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Offseason In Review: Houston Rockets

November 27th, 2014 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

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 2014 pick No. 53 from the Timberwolves in exchange for cash.
  • Acquired the rights to Sergei Lishchuk from the Lakers in exchange for Jeremy Lin, Houston’s 2015 first-round pick (lottery protected), and the Clippers’ 2015 second-round pick if it falls anywhere from 51st through 55th.
  • Acquired Trevor Ariza, Alonzo Gee, Scotty Hopson and New Orleans’ 2015 first-round pick if it falls anywhere from fourth through 19th in a three-way trade with the Pelicans and Wizards in exchange for Omer Asik, Omri Casspi, and $1.5MM cash. Ariza was signed-and-traded for four years, $32MM.
  • Acquired Jason Terry, Sacramento’s 2015 second-round pick if it falls anywhere from 31st through 49th, and New York’s unprotected 2016 second-round pick from the Kings in exchange for Alonzo Gee and Scotty Hopson.

Waiver Claims

  • Earl Clark: Claimed from the Grizzlies. One year, $1.063MM remaining. Contract was non-guaranteed. Subsequently waived.

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

  • Akil Mitchell
  • Geron Johnson
  • Akeem Richmond

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

It wasn’t too long ago that GM Daryl Morey took just nine months to turn a roster that seemed poised to challenge for last place in the Western Conference into a rising title contender with two superstars. Houston entered this past summer in position to make a third superstar acquisition in less than two years, but the franchise’s positive momentum vanished just as suddenly as it had gathered. Morey and the Rockets once more aimed high, pursuing LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh, the top three free agents in the 2014 Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings, but he swung and missed on all three pitches. Houston didn’t just come up short on attracting outside talent. The Rockets flubbed the handling of their team option on Chandler Parsons, who bolted for the Mavs, and they traded Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin to clear cap space for the stars that never came, stripping the team of valuable role players. Murphy’s Law had so befallen Houston that Morey felt compelled to defend himself against a storm of criticism, even though the Rockets were appreciably better than they had been two years prior and remain on the verge of contention.

NBA: Sacramento Kings at Houston RocketsStill, the summer was a tough blow to a franchise that almost became a true power. Morey failed to land a face-to-face meeting with LeBron’s agent and though he did meet with ‘Melo, that encounter is more remembered for the giant image of Anthony wearing Lin’s No. 7 Rockets jersey that the Rockets hung than for any sway that Morey held with the high-scoring Knicks forward. Yet the team was agonizingly close to landing Bosh on a four-year deal for the maximum salary before Miami swooped in with a five-year max offer. A Bosh-Howard tandem would have given the Rockets the league’s best big-man pairing to go along with Harden’s slithery scoring prowess, and if Houston had opted in with Parsons, the Rockets could have paid him a mere $960K to play with those three. Still, such a fantasy never became more than just that.

Morey didn’t envision having Parsons at such a cheap rate this season, anyway. The GM instead expected that turning down the option would allow the Rockets to tie him up on a long-term deal in restricted free agency this past summer without exposing him to unrestricted free agency in 2015, which he was poised to hit if Houston had opted in. Leave it to frequent Morey critic and Mavs owner Mark Cuban to throw a curveball, signing Parsons to an above-market offer sheet for nearly the maximum salary. Dan Fegan, the agent for Parsons, reportedly designed the structure of the deal that won plaudits from other league executives for features like a 15% trade kicker, a player option and the contract’s three-year length, all of which made it tricky for the Rockets to match. Fegan’s involvement was a further twist of the knife for Houston, since he represents Howard, who can hit free agency in 2016.

Houston’s offseason was thoroughly disappointing, but it was far from a complete disaster. The Rockets wound up with a top-notch perimeter defender in Trevor Ariza, whose become significantly more valuable since he added accurate three-point marksmanship to his repertoire. Ariza shot 40.7% from long range in 2013/14, setting a career high for a second straight season. That makes him a fit with Houston’s floor-spreading philosophy, but it’s his defense that truly makes him a seamless complement to Harden, whose defensive shortcomings have been well-documented. It’s no coincidence that the Rockets are giving up the fewest points per possession of any NBA team this season after finishing 12th in that category last season, according to NBA.com.

The Ariza acquisition came as part of a sign-and-trade that sent Asik to the Pelicans in exchange for a first-round pick that’s protected in such a way that Houston is likely to end up with a lottery selection. It’s reminiscent of the protection on the pick that the Raptors gave up for Kyle Lowry, and the Rockets swapped that Toronto pick in the package that netted Harden. It’s a stretch to say that the Rockets are in position to once more strike gold with such a pick, but at the very least they wound up with a first-rounder that will probably be more valuable than the one they attached to Lin to entice the Lakers to take him on. Houston also netted a trade exception worth the equivalent of Lin’s nearly $8.375MM cap hit in that deal. The exception is the largest in the league as it stands, and while it doesn’t allow the team to grab a star, Morey seems eager to use it to trade for an intriguing rotation-level player whom he could package with another asset or two at the deadline to acquire a marquee name. Morey’s proven creative and ever willing to trade, so the exception in his hands is a weapon indeed.

He pulled off a trade this summer that serves as some degree of payback for the sting of losing Parsons to the rival Mavericks, bringing on one-time Mavs sixth man Jason Terry. Houston also netted a pair of second-round picks as Morey took advantage of tax-conscious Sacramento’s desire to clear his guaranteed salary of more than $5.85MM and Terry’s wish to play for a team closer to the title picture. Terry’s 37 now, his days as one of the league’s premiere reserves long since behind him, but he’s off to a hot start behind the arc, and he’ll help strengthen a bench that took a hit this summer.

Houston spent much of the summer filling out that bench with familiar faces who were willing to accept the minimum salary, re-signing Francisco Garcia and playoff revelation Troy Daniels, and bringing back former Rockets Joey Dorsey, Jeff Adrien and Ish Smith. Adrien and Smith fell victim to the team’s decision to bring 15 fully guaranteed contracts plus Patrick Beverley on a non-guaranteed contract to camp, which created a crunch for opening-night roster spots. Rookie Tarik Black, on a contract only guaranteed for $50K, furthered that logjam when he played his way into the rotation and earned his way onto the club for the regular season.

