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Free Agent Spending By Division: Southwest

July 29th, 2016 at 1:53pm CST by Luke Adams

Over the next week, we’ll be breaking down 2016 NBA free agent spending by division, examining which teams – and divisions – were the most active this July.

These divisional breakdowns won’t present a full picture of teams’ offseason spending. Some notable free agents, including LeBron James, remain unsigned, so there’s still money out there to be spent. Our lists also don’t include money spent on this year’s first- and second-round picks or draft-and-stash signings. There are a few free agent names missing in some instances as well, since those deals aren’t yet official or terms haven’t been reported.

Still, these closer looks at divisional spending should generally reveal how teams invested their money in free agency this summer, identifying which clubs went all-out and which ones played it safe.

With the help of our Free Agent Tracker and contract info from Basketball Insiders, we’ll kick off the series today with a look at the Southwest division. Let’s dive in…

1. Memphis Grizzlies

  • Total money committed: $266,310,613
  • Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $251,079,762
  • Largest expenditure: Mike Conley (five years, $152,607,578)
  • Other notable signings:
  • Notes:
    • Wayne Selden‘s deal is not included in these totals, since it’s a summer contract and won’t count toward the Grizzlies’ cap unless he makes the regular-season roster.
    • The fifth year of Conley’s deal is not fully guaranteed for now, but will become guaranteed if Conley plays in 55 games in the 2018/19 or 2019/20 seasons.

2. Dallas Mavericks

  • Total money committed: $208,352,773
  • Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $173,518,115
  • Largest expenditure: Harrison Barnes (four years, $94,438,523)
  • Other notable signings:
  • Notes:
    • Keith Hornsby‘s contract with the Mavericks is not included in these figures, since details haven’t yet been reported.
    • Nowitzki’s deal contributes significantly to the gap between the Mavs’ total money and guaranteed money committed, since his second year ($25MM) is a team option.

3. Houston Rockets

  • Total money committed: $135,784,790
  • Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $135,784,790
  • Largest expenditure: Ryan Anderson (four years, $80,000,000)
  • Other notable signings:
  • Notes:
    • The Rockets are believed to have two-year, minimum-salary agreements in place with Pablo Prigioni, Kyle Wiltjer, Isaiah Taylor, and Gary Payton II. However, those deals haven’t been made official, so they’re not included in our totals.
    • Bobby Brown‘s deal is not included in these totals, since it’s believed to be a summer contract which won’t count toward the Rockets’ cap unless he makes the regular-season roster.

4. New Orleans Pelicans

  • Total money committed: $99,104,431
  • Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $99,104,431
  • Largest expenditure: Solomon Hill (four years, $48,000,000)
  • Other notable signings:
  • Notes:
    • Terrence Jones will earn $1,050,961 on a minimum-salary contract, but the Pelicans will only pay $980,431 of that salary, with the NBA footing the rest of the bill.
    • The Pelicans still figure to add non-guaranteed deals to fill out their preseason roster, but all their signees so far have had fully guaranteed contracts.

5. San Antonio Spurs

  • Total money committed: $57,678,976
  • Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $54,981,536
  • Largest expenditure: Pau Gasol (two years, $31,697,500)
  • Other notable signings:
  • Notes:
    • Lee’s contract hasn’t been formally announced, but it’s said to be a two-year, minimum-salary pact with a player option in year two. We’ve included that deal in our count, but not Patricio Garino‘s, since the official terms on that one haven’t been reported.
    • Ryan Arcidiacono and Bryn Forbes are the only Spurs free agent signings without fully guaranteed deals so far.
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Grizzlies Add Wayne Selden On Camp Deal

July 28th, 2016 at 10:49am CST by Luke Adams
  • The Grizzlies added Wayne Selden to their offseason roster with a summer contract, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders, who notes (via Twitter) that the training-camp, minimum-salary deal offers no real injury protection for the former Jayhawk.
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D.J. Stephens Gets $35K Guarantee

July 26th, 2016 at 9:51am CST by Luke Adams
  • Pincus provides details on a couple more minimum-salary contracts with partial guarantees, reporting (via Twitter) that D.J. Stephens got $35K from the Grizzlies, while Isaiah Canaan will have a $200K guarantee from the Bulls for 2017/18 — Canaan’s 2016/17 salary is fully guaranteed.
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Grizzlies Sign Troy Williams

July 24th, 2016 at 10:01am CST by Arthur Hill

Indiana small forward Troy Williams has signed a partially guaranteed contract with the Grizzlies, tweets international journalist David Pick.

