- With his looming maximum salary extension now the talk of the league, Bucks MVP forward Giannis Antetokounmpo was set to depart his native Greece for the U.S. this weekend ahead of the team’s training camp kickoff, according to Antigoni Zachari of Eurohoops.
DECEMBER 3: Graham’s non-guaranteed training camp deal is now official, per RealGM’s transactions log.
NOVEMBER 27: Swingman Treveon Graham is signing a training-camp contract from the Bucks, Eric Nehm of The Athletic tweets.
Graham, who became an unrestricted free agent after the season, will look to earn a roster spot during the preseason. He was with the Hawks prior to the restart after he was tossed into the deal that sent Allen Crabbe to the Timberwolves in January.
He received steady playing time with Minnesota (20.1 MPG), including 20 starts, but his playing time dwindled with the Hawks. He appeared in 22 games for Atlanta, averaging 3.3 PPG in 12.1 MPG.
Graham has appeared in 180 career games with stops in Charlotte and Brooklyn along the way.
Sterling Brown‘s new deal with the Rockets is a one-year, minimum-salary contract that is fully guaranteed, according to Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). That makes it one of the simpler, more straightforward deals Houston has finalized this week.
Newly-signed forwards Bruno Caboclo and Jae’Sean Tate, on the other hand, got multiyear contracts, but they both only have $50K guarantees for now, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). Caboclo will have his 2020/21 salary fully guaranteed if he’s on the opening night roster, while Tate will get a $500K partial guarantee if he survives to the regular season opener, Marks writes.
While Caboclo has a two-year, minimum-salary deal, Tate’s three-year contract required the Rockets to dip into their mid-level exception and is worth more than the minimum in year one. As Smith details (via Twitter), Tate’s first-year salary will be $1,445,697 – typically the minimum for a player with one year of NBA experience – instead of the standard rookie minimum of $898,310.
Here are a few more new contract details:
- Celtics forward Jayson Tatum got a 15% trade kicker on his new five-year, maximum-salary extension with Boston, while big man Serge Ibaka received a 15% trade kicker on his two-year contract with the Clippers, according to Keith Smith (Twitter links).
- Torrey Craig‘s one-year deal with the Bucks is a guaranteed contract worth the veteran’s minimum, tweets Smith. That doesn’t come as a surprise, as Milwaukee had no exception money left besides the minimum for Craig.
- Rather than re-signing him to a minimum-salary contract, the Clippers re-signed Patrick Patterson using his Non-Bird rights, giving him 20% more than the minimum, according to Bobby Marks (Twitter link). That means a one-year, $3.08MM contract for the veteran forward.
The NBA salary cap is somewhat malleable, with various exceptions allowing every team to surpass the $109,140,000 threshold once their room is used up. In some cases, teams blow past not only the cap limit, but the luxury-tax limit of $132,627,000 as well — the Warriors project to have a nine-figure tax bill this season as a result of their spending.
The NBA doesn’t have a “hard cap” by default, which allows a club like Golden State to build a significant payroll without violating CBA rules. However, there are certain scenarios in which teams can be hard-capped, as we explain in a glossary entry.
When a club uses the bi-annual exception, acquires a player via sign-and-trade, or uses more than the taxpayer portion ($5,718,000) of the mid-level exception, that club will face a hard cap for the remainder of the league year.
When a team becomes hard-capped, it cannot exceed the “tax apron” at any point during the rest of the league year. The tax apron was set $6MM above the luxury tax line in 2017/18 (the first year of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement) and creeps up a little higher each time the cap increases. For the 2020/21 league year, the tax apron – and hard cap for certain clubs – is set at $138,928,000.
More than half the teams in the NBA have been willing to hard-cap themselves this offseason, and in some cases, it will significantly impact a team’s ability to add further reinforcements later in the league year. The Bucks and Lakers are among the teams right up against the hard cap, which may prevent them from being players in free agency during the season unless they can shed salary.
For other clubs, the hard cap is just a technicality that won’t affect their plans. The Hawks and Thunder are among the hard-capped clubs that will have zero practical concerns about reaching that threshold in 2020/21.
Listed below are the hard-capped teams for the 2020/21 league year, along with how they created a hard cap.