Black is one of four rookies on the team, and the size of that group is further indication that Houston’s offseason didn’t go as planned. There was speculation that the Rockets would trade their first-round pick or stash him overseas to avoid the guaranteed money on their cap. Morey instead signed No. 25 overall pick Clint Capela, a center from Switzerland, and for 42nd overall selection Nick Johnson, the Rockets doled out a three-year contract that, in a rarity, is fully guaranteed for each season. Still, the most surprising Rockets rookie deal is the one with Kostas Papanikolaou, who changed his mind after deciding in mid-July to remain overseas. He’ll make more than $4.591MM this season, a hefty sum that took up most of Houston’s mid-level exception, though his nearly $4.798MM salary for next season is both non-guaranteed and a team option. The deal gives Houston protection in case he fails to prove worth that money, but if he does wind up having merited that sum and perhaps more, the Rockets could have trouble retaining him thanks to the very same Gilbert Arenas Provision that helped them sign Lin and Asik two years ago.

Morey has never been afraid to experiment with unconventional moves to build a championship roster, but with experimentation comes the risk of failure. Houston experienced the downside of the GM’s approach this summer, but not every test tube shattered, and the Rockets remain an attractive destination for top-flight free agents as well as a serious player on the trade market. They took a step back, but they remain at least a step or two ahead of most.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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2014/15 NBA Reverse Standings

November 26th, 2014 at 11:29am CST by Chuck Myron

The 2014/15 season is only about a month old, but many scouts and executives around the league are already preparing for the 2015 NBA draft. They’re no doubt cognizant of how their respective NBA teams are doing as they attempt to get an idea of where they’ll be picking, and with our Reverse Standings, which list the NBA’s 30 teams from worst to first, you can easily follow along, too. Hoops Rumors will be updating these standings daily to reflect the outcomes of the games that took place the night before.

The Reverse Standings take into account playoff teams in each conference, so they’re essentially a reflection of what the 2015 first-round order would look like with no changes to lottery position. Traded picks are also included via footnotes. For instance, the notes next to the Hawks’ and Nets’ picks indicate that Atlanta has the right to swap its selection with Brooklyn’s. For now, that looks like a plus for the Hawks, since they’d be able to grab the Nets’ lottery pick (currently No. 11) and send their own pick (currently No. 19) to Brooklyn.

The existence of the lottery means there’s no guarantee that teams atop the Reverse Standings will draft in the order in which they finish, but the worse a club’s record, the better shot it has at landing the cream of the 2015 draft class. This year’s group of prospects, which includes Jahlil Okafor, Emmanuel Mudiay, Karl-Anthony Towns, isn’t as highly touted as the 2014 draftees were, but there’s still plenty of star potential.

Our Reverse Standings feature can be found at anytime on our right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features.” It’s a great resource not just for monitoring a team’s draft position, but also for keeping an eye on whether or not traded picks with protection will be changing hands in 2015. Be sure to check back often!

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Hoops Rumors Featured Feedback

November 25th, 2014 at 5:27pm CST by Eddie Scarito

We value your input on the news we cover here at Hoops Rumors. That’s why we’re passing along some of the best insight from the comments on our posts and on the Hoops Rumors Facebook page. Share your reaction to and insight on the news and rumors around the league, and you’ll have a chance to see your name here.

If you haven’t commented at Hoops Rumors before, it’s easy to sign up and start. First, read our Commenting Policy. Then, scroll to the bottom of any post, and you’ll see the word “Login” on the right side atop the comments section. Click the word and choose whether you want to comment using a Disqus account or your existing Facebook, Twitter or Google account. If you don’t have a Disqus account and you want to create one, just choose that option and click “Need an account?” at the bottom right of the box that pops up.

Yesterday, the Heat signed Hassan Whiteside and waived Shannon Brown to clear a roster spot for the big man. Reader Z…. points out that the move to release Brown was likely due to the strong play of Shabazz Napier and Miami’s fondness for Andre Dawkins.

  • Brown has played well defensively, and had a backer in Dwyane Wade. My assumption is that this move is brought on by the good play of Napier, and the fact that we’ve had injuries to our big men, namely  [Josh McRoberts], Birdman [Chris Andersen], and [Justin] Hamilton. I also really like Dawkins, and my guess is that the Heat do as well, which is probably why he is still on the roster

NBA commissioner Adam Silver mentioned in an interview with Chuck Klosterman of GQ.com that one of the changes he would like to implement is a harder, more restrictive salary cap for the league. Reader Curtis Smith believes that this potential stance, plus the NBPA’s likely push for doing away with maximum salary restrictions altogether, will mean that some compromises will need to be made in order to avoid a potential lockout in 2017.

  • Sounds like Adam Silver wants a hard cap. Prepare for another lockout. The players are going to try to get rid of max salaries. Something has to give.

In an entertaining back and forth discussion, reader Sky14 disagreed with my opinion that the Timberwolves should consider trading Nikola Pekovic for younger, cheaper assets.

  • It will be an interesting couple of years for the Wolves. They have a lot of individually talented players but always seem to have trouble putting it together. Could not disagree more on your take about Pekovic. He has not averaged below his career averages in points or rebounds since his rookie year. He is much more of a 17 and 9 guy that he has been the past two seasons. In fact, his PER has been over 20 the past three seasons, and last season he was 23rd in the NBA, one spot behind Dwight Howard and 61 spots ahead of Thaddeus Young, whom you mentioned would be in line for $12MM per year in his next contract.

In a recent reader poll we asked in response to Eric Bledsoe‘s comments about whether the Kentucky Wildcats could defeat the Sixers in a seven game series, reader alphakira agreed with the plurality of voters who disagreed with Bledsoe’s assertion that Philadelphia would fall to the college squad.

  • You said it perfectly already. The Sixers may be a bottom-feeder in the NBA, but they’re players in the NBA…which means they were all in the top 60 players in all of college basketball when they were drafted. If you voted for Kentucky, please look at Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker (and basically the rest of the elite draft class). They were the top two players in all of college last year and have yet to prove much in the NBA.

