Hoops Rumors Originals

Teams that make significant investments in re-signing their own free agents usually aren’t in a hurry to turn around and trade them, and the collective bargaining agreement has a rule designed to prevent that from happening anyway. Most free agents who sign new contracts in the offseason are ineligible for inclusion in trade until December 15th. A select group can’t be traded for an extra month on top of that.

Players who had full Bird or Early Bird rights and re-signed with their teams on a contract that gives them a raise of 20% or better in the first year of the deal are ineligible to be traded until January 15th, as long as their respective teams were over the cap once they made the signing. That covers many of the free agents sticking with their teams on lucrative deals this summer, including DeAndre Jordan, Kawhi Leonard and Marc Gasol.

Some prominent names fall outside those bounds. LeBron James is making less than 20% more than what he made last season, and that, plus the fact he merely had Non-Bird rights, makes him trade-eligible on the standard December 15th date. Tobias Harris and Paul Millsap aren’t listed here, because their respective teams were still under the cap when they signed them. Still, the Cavs, Magic and Hawks probably aren’t anxious to trade any of them anytime soon.

Here’s the full list of players ineligible to be traded until January 15th this year:

• Alexis Ajinca, Pelicans
• Lavoy Allen, Pacers
• Patrick Beverley, Rockets
• Corey Brewer, Rockets
• Jimmy Butler, Bulls
• Jae Crowder, Celtics
• Goran Dragic, Heat
• Mike Dunleavy, Bulls
• Marc Gasol, Grizzlies
• Drew Gooden, Wizards
• Danny Green, Spurs
• Draymond Green, Warriors
• Reggie Jackson, Pistons
• DeAndre Jordan, Clippers
• Enes Kanter, Thunder
• Brandon Knight, Suns
• Kawhi Leonard, Spurs
• Brook Lopez, Nets
• Kevin Love, Cavaliers
• Khris Middleton, Bucks
• Austin Rivers, Clippers
• Iman Shumpert, Cavaliers
• Kyle Singler, Thunder
• Dwyane Wade, Heat

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

Hoops Rumors offers a variety of resources on our right sidebar that are available with a single click, such as our Free Agent Tracker, our Extension Candidate Series and the Hoops Rumors Glossary. Some of our best work is under the menu titled “Featured Posts.”

We recently updated that menu, so let’s run down what’s available there:

• Our 2016 Free Agent Power Rankings offer a peek ahead at the top players eligible to hit free agency next summer.
• Hear from reporters who cover teams around the league in our series called The Beat: Q&A’s With NBA Beat Writers.
• Each of Sam Amico’s Hoops Rumors Columns are available in this archive. The next entry in the weekly series is on tap for later today.
• We delved into the dilemma the Rockets face as they attempt to sign No. 32 overall pick Montrezl Harrell.
• Agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports represents Harrell and two of the most prominent remaining free agents: Tristan Thompson and Norris Cole. We looked at past negotiations involving Klutch Sports clients.
• Teams across the NBA face decisions with 54 players who have rookie scale team options in their contracts. We broke down the likelihood that each option will be exercised by the November 2nd deadline.
• The Pistons have 17 fully guaranteed deals, more than any other team in the NBA and two more than the 15-player regular season roster limit. We examined the tough choices ahead for coach/executive Stan Van Gundy.
• The Kevin Love trade dominated headlines last summer. We look at how each of the assets involved in the three-team swap has fared since then.
• More than a dozen 2016 first-round picks are liable to change hands this spring based on previous trades. We look in depth at the likelihood of each scenario playing out.
• Several draft prospects spoke with our Zach Links about their NBA plans and dreams. See each of our interviews here.
• Mark Porcaro’s database of Draft Rights Held Players keeps track of draft-and-stash prospects around the globe.
• NBA executives can make or break their careers in the draft. See how current NBA front office chiefs have fared in the past.
• Our archived Offseason Outlook Series allows you to compare how each team’s offseason has met with expectations.
• Eddie Scarito took a look back at trades that have altered the NBA landscape over the past several years in our Trade Retrospective Series.
• Follow all of our content with our free iOS and Android app.

Team options outside of rookie scale contracts are rare in the NBA. Only nine new contracts from this summer feature a team option, aside from all of the new rookie scale deals, of course. Not surprisingly, the Sixers handed out a third of those new pacts with team options, and it would qualify as something of an upset if the four-year agreement that the Sixers reportedly struck today with Christian Wood doesn’t have a team option, too.

The three new team options already on the books for Philadelphia represent double options of sorts. That’s because the salaries in the option years are also non-guaranteed. It’s a quirk in the system, as options can only exist on the final year of a contract, but any season may be non-guaranteed. The term “team option” is often used to refer to a non-guaranteed season, but they’re not the same. Teams don’t have to decide on non-guaranteed seasons until January, or an earlier point specified in the contract if both sides agree. The deadline for team options is the June 29th before the season starts. That’s an advantage that non-guaranteed seasons offer for teams, but options can also be helpful. A team can turn down its option on a player with three or fewer years of experience and still make him a restricted free agent. Players with non-guaranteed seasons would become unrestricted free agents if they cleared waivers.