Atlanta Hawks
- Acquired Danilo Gallinari from the Thunder via sign-and-trade.
Boston Celtics
- Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Tristan Thompson.
Charlotte Hornets
- Acquired Gordon Hayward from the Celtics via sign-and-trade.
Dallas Mavericks
- Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Willie Cauley-Stein and Trey Burke.
Denver Nuggets
- Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception on JaMychal Green and Bol Bol.
- Using bi-annual exception on Facundo Campazzo.
Detroit Pistons
- Acquired Jerami Grant from the Nuggets via sign-and-trade.
Houston Rockets
- Acquired Christian Wood from the Pistons via sign-and-trade.
Los Angeles Clippers
- Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Serge Ibaka.
Los Angeles Lakers
- Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Montrezl Harrell.
- Using bi-annual exception on Wesley Matthews.
Miami Heat
- Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Avery Bradley and Maurice Harkless.
Milwaukee Bucks
- Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception on D.J. Augustin and Bryn Forbes.
- Using bi-annual exception on Bobby Portis.
New York Knicks
- Acquired Austin Rivers from the Rockets via sign-and-trade.
Oklahoma City Thunder
- Acquired Kenrich Williams, Josh Gray, and Zylan Cheatham from the Pelicans via sign-and-trade.
Phoenix Suns
- Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Jae Crowder.
Portland Trail Blazers
- Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Derrick Jones.
Toronto Raptors
- Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Aron Baynes and Alex Len.
Utah Jazz
- Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Derrick Favors.
Washington Wizards
- Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Robin Lopez.
This list could continue to grow during the offseason if other teams acquire a player via sign-and-trade, use more than the taxpayer portion of their mid-level exception, or use their bi-annual exception.
DECEMBER 2: Patton’s deal with the Bucks is now official, according to RealGM’s transactions log.
NOVEMBER 26: Free agent center Justin Patton is set to receive a training camp invitation from the Bucks, according to Eric Nehm of The Athletic (via Twitter).
Since being drafted with the No. 16 pick in 2017, the 23-year-old big man has logged time with the Timberwolves, Sixers and Thunder. After being signed by the Pistons earlier in the summer,
Patton was traded to — and subsequently released by — the Clippers earlier this offseason. The Creighton alum, who will clear waivers on Friday, has appeared in nine NBA games across his three-season career.
Last season, the 6’11”, 241-pound big man logged seven games with Milwaukee’s G League affiliate, the Wisconsin Herd, and 23 for the Thunder’s G League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue. Across his 30 G League games during the 2019/20 season, Patton averaged 12.1 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 3.2 BPG, and 2.9 APG.
DECEMBER 2: Stauskas is officially a Buck, according to RealGM’s log of NBA transactions.
NOVEMBER 26: The Bucks have reached an agreement on a one-year deal with former lottery pick Nik Stauskas, his agent Mark Bartelstein tells ESPN’s Zach Lowe (Twitter link).
Stauskas, the eighth overall pick in the 2014 draft, struggled to develop into a reliable rotation player during his first few NBA seasons, averaging 6.8 PPG and 2.1 RPG in 335 career games (19.9 MPG) for Sacramento, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Portland, and Cleveland. The 6’6″ shooting guard didn’t play in the NBA in 2019/20, having spent the season with Spanish club Baskonia.
Although Stauskas may not have lived up to his pre-draft billing, he knocked down a solid 35.3% of his career three-point attempts. He also played fairly well in Spain last year, making 42.2% of his threes in 22 EuroLeague contests.
The full terms of Stauskas’ contract with Milwaukee aren’t yet known, but as Eric Nehm of The Athletic recently detailed, the Bucks are right up against the hard cap and probably won’t have room to carry a 15th man. As such, the 27-year-old will likely get a training camp deal and will have an uphill battle to earn a spot on the club’s regular season roster.
In a pair of stories, Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files and J. Michael of The Indianapolis Star (subscription required) provide a few additional details on the Pacers‘ pursuit of Gordon Hayward in free agency, confirming that the Celtics sought a second starting player in addition to Myles Turner in a potential Hayward sign-and-trade. That lines up with what Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe reported last week.