Check out what more readers had to say in previous editions of Hoops Rumors Featured Feedback. We appreciate everyone who adds to the dialogue at Hoops Rumors, and we look forward to seeing more responses like these from you!

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Largest Player Options For 2015/16

November 25th, 2014 at 3:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

Player options can be a nuisance for teams. Teams interested in trading for Corey Brewer earlier this month reportedly sought to have him waive his $4.905MM player option for 2015/16, and Brewer doesn’t even possess a particularly expensive option. No team would mind having LeBron James at the value of his league-high $21.573MM player option for next season, but the specter of Roy Hibbert‘s $15.514MM option, tied for the fifth-most expensive 2015/16 player option in the NBA, is a complication for the Pacers.

There’s a decent chance that the salary would be better than any that Hibbert would be able to command in free agency, but he’d probably be able to secure a much greater amount of money over the long term if he opts out, so it isn’t easy for the Pacers to guess what he’ll do. President of basketball operations Larry Bird and company are no doubt keyed into the thinking of the center who’s been a part of the team since 2008, but until they know for sure, the Pacers will have to look ahead to next summer with uncertainty about whether they’ll have significant cap room. Add to the mix David West‘s $12MM player option, another one that could go either way, and there’s no clear picture of the summer ahead for Indiana, which, aside from the options, currently has about $36MM in commitments for 2015/16.

Hibbert and West possess two of the NBA’s nine 2015/16 player options worth more than $10MM, but the Pacers are just one of three teams with multiple players holding such lucrative options. The Cavs, with two of the three most expensive ones, and the Heat are the others. The tenth-most expensive player option in the league, which belongs to Thaddeus Young, is actually an early termination option, though it functions much the same way as a standard player option does.

Jared Dudley holds the only other early termination option for 2015/16, but the possibility, if not the assumption, that he’ll opt in led the Clippers to trade him to the Bucks this summer for a pair of contracts with non-guaranteed salary for 2015/16 instead. The Clippers didn’t have to factor in that non-guaranteed money when they waived Carlos Delfino and Miroslav Raduljica, the two players they acquired in the Dudley trade, and used the Stretch Provision to spread their salaries. Conversely, the value of Dudley’s option would have counted if the Clippers were to have simply waived and stretched him, so even though Dudley may never end up seeing that money, it’s already influenced where he’s playing. However, if Dudley’s option were merely a player option instead of an early termination option, the salary wouldn’t necessarily have counted. Players and teams who sign contracts that contain player options choose whether or not the player will receive the salary in the option year in the event that he’s waived before he has a chance to decide on the option.

The presence of player and early termination options will no doubt come into play again as teams discuss trades between now and the February 19th trade deadline. All 33 player options for 2015/16 are listed below and rounded to the nearest $1K.

  1. LeBron James, Cavaliers: $21.573MM
  2. Brook Lopez, Nets: $16.744MM
  3. Kevin Love, Cavaliers: $16.744MM
  4. Dwyane Wade, Heat: $16.125MM
  5. Eric Gordon, Pelicans: $15.514MM
  6. Roy Hibbert, Pacers: $15.514MM
  7. Al Jefferson, Hornets: $13.5MM
  8. David West, Pacers: $12.6MM
  9. Luol Deng, Heat: $10.152MM
  10. Thaddeus Young, Timberwolves: $9.972MM (early termination)
  11. Jeff Green, Celtics: $9.2MM
  12. Monta Ellis, Mavericks: $8.72MM
  13. Arron Afflalo, Nuggets: $7.5MM
  14. Goran Dragic, Suns: $7.5MM
  15. J.R. Smith, Knicks: $6.4MM
  16. Gerald Henderson, Hornets: $6MM
  17. Paul Pierce, Wizards: $5.544MM
  18. Chase Budinger, Timberwolves: $5MM
  19. Corey Brewer, Timberwolves: $4.905MM
  20. Jared Dudley, Bucks: $4.25MM (early termination)
  21. Raymond Felton, Mavericks: $3.95MM
  22. Kirk Hinrich, Bulls: $2.855MM
  23. Mike Miller, Cavaliers: $2.855MM
  24. Jameer Nelson, Mavericks: $2.855MM
  25. Steve Blake, Trail Blazers: $2.17MM
  26. Jordan Farmar, Clippers: $2.17MM
  27. Danny Granger, Heat: $2.17MM
  28. Alan Anderson, Nets: $1.333MM
  29. Cartier Martin, Pistons: $1.271MM
  30. Brandon Rush, Warriors: $1.271MM
  31. Al-Farouq Aminu, Mavericks: $1.101MM
  32. Ed Davis, Lakers: $1.101MM
  33. Garrett Temple, Wizards: $1.101MM

The Basketball Insiders salary pages and Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ were used in the creation of this post.

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Offseason In Review: San Antonio Spurs

November 25th, 2014 at 10:56am CST by Chuck Myron

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

  • Acquired 2014 pick No. 54 from the Sixers in exchange for 2014 pick No. 58 and 2014 pick No. 60.

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

  • Kyle Anderson (Round 1, 30th overall). Signed via rookie exception to rookie scale contract.
  • Nemanja Dangubic (Round 2, 54th overall): Playing overseas.

Camp Invitees

  • Bryce Cotton
  • Josh Davis
  • Fuquan Edwin
  • JaMychal Green
  • John Holland
  • Robert Vaden

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

  • None

The NBA has learned not to mess with the team from south Texas, and the team from south Texas has learned not to mess with success. The Spurs have begun 2014/15 with a roster almost identical to the one that steamrolled the Heat in the Finals last season. The only difference is that Damion James, who scored just six points in five regular season games and didn’t appear in the playoffs, is no longer around and Kyle Anderson, the last pick of the first round this year, is in his place. Still, it’s not as if GM R.C. Buford and Gregg Popovich, who carries the dual title of coach and president of Spurs basketball, were without decisions to make in the offseason.

