but, as we learned with DeAndre Jordan and the Mavericks this summer, that’s not always the case. Even when a player does sign a contract, he often still must pass a physical, and sometimes red flags show up on the exam, prompting the team to void the signing, as happened with the Kings and Luc Mbah a Moute later in July. A physical also led to the dissolution of the Heat’s deal with Briante Weber, as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel reported Friday, though it’s unclear if Weber ever put pen to paper.

In any case, this offseason has provided no shortage of reasons why it’s never certain that a player will suit up for a team until he actually does. We’ll look back case by case:

• DeAndre Jordan to the Mavericks — The much publicized change of heart for the league’s leading rebounder took place during the July Moratorium, when the Mavs were powerless to sign him and keep him from rejoining the Clippers instead. The move clearly disappointed Mavs owner Mark Cuban, but he doesn’t blame the moratorium for his team’s misfortune, as Tim MacMahon and Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN.com noted at the time.
• Richard Jefferson to the Mavericks — Dallas reportedly gave its other signees the opportunity to back out once Jordan did, and Jefferson took the team up on its offer, signing with the Cavs instead. Unlike Jordan, Jefferson received Cuban’s blessing before proceeding with his about-face.
• Chuck Hayes to the Rockets — In this case, it was the team, not the player, that broke off the deal, given that agent Calvin Andrews said he and Hayes were “extremely upset and disapponted” when it fell apart. The Rockets face a hard cap if they sign No. 32 pick Montrezl Harrell to a market value deal, as I explained in detail, so I’d speculate that a desire for more breathing room against that would-be cap was behind the team’s decision to back out of the partially guaranteed arrangement. Hayes instead signed to join Jordan with the Clippers.
• Christian Wood to the Rockets — Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported in late June, shortly after Wood went undrafted, that the power forward would join the Rockets on a partially guaranteed deal, but plans appeared to change after the offseason began in earnest in July. Reports threw Wood’s status with the Rockets into question when the team reached deals with four others for camp, and his signing with the Sixers made it clear he won’t be in Houston. Just what went awry is unclear, but I would speculate the Rockets called it off for the same cap-related reasons I believe were at play with Hayes.
• Luc Mbah a Moute to the Kings — Sacramento went so far as to sign the veteran combo forward, but front office chief Vlade Divac said later that a shoulder issue emerged in Mbah a Moute’s physical, prompting the team to void the contract, which had been worth $1.55MM for one season. Mbah a Moute’s agents and players union officials reportedly dispute Sacramento’s medical claims, and the union was apparently to have filed a grievance.
• Briante Weber to the Heat — In contrast to the situation involving Mbah a Moute, Weber’s camp doesn’t appear upset about the undrafted combo guard’s inability to pass a physical. Instead, agent Bill Neff expressed interest in having Weber join the Heat’s D-League team at some point. Concern over Weber’s readiness comes as no surprise, since he tore the ACL, MCL and meniscus in his right knee this past January.