Agness says that Hayward and his family purchased a home in the Indianapolis area over a year ago and that his wife was excited about the possibility of moving back to Indiana. However, Ainge apparently drove a hard bargain in trade discussions — Michael reports that even an offer of Turner, a first-round pick, and a rotation player (possibly Doug McDermott, as Washburn reported) wasn’t enough to win over the Celtics.
It’s possible that the hard line drawn by Ainge wouldn’t have ultimately mattered — the Hornets‘ offer of four years and $120MM was about $15MM higher than the Pacers were willing to go, according to Agness. That difference certainly may have been enough to lure Hayward to Charlotte even if the Pacers and Celtics had agreed to trade terms.
Still, both Agness’ and Michael’s reports seem to suggest there was a window when the two teams’ inability to work out a sign-and-trade agreement may have been the only thing standing in the way of Hayward going to Indiana. According to Michael, once the Hornets put their $120MM offer on the table, Ainge wanted to go back to the Pacers to negotiate in “good faith,” but Hayward’s agent Mark Bartelstein “pulled the plug” on that as the veteran forward chose Charlotte.
Here’s more from around the Central:
- It flew under the radar a little since it wasn’t reported as part of the initial agreement, but the Pistons gave up an eye-popping four second-round picks in their deal that sent Luke Kennard to the Clippers and landed them No. 19 pick Saddiq Bey. According to ESPN’s Zach Lowe (Insider link), those four second-rounders “appear to have been in part the cost of Kennard’s past knee issues.” However, Kennard’s camp is confident those issues are behind him, and it seems the Clippers are too, writes Lowe.
- While the 2020 draft may not be packed with future stars, Pistons general manager Troy Weaver said his club “really liked” this year’s class, which was why the team traded for multiple extra picks. “We liked the players that were in it and we just felt there were quality young men that could help continue to build our program, we were aggressive,” Weaver said, per Rod Beard of The Detroit News. Referring to Bey, Killian Hayes, Isaiah Stewart, and Saben Lee, the Pistons’ GM added, “Hopefully, we can look back in time and call this our core four.”
- The failed Bogdan Bogdanovic sign-and-trade was a bad look for the franchise, but Matt Velazquez of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription required) contends there’s a case to be made that the Bucks will ultimately be better off with the moves they made instead. Not landing Bogdanovic allowed Milwaukee to offer more than the minimum to add role players like D.J. Augustin, Bobby Portis, and Bryn Forbes, and the team didn’t end up having to part with promising 23-year-old Donte DiVincenzo.
- In his latest mailbag, K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago fields questions about the Bulls‘ surprising No. 4 draft pick and the club’s relatively quiet free agent period.
NOVEMBER 25: The Bucks’ deal with Forbes is now official, according to the NBA’s transactions log. Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports reports (via Twitter) that it’s worth about $4.79MM over two years, having been completed using a portion of Milwaukee’s mid-level exception.
NOVEMBER 22: The Bucks have agreed to sign free agent shooting guard Bryn Forbes to a two-year deal, his agent Mike Lindeman tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Forbes’ contract will feature a second-year player option, Woj adds (via Twitter).
Forbes, 27, has spent the first four years of his NBA career in San Antonio after signing as an undrafted free agent in 2016. Over those four years, he emerged as a reliable rotation player for the Spurs, having started 143 games over the last two seasons.
A career 40.0% three-point shooter, Forbes averaged 11.2 PPG, 2.0 RPG, and 1.7 APG in 25.1 minutes per contest in 2019/20. He’ll help the Bucks space the floor around reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, joining Jrue Holiday and D.J. Augustin among Milwaukee’s new backcourt players.
As for the Spurs, they may be in the market for some outside shooting help after losing Forbes in free agency. The team ranked just 26th in the NBA last season with 10.7 made threes per game — Forbes contributed 2.3 of those.
Bogdan Bogdanovic was considered Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s preferred target for the Bucks in free agency, according to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, who says that Thanasis Antetokounmpo had been in contact with Bogdanovic for months as the brothers attempted to lure the swingman to Milwaukee.
As Fischer explains, Giannis admires Bogdanovic’s “toughness and swagger” and considers him someone you could “go to war with in the postseason.” As a result, the Bucks pursued Bogdanovic aggressively, discussing sign-and-trade scenarios with the Kings in the hopes of effectively taking the RFA-to-be off the market before last Friday by agreeing to a deal with Sacramento.