NBA: San Antonio Spurs at Minnesota TimberwolvesBefore Buford and Popovich could make their decisions, Tim Duncan had to make his. The franchise icon had a player option for 2014/15, one that the league adjusted from $10MM to more than $10.361MM, and he briefly considered retirement before ultimately opting in for a chance to win back-to-back titles for the first time. There were also questions surrounding Manu Ginobili‘s willingness to return for another season, but Ginobili had no player option on his contract, which runs through this season, and he said in April that he was “pretty sure” he would be back for this season. He confirmed that in June, saying that he plans to play through 2014/15 and maybe 2015/16.

The future of Duncan and Ginobili reportedly played into extension talks with Kawhi Leonard last month. Leonard had been seeking the max in the months after winning the 2014 Finals MVP, but such a commitment would have compromised San Antonio’s potential to open significant cap space this coming summer. That’s space the Spurs are apparently thinking about using to pursue marquee free agents if Duncan and Ginobili retire. The Spurs have close to $34.2MM in salary commitments against a projected $66.5MM salary cap for 2015/16. That doesn’t count cap holds for the seven players whose contracts expire at season’s end, including Duncan, Ginobili and Leonard. The Spurs could renounce their rights to Duncan and Ginobili if they retire, but because the team decided against an extension for Leonard, his cap hold will only take up slightly more than $7.235MM. San Antonio could spend up to the cap and still give Leonard a new deal, or match another team’s offer sheet, via Bird rights. Several league executives told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports that the Brian Elfus client will command max offer sheets in the summer, but the Spurs would almost certainly match any offer sheets that come his way, Wojnarowski wrote. So, it seems that San Antonio’s decision to pass on an extension for the 23-year-old has more to do with timing and salary cap strategy than doubts about his ability, even though Leonard’s three straight games of 20 or more points in the Finals constituted the first such stretch of his career.

It’s not as if the Spurs are opposed to extensions. They handed out a rare veteran extension to Tony Parker, giving him the maximum amount such an extension would allow. Parker could have signed a new contract with the Spurs or another team next summer for much more in annual salary and either four or five years instead of the three that the veteran extension rules allow. Instead, he again gave San Antonio a discount, just as he did when he signed his last extension. Parker made it clear that he wants to eventually finish his career in San Antonio, underscoring the unusual, if not unique, deference that he, Duncan and Ginobili so often give to the only NBA organization for which they’ve ever played. Parker very well could have commanded a salary in the neighborhood of $20MM for 2015/16, depending on where the maximum salary is set, but with only about $13.438MM coming his way, the Spurs have significantly more spending power to replenish their roster should Duncan and Ginobili retire.

It’s no surprise that the organization decided to recommit itself to the man at the controls of that culture of sacrifice, signing Popovich to a multiyear extension. Popovich has been the NBA’s Coach of the Year two out of the last three seasons, and he’s done so while wielding front office power in tandem with Buford, the reigning NBA Executive of the Year. The 65-year-old Popovich has joked that he’ll walk away from his job when Duncan retires, but he’s reportedly eager to coach four or five more years, and he’s suggested that he promised Parker that he’ll continue for the duration of the point guard’s extension, which runs through 2017/18.

Boris Diaw‘s contract will also keep him in San Antonio for that timeframe, providing the Spurs continue to want him around. San Antonio lavished better than mid-level money on the versatile big man, protecting themselves with non-guaranteed salary at the back end and some creative clauses, including incentives tied to Diaw’s ability to keep his weight in check. The Blazers were the only other team linked to the Doug Neustadt client, so it was a bit surprising to see San Antonio pay a premium on a long-term deal to a 32-year-old who only started 24 regular season games last season. Still, Diaw’s unselfishness on offense, which fits snugly into San Antonio’s philosophy, and his ability to guard multiple positions on defense helped prove his value.

The Spurs balanced their expensive deal for Diaw against a discount for Patrick Mills, whose shoulder injury derailed his free agency. The point guard reportedly had mutual interest in the Knicks, but once he received his diagnosis, it became clear he would re-sign with the Spurs. The Hornets, too, apparently planned to go after Mills but changed their minds when the injury surfaced. The 26-year-old will be making salaries roughly equivalent to the taxpayer’s mid-level exception the next three years, which is a team-friendly arrangement for a point guard who emerged as one of the league’s best backups last season.

San Antonio spent much of the summer with 14 players under fully guaranteed contracts for this season while negotiations dragged on with restricted free agent Aron Baynes, who eventually became the 15th. The Spurs spent time mulling sign-and-trade possibilities and Baynes cast an eye toward signing with a European team. San Antonio reportedly looked at alternatives including NBA veterans Ray Allen, Gustavo Ayon, Michael Beasley, Jamaal Franklin and Hakim Warrick, among others. San Antonio was particularly persistent with Ayon, who wound up heading overseas after a pair of Spanish teams resolved a dispute over his rights. That left the Spurs to circle back to Baynes, though San Antonio reportedly continues to eye Allen.

Change will eventually come to the Spurs, but for now, just about everyone involved has agreed that the chance to a repeat as champions, perhaps the lone accomplishment the Popovich-Duncan era team hasn’t achieved, is enticing enough to stick around for. San Antonio is the rare team that’s been able to maintain its success while keeping plenty of flexibility for the future, thanks in large measure to sacrifice from Parker and others, and while Duncan and Ginobili near the end, San Antonio’s run as an elite team seems poised to continue for the foreseeable future.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Hoops Rumors Originals

November 23rd, 2014 at 6:40pm CST by Zachary Links

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

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Offseason In Review: Minnesota Timberwolves

November 22nd, 2014 at 8:42am CST by Eddie Scarito

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

  • Zach LaVine (Round 1, 13th overall). Signed via rookie exception to rookie scale contract.
  • Glenn Robinson III (Round 2, 40th overall). Signed via minimum-salary exception for one year, $507K. Partially guaranteed for $250K.

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

For the second time in seven years, the Timberwolves were forced to deal away their star player and begin anew. Team president Flip Saunders certainly hopes this time around brings Minnesota better results than when Kevin Garnett was shipped to Boston back in 2007, seeing as the franchise has only averaged 25 wins per season since that trade.