So, the Sixers have the best of both worlds with Richaun Holmes, Pierre Jackson and Scottie Wilbekin. The Pacers also added three new contracts with team options, but not all of them are truly for the benefit of the team. Lavoy Allen wouldn’t be eligible for restricted free agency if Indiana turns down his team option in two years, when he’ll ostensibly be a six-year veteran. So, it’s exclusively to Allen’s benefit that the salary is a team option instead of non-guaranteed. If the Pacers don’t want to keep him, Allen would become a free agent on July 1st in 2017, just as the market is at is busiest. Indiana could hang on to him for months longer if the contract featured non-guaranteed salary, and all the while, many opportunities for him to go elsewhere would likely dry up.

Here’s a look at each new team option from this offseason. The season the option is for is in parentheses, along with the value of the option.

• Lavoy Allen, Pacers (2017/18, $4MM)
• K.J. McDaniels, Rockets (2017/18, $3,476,873)
• Nikola Jokic, Nuggets (2018/19, $1,475,500)
• Jordan Mickey, Celtics (2018/19, $1,329,039)
• Rakeem Christmas, Pacers (2018/19, $1,142,974)
• Joseph Young, Pacers (2018/19, $1,142,974)
• Richaun Holmes, Sixers (2018/19, $1,088,038)
• Pierre Jackson, Sixers (2018/19, $1,088,038)
• Scottie Wilbekin, Sixers (2018/19, $1,088,038)

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

Seven of the 10 free agents in the final edition of the 2015 Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings signed maximum-salary deals, and nine of them were able to secure player options. None signed for as short a term as LeBron James, the No. 1 player in the rankings, but that’s no surprise, as he places a premium on flexibility and will have no trouble signing an even more lucrative max deal next year.

Training camps are three weeks away, and while Tristan Thompson and a few other notable 2015 free agents remain unsigned, the 10 most prominent long ago came off the board. So, with the first our 2016 Free Agent Power Rankings already compiled, we’ll look back on how the heavies from the 2015 class fared.

1. LeBron James — As expected, James re-signed with the Cavaliers on a two-year deal for the maximum salary, which works out to a total value of $46,974,673 for the 12-year veteran. It seems unlikely he’ll exercise the $24,004,173 player option for 2016/17 and will instead become a free agent next summer, if the pattern holds to form. It would be the most lucrative path for him, since the projected 2016/17 maximum for a player with his experience is $29.3MM.
2. Kawhi Leonard — The only mystery in Leonard’s free agency surrounded the terms of his new deal, not whether he would end up back with the Spurs. The reigning Defensive Player of the Year made it a five-year max deal with a player option on the final season. That works out to a total of $94,343,129.
3. LaMarcus Aldridge — The Spurs scored their second top-three free agent when they held off the Suns and a pack of other suitors to sign Aldridge to a four-year, maximum-salary contract with a player option after year three. He’ll make $84,072,030 if he lets the deal run to term.
4. Marc Gasol — Big Spain was careful not to make his intentions too obvious, but Gasol didn’t meet with any team other than the Grizzlies, with whom he re-signed for five years at the max, with a fifth-year player option. The total value of the contract is $113,211,750, more than the five-year max that Leonard signed based on Gasol’s greater amount of service time.
5. Kevin Love — Rumors of Love’s imminent departure from the Cavaliers persisted for months, despite Love’s insistence otherwise, and Love finally put an end to them when he re-signed with the Cavaliers for a five-year, maximum-salary deal with a player option on the final season. It’s identical in value to Gasol’s, at $113,211,750.
6. Jimmy Butler — The Most Improved Player of the Year from this past season was reportedly set to consider short-term offer sheets, but when Chicago put a maximum qualifying offer of five years at the max on the table, he apparently put off meetings with other teams. The maximum qualifying offer, by definition, includes no option seasons, and Butler wound up taking slightly less than the max, presumably so he could secure a player option after year four. The total value of his five-year deal is $92,339,878, or about $2MM less than what the max would have been.
7. Greg Monroe — Monroe said at one point this spring that the Pistons had the “upper hand” to re-sign him, but he looked far more likely to end up with the Knicks. Instead, it was the darkhorse Bucks who signed him to a three-year max deal with a player option after year two. That comes to a total of $51,437,514.
8. DeAndre Jordan — No one’s free agency was a wilder ride than Jordan’s, as he committed to the Mavericks before changing his mind and re-signing on a four-year max deal with the Clippers. It carries a player option on that last year, just like his four-year max with the Mavs was to have, but he’ll make somewhat more with the Clippers, who are eligible to give him 7.5% raises instead of the 4.5% to which Dallas was limited. Thus, the full value of Jordan’s new Clippers contract is $87,616,050.
9. Draymond Green — Like Leonard, this defensive stalwart on the upswing never appeared destined for anywhere but Golden State. Unlike Leonard, he wound up with less than the max. The Warriors gave Green a five-year deal worth precisely $82MM, more than $14MM less than the max over the life of the contract. The deal contains no option years.
10. Goran Dragic — Dragic, too, long appeared bound to stay with his incumbent team and wound up taking less than the max to do so. The point guard re-signed with the Heat on a five-year deal worth $85,002,250. That’s more than $28.2MM less than the maximum that he was eligible for, but he did receive a player option after the fourth year.

Did the value of any of these deals take you by surprise? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

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