Early discussions between the Kings and Bucks included Eric Bledsoe, according to Fischer, who points out that sending Bledsoe’s $16.9MM contract to Sacramento would have made it simple for Milwaukee to meet Bogdanovic’s asking price of $18MM per year. However, the Kings insisted on Donte DiVincenzo‘s inclusion on any deal and Bledsoe’s salary was required for Milwaukee’s Jrue Holiday acquisition.
After they struck a deal for Holiday, the Bucks reached a tentative agreement with the Kings, but Bogdanovic’s camp insists it never discussed the particulars of a contract agreement with Milwaukee, per Fischer. Bogdanovic even phoned the Antetokounmpo brothers to reiterate that point, Fischer adds.
When at least one rival team filed a formal complaint about the fact that the Kings had seemingly lined up a deal for Bogdanovic days before the start of free agency, the NBA launched an investigation and essentially took Milwaukee off the table as a destination for the 28-year-old due to the risk that the league would block the deal, says Fischer.
Now, the Bucks will have to hope that their failed pursuit of Bogdanovic doesn’t cause Giannis to pass on their super-max offer. According to Fischer, the franchise had been very confident about the odds of reaching an agreement with Antetokounmpo, but there has been a “categorical step back in that confidence” since the Bogdanovic debacle. That doesn’t mean an agreement won’t be reached — just that the Bucks aren’t as sure about it as they once were.
Here’s more on the Bucks from Fischer’s article, which is packed with interesting details:
- The Bucks and Pacers had conversations about a possible trade for Victor Oladipo, Fischer confirms, adding that a package of DiVincenzo, George Hill, and the No. 24 pick was discussed at one point. Like the Kings did, the Pacers insisted on DiVincenzo being included in any offer.
- DiVincenzo ultimately remained in Milwaukee and the Bucks are still “bullish” on his potential, writes Fischer. They were willing to move him for Bogdanovic because the RFA was considered a “necessary target in line with Antetokounmpo’s wishes.”
- Before the Bucks struck a deal for Holiday, the Hawks discussed a package that included the No. 6 pick, Kevin Huerter, and Dewayne Dedmon, says Fischer.
After adding Serge Ibaka and Luke Kennard to their roster while losing Montrezl Harrell, JaMychal Green, and Landry Shamet, the Clippers may not be done, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times. A number of rival teams expect L.A. to trade away Lou Williams at some point, Stein says.
Although Williams is now 34 years old, he’s on a team-friendly expiring $8MM contract and remains a very talented scorer, having averaged 18.2 PPG off the bench in 2019/20, so he’d certainly draw interest if the Clippers put him on the trade block.
Interestingly, Stein notes that the Clippers made it a top priority this offseason to make “dramatic chemistry changes.” There were reports last season of tension in the locker room based on what some incumbent players viewed as preferential treatment for new Clippers stars Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. While he doesn’t specify whether it was related to those issues, Stein says that team officials “quietly decided (Harrell) had to go.” The Sixth Man of the Year ended up with the rival Lakers.
Here’s more from Stein’s latest newsletter:
- For weeks leading up to the offseason, there had been “promising rumblings” about the Bucks‘ ability to sign Giannis Antetokounmpo to a super-max extension this fall, according to Stein. As Stein explains, there was an increasing belief that Antetokounmpo would opt for long-term financial security and reserve the right to ask for a trade down the road if he becomes dissatisfied with the situation in Milwaukee. The Bucks are now in wait-and-see mode, with Giannis expected to soon arrive back in the U.S. from Greece.
- People around the NBA are wondering if the Bucks gave up too much to acquire Jrue Holiday, having surrendered three first-round picks and two pick swaps for the standout guard, writes Stein. However, he contends that if Holiday and Antetokounmpo end up sticking around beyond 2021, Milwaukee’s “all-in approach will be redeemed.”
- After initially offering Gordon Hayward a two-year deal in free agency, the Knicks increased their offer to four years and remained in the chase for the veteran forward “throughout the process,” according to Stein, who notes that head coach Tom Thibodeau is an “admirer” of Hayward. Ultimately though, Charlotte’s four-year, $120MM was at a level that neither New York nor any other suitor was willing to match.