NBA: Minnesota Timberwolves at Miami HeatIn this rebuilding sequel the player being dealt was Kevin Love, and much of the offseason headlines and speculation around the league were focused squarely on where Love was headed, and what kind of package it would take for the Wolves to hit the reset button on the franchise. It turns out that a package of the last two No. 1 overall picks from the Cavs was the answer to that riddle, along with Thaddeus Young, by way of the Sixers, whose talent level makes him much more than just a throw-in.

While I understand how frustrating it must be for fans of the Wolves to see yet another highly talented player leave town, the fact is that the team wasn’t headed to the NBA Finals with Love anytime soon. The franchise hasn’t so much as sniffed the playoffs during his tenure, so this is nowhere near the step back that losing Garnett was. Love was almost assured of leaving the team next summer, when he can opt out the contract that former GM David Kahn designed when he wouldn’t commit to a five-year extension for Love, so Saunders made a tough call, but a correct one.

A deal that sends away a superstar for a package of lesser assets doesn’t usually help the franchise that relinquishes the better player, as is illustrated in my Trade Retrospective Series. This trend might continue with Minnesota, but I applaud Saunders for pulling the trigger on flipping Love for the best possible package available in Wiggins, Bennett, and Young. The Wolves aren’t likely to contend in the brutal Western Conference for a few more seasons, but if and when they do finally break through, this deal could be looked back upon as one that laid the foundation for that achievement.

The primary piece that Saunders acquired is this year’s No. 1 overall draftee, Andrew Wiggins. It will take some time, but Wiggins has superstar potential, and he’s a player whom a franchise can build around, as well as someone the Wolves can use as a marquee attraction to sell season tickets, given his ridiculous athleticism and above-the-rim antics. The only real knock on Wiggins is that he seemingly lacks the killer instinct present in most, if not all, of the true alphas in the NBA. But if that’s true, Minnesota is the perfect place for Wiggins to develop, outside of the spotlight of a major market where he can play for a team not expected to make the playoffs this season. I think Wiggins will end up surprising many in this regard and figure things out sooner than expected. In a few seasons, the Cavs could be ruing the day they traded him.

The other pieces Minnesota acquired are wild cards, however. There is no denying that Young is a talent, and he’ll be counted on for veteran leadership. But the ex-Sixer may be too weary from all those losing seasons in Philadelphia to go through the process again with the Wolves, and with an early termination option for next season in his possession, it’s quite possible he’ll end up having been merely a one-season rental. I’d be surprised if Young didn’t exercise his ETO, as the long-term security of a brand new deal would be the smart play, and he’s almost assured to do better salary-wise than the $9,971,739 that he’s set to earn next year. A strong season by Young should thrust his market value into the neighborhood at least the $12MM per year. That doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t re-sign with the Wolves, but he’d be remiss if he didn’t at least explore the free agent market.

As for Bennett, he’s clearly not going to live up to his status as the top pick in the 2013 NBA draft, though there’s an easy argument to make that he should never have been selected that high to begin with. The Wolves have little to lose by giving him a shot to develop, and he has looked much improved this season, though he’s not likely to be an All-Star anytime soon. Any production they can get from Bennett, whom the Wolves are using almost exclusively at power forward this season after the Cavs tried him at small forward last year, is a bonus.

Minnesota is not viewed as a true free agent destination, as smaller cold-weather cities rarely are in the NBA. So the team is forced to mine the second tier of available free agents. That template certainly applies to the team’s lone free agent acquisition this offseason. The Mo Williams signing was another shrewd move by Saunders, as the team certainly needed veteran leadership, as well as depth at the point guard spot. With the injury to Ricky Rubio, Williams’ presence is even more valuable. At the very least Williams could provide the team with a valuable trade asset later in the season.

The draft is extremely important to the fortunes of the team, given Minnesota’s lack of appeal to marquee free agents. Saunders’ selection of Zach LaVine comes with some intriguing possibilities. LaVine is a stellar athlete who has off-the-charts leaping ability, and his potential is unlimited. But he’s incredibly raw, having played only one season at UCLA, and he wasn’t even a starter during that time. Scouts have compared LaVine favorably to another Bruins alum, Russell Westbrook. That is a tough legacy to live up to, though Westbrook entered the league with many of the same concerns about his game, and he turned out pretty well for the Thunder. It’s going to take some time to be able to accurately gauge what kind of player LaVine will be, but Saunders deserves some credit for gambling on him.

With his second round pick, Saunders selected Glenn Robinson III, another player with intriguing long-term potential. Robinson has the skills to develop into a useful rotation player, though he’ll likely spend more time in the D-League than on the NBA hardwood this season.

Saunders also needed to find a new head coach to replace the retired Rick Adelman. He surveyed a number of marquee college coaches, and at one point owner Glen Taylor was keen on Saunders hiring ex-Raptors coach Sam Mitchell, who had a long career with the Timberwolves as a player. But Saunders’ primary target became Grizzlies head man Dave Joerger, whose job security was tenuous at best since Memphis owner Robert Pera was revamping his entire front office and had been rumored to be considering firing Joerger back in November of 2013. But Joerger and Pera patched up their relationship and Joerger signed an extension to remain in Memphis. This led Saunders to fill the role himself, though his arrangement is “open-ended” in terms of length, meaning Saunders will have the opportunity to revisit a search for someone else to coach the team in the future.

The final move the team made during its active offseason, and perhaps the most important one aside from the Love trade, was to lock up Rubio on a long-term extension. Saunders was obviously determined not to run the risk of losing yet another player to free agency, though $55MM plus incentives over four years may be a bit of an overpay for the 24-year-old from Spain. Prior to his injury, Rubio was enjoying an excellent season, averaging 9.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 10.0 assists per game. If Rubio can ever develop a reliable jump shot, something his contract incentives are tied directly to, and resume his early-season production level when he returns, he’ll be worth that chunk of cap space.