The 21-year-old Williams averaged 13.3 points and 5.8 assists for the Hoosiers as a junior last season. He wasn’t taken in last month’s draft.

Williams joined the Suns’ summer league team and averaged 12.3 points and 4.3 rebounds in Las Vegas.

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Grizzlies, D.J. Stephens Agree To Deal

July 21st, 2016 at 2:26pm CST by Will Joseph

The Grizzlies and swingman D.J. Stephens have agreed on a partially guaranteed two-year deal, Shams Charania of The Vertical reports (on Twitter). Stephens played for the Grizzlies’ summer league team.

The 25-year-old Stephens has three games of NBA experience with Milwaukee in 2014. The Cavs signed Stephens to a training camp deal last September, but then waived him shortly before the season started. In the previous fall, Stephens inked a non-guaranteed minimum-salary camp deal with the Pelicans and was among the team’s final cuts about a week before Halloween in 2014.

Stephens went undrafted out of the University of Memphis in 2013, despite a 46-inch vertical leap. He never averaged double figures in points during his four years at Memphis, but he used his athleticism on the other end of the floor, winning the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year award in his senior season. He played overseas after his college career.

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Community Shootaround: Western Conference Playoff Teams

July 19th, 2016 at 11:02pm CST by Luke Adams

On Monday, our Community Shootaround discussion focused on 2016’s Eastern Conference playoff teams, as we asked which of those eight clubs is most likely to slide down the standings next season. While the Heat received the most votes, the response was hardly unanimous.

In the Western Conference, however, it seems far more likely that there would be a consensus on which team is in for the biggest slide. The Thunder, after all, lost a perennial MVP candidate in Kevin Durant, and traded a three-team All-Defensive player in Serge Ibaka. The team still has Russell Westbrook on its roster, and was widely lauded for its return in the Ibaka deal, but it’s hard to imagine Oklahoma City as a top-three team and a Conference Finals participant again in the West.

So, as we examine the West’s playoff teams, let’s not focus on which team will slide the most. Instead, let’s discuss which teams’ moves you liked and which ones you didn’t.

The Warriors, of course, made the biggest splash of the offseason when they landed Durant, but is there room for improvement on last year’s 73-win squad, or will it take some time for the team to adjust to its new-look roster?

The Spurs and Clippers have brought back most of their key pieces, but it’s the end of an era in San Antonio, where Tim Duncan has announced his retirement. Adding Pau Gasol to the mix will help, and Duncan had already been surpassed by Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge as the club’s go-to players, but this isn’t the same Spurs team that won a championship just two years ago. As for the Clippers, if their core players stay healthy into the playoffs, there’s still optimism that the team can finally get over the hump, but Chris Paul‘s not getting any younger.

It’s been an eventful summer for the other three Southwest playoffs teams, with the Mavericks bringing in Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut while losing Chandler Parsons and Zaza Pachulia. Parsons ended up with the Grizzlies, who also retained Mike Conley with the largest contract in NBA history. The Rockets, meanwhile, saw Dwight Howard walk in free agency, but landed Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon.

Finally, the Trail Blazers, one of 2015/16’s pleasant surprises, have managed to bring back key restricted free agents like Allen Crabbe and Meyers Leonard, and also made a couple more head-turning moves in free agency, adding Evan Turner and Festus Ezeli on multiyear deals.

So what do you think? Did any of the Western Conference playoff teams besides Golden State and Oklahoma City drastically improve or take a step back this offseason? Or will the storyline in the West next year simply come down to the Thunder losing their best player to the Warriors?

Take to the comments section below to share your opinions on the Warriors, Spurs, Thunder, Clippers, Blazers, Mavs, Grizzlies, and Rockets. We look forward to hearing your thoughts.

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Update On NBA Traded Player Exceptions

July 19th, 2016 at 3:52pm CST by Luke Adams

Traded player exceptions, which we’ve explained extensively in a Hoops Rumors glossary entry, are a tool that over-the-cap teams can use to complete trades. For mid-season deals, when most teams are at or over the salary cap, these exceptions are typically used and created frequently.