Heading into 2015/16, the team currently has more than $49MM committed in guaranteed salaries. That figure doesn’t include Young’s salary, though he’ll likely exercise his ETO, and the player options for Chase Budinger ($5MM) and Corey Brewer ($4.905MM). If the team re-signs Young, and if both Budinger and Brewer opt in, which is likely in Budinger’s case, the team won’t have much room under the cap to play with. Brewer is currently the subject of numerous trade rumors, though Saunders has hinted that he’s too valuable to trade. That is something I believe is posturing on Saunders’ part, designed to try and increase any return the team would receive for Brewer. Budinger, too, found his name in trade rumors prior to the season.

Another contract on his books that Saunders should consider trying to unload is Nikola Pekovic‘s. The team still owes him three more years and $35.8MM after this season, numbers not in line with Pekovic’s production. While talented big men are at a premium in the league, their importance in the guard-oriented NBA world we currently live in has been diminished. And at 28 years of age, Pekovic isn’t likely to provide much more than his career averages of 13.0 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. This contract will hamper the team’s growth similar to how Roy Hibbert‘s deal is hamstringing the Pacers.

With Love gone, the immediate outlook for the Timberwolves’ fortunes hasn’t improved, though they weren’t likely to shine even if Love had remained in Minnesota. For the long term, the team’s outlook has a glimmer of hope in the core of Wiggins, Rubio, and LaVine. The franchise will continue to struggle to attract top-tier free agents, but if the Wolves can maximize their future draft picks and add the right mix of role players, the long-suffering fans in Minnesota just might have something to cheer about.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post. Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

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Offseason In Review: Indiana Pacers

November 20th, 2014 at 8:02pm CST by Eddie Scarito

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 cash from the Knicks in exchange for 2014 pick No. 57.

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

  • None

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

It can be argued that Indiana’s 2014/15 season was effectively scuttled on August 1st, the day that the team’s star, Paul George, broke his leg during a Team USA intrasquad scrimmage. With George likely to miss the entire season and the franchise’s second-best offensive weapon, Lance Stephenson, having defected to the Hornets via free agency, it’s going to be a difficult year for Pacers faithful.

NBA: Indiana Pacers at Washington WizardsWhile it’s hard to fault Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird for the team’s current state, since George’s injury was not an event that could be anticipated, the team’s roster was already flawed before George went down. Indiana nearly played itself out of the top seed in the Eastern Conference during the second half of last season, and though the Pacers made it to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight year, it appeared by the end of that series that the Pacers had taken a step back.

Letting Stephenson go was a difficult call and one that Bird likely would have rethought if George’s injury had occurred prior to the start of free agency in July. Stephenson’s talent level has always been weighed against his propensity for odd and sometimes disruptive behavior, but the 24-year-old shooting guard out of Cincinnati had a fan in Bird, and Stephenson himself signaled his desire to return to Indiana. But as John Steinbeck wrote, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

The Pacers appeared to move on from Stephenson rather quickly after he turned down the team’s initial five-year, $44MM offer when the team inked C.J. Miles, Damjan Rudez, and Rodney Stuckey. These deals largely eliminated any wiggle room the franchise had underneath the luxury tax threshold, a line that the team has been adamant about not crossing.

Miles was the team’s most lucrative expenditure, and while the deal feels like a bit of an overpay for a 27-year-old, one-dimensional role player, he would have been a nice complementary piece to the team’s rotation if Paul wasn’t injured. Indiana needed to add an outside threat to spread the floor for Roy Hibbert and David West, which Miles certainly can do when he’s “on,” but as a player the team is relying upon to carry a heavy offensive load, the flaws in his game will be exposed. I like the idea of a one- or two-year deal for Miles, but four years is stretching the bounds of good sense.

The deals the Pacers gave to Stuckey and Rudez are ones that I am fonder of. The Pacers had a need for more depth and production at the point, and while Stuckey is more of a scorer than a distributor, he certainly can help the team, and there’s a decent chance that his one-year deal will have been a bargain. Indiana brought Rudez from overseas with the hope that he could compete for minutes at small forward, but a guaranteed three-year pact is a risk for an NBA-unproven European talent. Still, his near-minimum salaries are not amounts that will hamstring the team moving forward.

What is hurting the Pacers is the $14,898,938 chunk of cap space that they allocated to Hibbert. Bird must have had a flashback to the NBA of his playing days, an era when teams needed a dominant big man to have a shot at contention, when he signed Hibbert to a four-year, $58.37MM contract in 2012 to keep him from jumping to the Blazers. Hibbert is a staunch rim protector, something that is still quite valuable, but his offensive game hasn’t developed as the team had hoped and his career 6.8 rebounds per game average is shameful for a player of his size. It also doesn’t help that he doesn’t match up well with smaller, athletic centers and the team is forced to sit him for long stretches, as occurred numerous times during last season’s playoffs. Indiana should pray that Hibbert declines his 2015/16 player option, worth more than $15.514MM, though that is highly unlikely.

Indiana doesn’t have much in the way of movable assets it can use to turn around its fortunes this season. David West would be a likely candidate, since his veteran leadership and ample skills could help many a contender, but West has yet to play this season courtesy of an ankle injury he sustained back in October. His $12MM salary would also make a trade difficult, and Indiana would be unlikely to garner any game-changing pieces in such a deal. West also has a player option for next season, when he is slated to make $12.6MM, but he has also hinted at retiring rather than continuing his distinguished career. A change of scenery and a chance to be part of a contending team could motivate him to keep playing, but moving him wouldn’t be advisable for Indiana unless the Pacers could somehow net some combination of an expiring contract, a younger player, and a draft pick.

One rumored deal the Pacers should revisit is the idea of a Chris Copeland–J.R. Smith trade with the Knicks. Copeland is currently Indiana’s leading scorer, but that isn’t saying much on a squad averaging a paltry 91.9 PPG. Smith would bring headaches of his own, though nothing in the realm of Stephenson’s nightly oddities. The Knicks have a glut of shooting guards and would be all too anxious to rid themselves of Smith and his 2015/16 player option for nearly $6.4MM. Smith could offset some of the loss of George, and while he wouldn’t thrust the team into contention this year, he would at least make the Pacers watchable on the offensive side. Smith would also pair nicely alongside George next season, which should be the team’s focus this year anyway since it isn’t moving up in the standings anytime soon. Still, the Pacers would have to add more salary to any such deal to make it legal.

The Pacers are almost assuredly heading toward the NBA draft lottery and will have a chance to nab a valuable young piece for the future. Indiana has about $36MM in guaranteed salaries on the books for 2015/16, but Hibbert’s and West’s player options could inflate that by about another $28.1MM. That will not leave the franchise with much in the way of cap space to make a splash in the free agency market next summer. So unless Bird can work some trade magic this season, it is looking increasingly likely that the Pacers’ window to contend has shut. Indiana must hope that George can return to his pre-injury form, the team can score big in the draft, and both Hibbert and West are off the roster by next season. Otherwise, it will be at least a few years before Indiana becomes relevant again in the Eastern Conference title race.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Offseason In Review: Chicago Bulls

November 20th, 2014 at 1:54pm CST by Chuck Myron

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 2014 pick No. 11 and Anthony Randolph from the Nuggets in exchange for 2014 pick No. 16, 2014 pick No. 19, and the less favorable of Chicago’s and Portland’s 2015 second-round picks.
  • Acquired the rights to Milovan Rakovic from the Magic in exchange for Anthony Randolph, the more favorable of Chicago’s and Portland’s 2015 second-round picks, the more favorable of Chicago’s and Portland’s 2016 second-round picks, and cash.
  • Acquired the rights to Tadija Dragicevic from the Mavericks in exchange for Greg Smith.

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

The Bulls didn’t end up with Carmelo Anthony or Kevin Love this year, but they nonetheless made their most significant upgrades since Derrick Rose‘s MVP season in 2010/11. The past calendar year has featured upheaval in Chicago, starting with the January trade of Luol Deng, and the Bulls gave every indication that more changes were on the way heading into the summer. Their pursuit of Anthony was always fraught with pitfalls, thanks mostly to the salary cap chicanery that GM Gar Forman and executive VP of basketball operations John Paxson would have had to pull off to give him a contract anywhere near the max. It was Plan A, to be sure, but Forman and Paxson weren’t without intriguing alternatives that extended beyond what for the most part appeared to be a long shot bid to trade for Love.

NBA: Chicago Bulls at New York KnicksTo affect any of the major changes they sought, the Bulls had to unload Carlos Boozer‘s unwieldy $16.8MM salary. They held the amnesty provision in their quiver, but waiving him meant still having to pay him, even if he would vanish from the team’s cap figure. So, the Bulls sought to trade the power forward who’d never quite lived up to having been the team’s marquee signing from 2010, the last time Chicago made such sweeping changes.

Forman and Paxson kept the notion of a Boozer trade alive even as they neared a deal with Pau Gasol for more than they would have been able to pay if they had kept Boozer and remained over the salary cap. The Bulls had talks with the Lakers about turning the Gasol acquisition into a sign-and-trade that would have allowed Chicago to cobble together matching salaries to send out. Chicago also wound up giving Nikola Mirotic a deal with a starting salary at precisely the amount of the mid-level exception, the most the team could have paid him while remaining over the cap. Ultimately, no palatable trade for Boozer came about, forcing the Bulls to amnesty him. Chicago moved on from the idea of a sign-and-trade for Gasol and simply inked him outright into the cap space that the amnesty had created, using the rest of the cap room on Mirotic and a long-term deal for second-round pick Cameron Bairstow. Still, the Bulls caught a break when the Lakers claimed Boozer off waivers, defraying a $3.251MM portion of the cost of Boozer’s salary.

Gasol gives the Bulls a gifted passer and a player whose game is more multidimensional than Boozer’s, and coach Tom Thibodeau has already taken advantage of the opportunity to pair Gasol with center Joakim Noah in a twin-towers starting lineup. The Spanish center is an odd fit to a degree because of Taj Gibson, whose game continued to grow last season. Still, Gibson is seeing even more minutes per game this year than he did last year, though the maladies that have kept Noah and Gasol out of a few games have no doubt contributed to that. Mirotic plays power forward, too, so the Bulls wouldn’t have been in a bind without either Boozer or Gasol. Still, given the team’s title aspirations, a proven and still capable veteran with two championship rings trumps the intrigue of a rookie, even if that rookie was perhaps the best player who wasn’t in the NBA last season.

Mirotic has nonetheless seen 12.1 minutes per game so far this year, about the same amount of playing time that Thibodeau has given to small forward Doug McDermott, the 11th overall pick in this year’s draft. The Bulls saw fit to consolidate their pair of later first-round picks to move up for McDermott, even if it meant absorbing the guaranteed salary of Anthony Randolph to do so. Randolph complicated Chicago’s pursuit of cap flexibility until the Bulls attached him to a pair of second-round draft picks and cash in a trade that sent him to Orlando. That move, combined with the acquisition of McDermott, meant the Bulls had turned two first-rounders and two second-rounders into a single first-rounder, but the first-rounder the Bulls wound up with was the only lottery pick in the bunch. There are plenty of doubts about McDermott’s ability to translate his high-scoring college game to the NBA, particularly given Thibodeau’s defense-first approach, but contenders like Chicago rarely have a chance to add a player of his talent through the draft. It’s a risk worth taking, and it demonstrates that Forman and Paxson are thinking of the long-term future even as they try to win the title this year.

Still, the Bulls held the line with Jimmy Butler, reportedly offering him somewhat more than $11MM a year in extension proposals that the swingman turned down. The former 30th overall pick is off to a roaring start this season, averaging 21.3 points per game and answering the questions that surrounded his offensive capabilities, which had seemed to lag behind his defense. The Bulls may end up having to shell out much more than $11MM a year if Butler can keep it up, but the Happy Walters client has pledged to remain with the Bulls, and Forman and Paxson would no doubt be willing to pay a premium for a budding two-way star.

Key to preserving success in the near term and the long term is loyalty, and Kirk Hinrich showed his affection for the Bulls organization when he reportedly turned down better offers to accept the room exception from Chicago. The 33-year-old had spent nine of his 11 years in the NBA as a Bull, averaging as many as 16.6 PPG during the 2006/07 season. That scoring average was nearly cut in half two years later, and he’s spent most of his time since as an afterthought on offense. The former Kansas standout is never going to be an elite scoring force, but he might have had a much more significant role than the one he’s played in Chicago if he had signed with either the Hornets or the Jazz, the pair of teams that apparently challenged the Bulls for his services. Neither of those clubs would have given him his best chance at his first championship, however. Given the eternal questions surrounding Rose’s health, Hinrich’s ability to both fill in for the former MVP when necessary and play alongside him when not makes Hinrich more valuable to Chicago than his salary or his statistics reflect.