This summer, however, with the salary cap increasing by more than $24MM and most teams choosing to use cap room rather than staying over the cap, trade exceptions have become scarcer — and less useful. In order for teams to actually use their available cap room to take on salaries or to sign free agents, those exceptions must be renounced.

Heading into the 2016/17 league year, teams around the NBA held a total of 29 trade exceptions. After the new league year officially got underway and the moratorium ended, the majority of those TPEs were lost. In total, 22 of the 29 previously-existing traded player exceptions were renounced or expired.

Earlier this month, only the Clippers, Cavaliers, and Thunder still held any TPEs, with Cleveland hanging onto five of them, and L.A. and OKC holding one apiece. Over the last week or so, a few new trade exceptions have been created, but with so many teams still under the cap, the full list is much shorter than it has been in past years.

Here’s a breakdown of the newly-created TPEs:

Charlotte Hornets

Amount: $1,666,470
Expires: 7/12/17
How it was created: When the Grizzlies signed Troy Daniels away from the Hornets, they did so in a sign-and-trade deal, allowing Charlotte to create a TPE for half of Daniels’ $3,332,940 salary.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Amount: $1,333,420
Expires: 7/15/17
How it was created: The Cavaliers created this TPE worth Sasha Kaun‘s 2016/17 salary when they sent him to Philadelphia without receiving any NBA salary in return.

(Note: The Cavaliers also created a $4,803,750 trade exception by signing-and-trading Matthew Dellavedova to the Bucks, but immediately used that exception to acquire Mike Dunleavy.)

Los Angeles Clippers

Amount: $1,209,600
Expires: 7/15/17
How it was created: When the Clippers acquired Devyn Marble from the Magic for C.J. Wilcox, the team actually used its old $947,276 TPE (acquired in January’s Josh Smith trade) to absorb Marble’s salary, then created a new exception worth Wilcox’s salary.

The traded player exceptions listed above have been added to our full breakdown of the TPEs available around the league. That list no longer includes the $2,038,206 exception the Thunder created last summer when they sent Perry Jones III to the Celtics — that TPE expired on July 14.

Our full list of TPEs also no longer features the following exceptions, all of which were renounced earlier this month when these teams went under the cap (expiry date listed in parentheses):

  • Atlanta Hawks: $947,276 (2/18/17)
  • Brooklyn Nets: $2,170,465 (7/13/16)
  • Chicago Bulls: $2,854,940 (2/18/17)
  • Chicago Bulls: $947,276 (6/22/17)
  • Denver Nuggets: $135,000 (2/18/17)
  • Detroit Pistons: $6,270,000 (6/29/17)
  • Golden State Warriors: $5,387,825 (7/27/16)
  • Golden State Warriors: $3,197,170 (7/31/16)
  • Memphis Grizzlies: $450,000 (2/18/17)
  • Miami Heat: $1,706,250 (7/27/16)
  • Miami Heat: $1,294,440 (7/27/16)
  • Miami Heat: $2,129,535 (11/10/16)
  • Miami Heat: $2,145,060 (2/16/17)
  • Miami Heat: $845,059 (2/18/17)
  • Miami Heat: $2,854,940 (2/18/17)
  • Milwaukee Bucks: $5,200,000 (7/9/16)
  • Milwaukee Bucks: $4,250,000 (7/9/16)
  • Minnesota Timberwolves: $5,000,000 (7/12/16)
  • New Orleans Pelicans: $102,217 (12/24/16)
  • New York Knicks: $1,572,360 (6/22/17)
  • Phoenix Suns: $578,651 (2/18/17)

Information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.

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Mike Conley Contract Details

July 18th, 2016 at 8:47am CST by Luke Adams
  • Mike Conley‘s five-year max deal with the Grizzlies includes an early termination option for the fifth year, which essentially functions like a player option. If Conley choose to waive that ETO and opts into the final year of his contract, his $34.5MM salary would be guaranteed for $22.427MM. However, if Conley plays in at least 55 games in either 2018/19 or 2019/20, that salary becomes fully guaranteed.

    [SOURCE LINK]
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D.J. Stephens Gets Invitation To Camp

July 17th, 2016 at 8:51pm CST by Arthur Hill
  • The Grizzlies will bring former University of Memphis guard D.J. Stephens to camp, new coach David Fizdale said in an interview on NBA.com. The 25-year-old Stephens has three games of NBA experience with Milwaukee in 2014.
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