Yet the Bulls aren’t going to win the title if Hinrich, or fellow offseason signee Aaron Brooks, ends up starting at point guard. The Bulls rise and fall with Rose, and short of the acquisition of a star like ‘Melo or Love, that’s not going to change. Forman and Paxson did their best this summer to keep the Bulls in the title hunt this season and for years to come, but they remain beholden to the knees of the team’s former No. 1 overall pick.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Offseason In Review: Dallas Mavericks

November 18th, 2014 at 5:36pm CST by Eddie Scarito

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

  • None

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

  • None

For teams residing in the brutally tough Western Conference the margin for error when constructing a roster is paper thin. It’s also a task that, even when making all of the proper moves, can have an incredibly short window for success. This was a lesson that the Mavericks learned quite well after bringing home the NBA title back in 2010/11. Since allowing a number of key contributors from that squad to depart, the franchise hasn’t made it out of the first round of the playoffs. With Mavs icon Dirk Nowitzki inching closer to retirement with each passing minute, owner Mark Cuban and GM Donnie Nelson decided to significantly overhaul his roster this past offseason.

NBA: Boston Celtics at Dallas MavericksOf course, before he could build around Nowitzki, Nelson first had to re-sign the 36-year-old star who was an unrestricted free agent. It was never a matter of if Nowitzki would re-sign with the Mavs but simply a question of how much of a discount he would give them. Many athletes throw out the requisite chatter about winning being more important than money, but most usually end up signing for top dollar anyway. Nowitzki is the rare player who backed up the talk by accepting a ridiculously team-friendly deal, making him an absolute steal on his three-year, $25MM contract.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is the three-year, $46.085MM deal to which Cuban and Nelson inked restricted free agent Chandler Parsons. Dallas had to overpay in order to prevent the Rockets from matching the offer sheet, but one has to think that the opportunity to stick it to Houston GM Daryl Morey, an archrival, clouded the better judgment of the Mavs here.

To say that I dislike this deal would be a gross understatement. I like Parsons as a complementary player, but he is in no way worth the amount he is being paid, and Dallas would have been much wiser to forgo Parsons and pursue Trevor Ariza instead. Ariza has a very similar offensive skill set to Parsons, but is a superior defender, and his four-year, $32MM contract would have been a much wiser long-term investment. Parsons’ contract is virtually unmovable, as Morey pointed out, and will haunt the Mavs for its duration.

Nelson and Cuban also signed a number of veteran players to fill out the team’s depth chart. Nabbing Jameer Nelson. Al-Farouq Aminu, Richard Jefferson and Charlie Villanueva on team-friendly deals were all solid moves, and necessary if the team hopes to make waves in the west. I’m not as bullish about Nelson re-signing Devin Harris for four years and $17.563MM though. It’s too long of a contract for a 31-year-old point guard with his injury history and declining production. This is another contract that will hamper the franchise’s future moves regardless of the fact that the fourth year is non-guaranteed.

Part of the impetus to bring back Harris was the trade the Mavs worked out with the Knicks to reacquire Tyson Chandler, a player that both Cuban and Nelson acknowledged should have been retained after that championship season. To complete the deal, the Mavs shipped out starting point guard Jose Calderon, who was New York’s main target, as well as intriguing young guard Shane Larkin, who only saw limited action during his rookie season in Dallas.

A motivated and healthy Chandler can be a true difference maker for the Mavericks, who sorely missed the big man’s fire and defensive leadership. Chandler certainly seems like his old self thus far, averaging 11.5 points and 10.3 rebounds, a nice upgrade over Samuel Dalembert, who also went to the Knicks as a part of the Chandler trade.

As wise a move as it was to bring back Chandler, it nonetheless negatively affected the team’s depth and production at point guard, and Calderon’s marksmanship, ball-handling, and leadership will be difficult to replace. The trade also meant that Dallas would take on the remaining two years and $7,744,306 of Raymond Felton‘s contract. He has a player option for 2015/16, but unless Felton has a bounceback season this year after he returns from his injury and the subsequent four-game suspension that he must serve, he’s more than likely to opt in.

The Knicks’ motivation to make the trade was as much about ridding themselves of Felton as it was about obtaining Calderon. The 30-year-old Felton was one of the worst starting point guards in the league last year statistically, and he had worn out his welcome in New York. While Dallas may be able to make up for Calderon’s departure in aggregate, the Mavs may live to regret dealing away Shane Larkin, who has quite a bit of potential.

This uncertainty about their point guard situation also led Dallas to re-sign J.J. Barea to a prorated minimum salary contract for the rest of the season after the Wolves waived him just as the season began. To accommodate Barea’s signing the Mavs had to part with another young point guard with potential in Gal Mekel. With Dallas’ veteran roster and the team trying to maximize the time remaining in the league for Nowitzki, going the veteran route makes sense, but it is always a risk when mortgaging the future for the now.

So far the Mavs’ re-tooling has worked out, and the team is off to a 8-3 start to the season. With the west a bit more wide open than expected thanks to the injuries the Thunder have endured, Dallas has a chance to snag a higher playoff seeding than anticipated. But this team isn’t constructed for the long-term, with only three players who possess contracts with no options or non-guaranteed salary for next season. Chandler is set to become a free agent and there are four players (Felton, Monta Ellis, Nelson, and Aminu) who possess player options for the 2015/16 campaign. Nowitzki’s sweetheart deal will help Cuban and Nelson restock next summer, but Parsons’ bloated contract will negate some of that flexibility. It will take quite a bit of luck for the Mavs to advance deep into the playoffs this season, and the team had better hope that the addition of Chandler was worth the hit they took at the point to obtain him.

Photo courtesy of USA Today. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post. Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

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